Human s Ignorance towards Environmental Issues Sustainable System Jennifer Wightman Suhyung Lee
Executive Summary Sustainable System Suhyung Lee In this fast- changing society, a decent number of people do not have interest about serious environmental issues happening around them. The difficult and massive amount of information makes people feel pressure and put some distance between them. In order to teach people about the effects of human acts toward the environment, I designed a website, which can access to maximal people. The website contains moving images (gif) that are linked to other moving images. Those images show human activities that cause environmental contamination and their consequences as well. People can make their own story, by simply clicking the images. The website not only teach the cause-and-effect of environmental degradation but also offer information about organizations people can participate. A QR code linked to the website enables people all around the world to easily access to the website. The website mostly consists of moving images for visual effect and to attract teenagers attention, whom the website targets. Environmental Issues needs to be observed constantly by many people all around the world. If people pay attention to those issues and prevent causes that lead to environmental destruction, we could anticipate a better future for our next generations.
Human s Ignorance towards Environmental Issues Our planet is facing a very severe environmental crisis. The future of human race encountered unprecedented danger because of serious environmental problems such as air pollution, vast quantities of toxic waste, massive levels of soil erosion, and the destruction of the ozone layer. In fact, human beings are the major cause of the destruction of the environment. We devastate the environment by consuming the natural resources indiscriminately, and discarding toxic industrial wastes directly to the nature. Population is an important source of development, however, it could threaten the environment when it exceeds the threshold limits of the support systems. In 1999, the population of people on earth exceeded six billion. More resources has been consumed to support the growing population and to raise the human life quality. More people require more natural resources such as water, soil, trees, and they generate more waste, pollution, and greenhouse gases. Therefore, population growth can be regarded as the major cause of environmental degradation. (https://saferenvironment.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/population- growth- and- environmental- degradation/) Pollution is also what leads to environmental degradation. Pollution is occurring all over the world and poisoning oceans. In some nations, the natural environment has been exposed to toxic wastes, and oil spills have ruined the local environment. The leakage of sewage to the water resources has polluted the water and indiscriminate use of non- biodegradable products such as plastics degraded the soil. Also, the experimentation of nuclear conducted in land and oceans by developing country like North Korea, and Afghanistan have destroyed the environment. Deforestation is also one of causes of environmental degradation. Forests occupy 31% of the land area on our planet. 1 They produce oxygen and be a habitat for people and 1 W.W.F, Deforestation, http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation, April 4 th, 2016
wild animals. Numbers of the world s endangered animals live in forests and about 1.6 billion people lean on forests for fresh water, food, curative plants, and shelters. Though, forests around the world are in danger from deforestation, which jeopardizes these benefits. Humans are cutting woods excessively for different kinds of use, and to pioneer agricultural lands. Therefore, deforestation has been occurred, and it has destroyed forests. Since the 1970s, we ve lost massive size of Amazon rainforest, which is home to 10 percent of all plant and animal species known on earth. No matter how far from the region, the Amazon rainforest plays an major role in all of our lives by providing plants for medicine, regulating the world s climate, providing a home for thousands of people and some of the world s rarest wildlife. 2 The Amazon can be called as a Carbon Sink that stores carbon dioxide and keeps it from flowing out to the atmosphere and fueling the greenhouse effect. However, Deforestation releases that carbon into the air and worsening the global warming. Between 2007 and 2008, the Brazilian Amazon lost almost 3 million acres of rainforest to illegal logging, soy plantations, cattle ranching and other human activities. 3 Most of the remaining forest is also under threat, and with it so are the plants, animals and people who depend on the forest. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/amazon- deforestation- nasa- photos_n_1748759.html Humankind reached this crisis because of ignorance and unawareness. In this fast- changing society, a decent number of people do not have interest about serious social and environmental issues happening around them. According to a survey conducted in 2012, only 27% of Americans depicted themselves as environmentally conscious, and 31% said they care a great deal about the current state, and future of the 2 Green Peace, Amazon Rainforest, http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/forests/amazon- rainforest/, April 4 th, 2016 3 Ibid
