Don’t Rely on the Individual to Save the Planet!

The quality of our environment is fundamental to our long-term survival as a species. You would think, therefore, we’d be quite keen to look after it. You’d think we would want to live in a clean, healthy, and generally “nice” environment.

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests not.

Like marauding pirates, we have mercilessly plundered our environment. We have used and abused what it has freely offered us. Our actions have been and continue to be such that we take and exploit to the point of obliteration and extinction.

Driven by profit and gain, if there’s an advantage to be acquired, then all else becomes secondary. Individual short-term self-interest dominates thoughts of the wider population’s well-being. As demonstrated by the fact that all too often we act on the basis of the here and now rather than thinking about the future or the consequences of our actions.

Why would we have ever suspected anything else?

There’s no great precedent that we will do the right thing, the proper thing, the necessary thing.

How can you expect people to act in the best interests of the environment when they can’t even act in the best interests of themselves?

Despite well-established and widely known health warnings, many people continue to smoke; they take recreational drugs; they overeat to the point of obesity; they drink alcohol excessively; and they fail to do adequate exercise.

In the developed world, more people die from conditions caused by their lifestyle (heart attack, stroke, diabetes) than from any other reason. It seems we can’t even do the right thing for ourselves.

It’s a shocking testament to individual neglect and abuse.

And, in relation to the environment, we’re expecting these people to think of the wider population’s well-being and, what’s more, to modify their behaviour for the benefit of others, people with whom they have no relationship or association.

That’s just not going to happen.

If people cannot act responsibly in relation to their own behaviours, how can we expect them to act responsibly toward others?

The individual is just not going to save the planet.

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For more thoughts, go to the Oxthink Home page or check out the different sections on Health and Well-being, Lifestyle Choices, Parenting Advice, Understanding Society and General pages.

Alternatively, for articles on genetics and evolution, visit this author’s dedicated site at Genetically Wrapped.