Environmentalism and science diplomacy

The Earth has been under stress ever since humans came into existence. Back in the days, pressure was not as extreme as now especially since we are moving into the development stage. Development includes changing the method, quantity and regions for fishing, practicing deforestation for urban development, agriculture, coastal development or others types of activity. Humans try to change the environment in order to fit their routine, wants and lifestyle. No matter how diminutive the development is, it alters the environment. Modification to our natural environment, does not only affects the flora and fauna surrounding the area, but also our pristine watershed systems which every single component on Earth highly depend on it for survival. As Terry Swearingen states, “We are living on the planet as if we have another one to go to”. It is time to put a halt, wake up and change to a more sustainable livelihood with the aid of science diplomacy and environmentalism.

Environmentalism, according to Webster Dictionary, it is a theory which tries to preserve and restore the environment. It has become a global theory whereby countries and people have seen the need to assist in minimizing the environmental issues being faced. This can be achieve by changing the way we think, work, behave and strive for development as it affects what we greatly depend on, natural resources. Awareness campaigns as well as seminars, meetings, workshops and even lectures are conducted to aid in changing our way of living in order to diminish the negative impacts on the environment. It is crucial to comprehend that the environment must not be customized for us; rather we should acclimatize to it. Environmentalism provides this opportunity whereby we improve and r...

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...t to achieve them. Ross Perot quoted “The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river”. His statement is very true as we rely heavily on other individuals to designate tasks to us or for them to do what it themselves instead of us taking lead and doing it. We argue that many people throw garbage everywhere despite having containers for it because we assume they are ignorant or lazy. We see garbage thrown but we refuse to pick it up since we were not the one throwing it yet we want to change people behaviors. If we cannot do simple small little tasks how do we except to do bigger ones or to change people’s attitude concerning the environment when we are not successful with ourselves. We should hold accountable for our own action instead of depending on other individuals to clean our mess or assign us to do so.