environment. 4 These percentages both show a noticeable fall- off from 2009, when the numbers were 30% and 36% respectively. 5 Media keep talking about the seriousness of climate change but in fact, fewer than one in four Americans are extremely or very worried about it. 6 A fair number of people say that when they hear about current environmental issues, they think everything seem so distant. Also, when they try to search for information about the issues, they feel a lot of pressure from the massive and difficult data on the Internet. Therefore, I think it would be great if there were something that shows the cause and effect of those issues easily to have people to feel comfortable and fully understand. During thinking of the most effective way that are easily accessible for maximal people, I came up with an idea of making a website. The website will contains moving images (gif) that are linked to other moving images. Those images will show human activities that cause environmental contamination and their consequences as well. Those images will be linked together, so people can see how the serious issues happen, by clicking the images and texts step by step. Also, I would put alternative choice that can make for the environment and insert link to websites of organizations that people can participate. I think having people to track the narrative with visual effects can make them to enjoy and participate to the process themselves. This idea came from the form of decision tree, which side branches come out from the same branch. (Image of Decision Tree) That s because, I believe many of environmental issues are coming from common human activities. For example, smog, acid rain, and global warming are all consequences of using fossil fuels. If people click an image of using fossil fuels, they will enter another page with 3 image choices of smog, acid rain, and global warming which 4 Brad Tuttle, Poll: Consumers Care Less About The Environment Now. Happy Earth!, http://business.time.com/2012/04/20/poll-consumers-care-less-about-the-environment-nowhappy-earth-day/ 5 Ibid 6 Huffpost Green, Americans Largely Unconcerned About Climate Change, Survey Finds, 11/03/2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americans-largelyunconcerned-aboutclimate-change-survey-finds_us_563906d8e4b079a43c04de2d
are also linked to the each solution images. Whatever the images they choose, they will go back to the first page and make another choice and do it over and over again. I m targeting teenagers for the education purpose, so I m going to use gifs from movies and cartoons so that they could enjoy easily. The PR for this website will be a poster with a QR code with text, Come, Participate. Creating a QR code will be effective to promote the website to numbers of people, as it could be sent to them via message and e- mail. By attaching the posters on the subway, high schools, and restaurants, people can just scan it through their cell phones, access to the website, and start making their own story. Since I believe power of social network service is strong, I m thinking of upload the URL and QR code to Instagram, and Facebook to spread the website to people all around the world. Environmental Issues needs to be observed constantly by many people all around the world. If people pay attention to those issues and prevent causes that lead to environmental destruction, we could anticipate a better future for our next generations.
Bibliography Green Peace, Amazon Rainforest, http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/forests/amazon- rainforest/, April 4 th, 2016 Huffpost Green, Americans Largely Unconcerned About Climate Change, Survey Finds, 11/03/2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americans-largelyunconcerned-aboutclimate-change-survey-finds_us_563906d8e4b079a43c04de2d Tuttle Brad, Poll: Consumers Care Less About The Environment Now. Happy Earth!, http://business.time.com/2012/04/20/poll-consumers-care-less-about-the-environment-nowhappy-earth-day/ W.W.F, Deforestation, http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation, April 4 th, 2016
Appendix
COME, PARTI CI PATE
Self- Assessment The purpose of making the website was to inform people about issues happening around us that should be received attention. I wanted to target maximal people all around the world with an easiest access method. Thus, I came up with an idea to make the website and create QR code for the PR. I m really satisfied with the result, as people can just easily scan the code via their cell phones and join the game. However, if I have more time, I would like to add solutions that could consequences that already happened as well. During the process, I think I learned a lot as I researched and gathered information for the environmental issues. Also, I reflected on my self for being ignorant towards those issues as well. I hope my final project to be a game changer that could improve the world better.