Response #6 Lets Gain Back Some Qualities

The world is growing and so is the energy consumption, it’s a fact. How and what to do with these facts are a question many times asked. In the article, The Need For Sustainability it discusses what is happening because of high energy consumption and what individuals can do about it. The high energy consumption is causing the earth to be effected negatively. The reasons the high numbers of people are hurting the earth is not just because of the high numbers of individuals, it is because people have lost their understanding of the earth they live in.

Negative effects are happening on the planet right now. Temperatures are rising and glaciers are melting more and more. With climate changes come the weather extremes such as more occurring horrific hurricanes and heat waves. The downsides to these changes are affecting people today and will affect those down the road even more. Sense the planet is changing so is the health of what is living on the earth. Animals are becoming ever more endangered and plants are disappearing. Know it or not people depend on random plants and animals much more then they think; many animals and plants rely on each other and many pharmaceuticals are dependant on plants and animals that are relying on each other.

More people roam the earth now than ever before and that isn’t the big problem. The big problem is that the people roaming the earth now have forgotten their connection to the earth. Everything interacts with each other on this planet. What an individual does to the earth, good or bad, comes back to that person in one way or another. The article asks that people take a closer look at nature and learn to appreciate it and reflect with it. The environmental health of the planet is the health of everyone living on it. David Orr writes that people’s qualities on this earth have been lost, qualities such as: curiosity, clarity, courage, generosity, kindness, wisdom, and humor. Without these qualities people have become more abrasive on the earth.

So what to do about all of this? Well the article does not really offer any detailed ideas because as usual it is a very difficult topic. What is known is that people must act now and do whatever it is that they think they ought to do with a goal of being living more appreciatively, more sustainably, more harmoniously with our natural world?