Marietta (FGCU): Green or Grime?

Throughout the last century, our ecological footprint, or amount of waist were producing, has increased so much to where it has become a major topic in today’s society.  Everywhere we look we see “Go Green” ads and ways we can better our environment.  Speeches have been delivered by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others expressing the current state of planet Earth.  Corporations such as bottling companies and grocery stores are finding ways to use less material to sell their products.  For example, Zephyrhills is using less plastic to make their bottles, and Publix offers reusable fabric bags instead of plastic.  However, are these simple things making a big enough difference to stop pollution and lessen our ecological footprint, or they just delaying the inevitable?  People abuse the resources we have without even recognizing the consequences of their actions.  Society has made it ok to buy 30 bottles of water and “recycle”.  It’s ok if you have a hundred plastic bags in your house, using them on occasion then tossing them away because everyone else does.  People look at this and think “It’s ok, I recycle I’m helping the environment.”  Even if you are recycling your water bottles or reusing your plastic bags have you ever thought about the amount of energy and air pollution released when making these items?  What about the pollution created when recycling them?  The amount of land used to house all of our trash?  Well I have, and I don’t think it’s worth it.

 Is it fair for those of us that actually care about our environment and have changed our lifestyle just to have others ruin it?  I blame society for the lack of knowledge most people have about the environment.  People these days keep up with the celebrities and the earthquake in Haiti, yet they have no idea what is actually happening at home; something that is affecting the now as well as the future.  If the public could see the negative side of the way we are living and the actual process of making the things we use I wonder if they would change.  We have made it part of our American culture to be a materialistic country.  Ever since the early 1700’s, Americans have based their social status of money and what they own.  Times change though, and I believe we should too.  We, as a nation, need to focus more on the output of our lifestyle, as compared to the personal gain.  If we keep living how we are, there is no doubt in my mind that we will run out of space as well as our important resources.  What will we do when plastic is no longer at our finger tips? When gas becomes extinct like the dinosaurs? When freshwater becomes a marketed product only bought in stores?  Will we be able to adapt?  Will we be able to survive?  I’d rather not find out the hard way, and I urge others to take a stand as well.

This entry was posted on 6. February 2010 at 05:18 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.