Why do you want to save the environment?

In every textbook you read, in every TV show, in every article, you can find tons of words referring to climate change and sustainable development. Everyone in the world seems to be interested. We talk about it. We tell people about it. We have campaigns. If you ask anyone about why we are doing this, you will get tons of different answers. It will affect us in the future! We have to pass down a clean environment to the next generation!

But at the end, all these different answers seem the same, at least to me. Moreover, al lot of times, I cannot help thinking that something is wrong with them. Not right. Flawed. Why?

Throughout the centuries, humans have changed the world. Humans are revolutionary beings who have cultivated a whole progressed, intellectual civilizations over the course of a few thousand years. Yet due to the so called Industrial Revolution, humans have come to destroy the very planet we live on. We are responsible for the 6^th great extinction of the organisms on Earth – the only great extinction that has been caused by a specific species. In 20 minutes, a whole species goes extinct. Because of us. We are cutting down trees and building skyscrapers where all species used to thrive in the past. There is no more interaction. No more habitats. And no more competition. Only destruction and extinction. We have killed so many, and they cannot come back. If not for humans, there would not be any pollution in the oceans or asphalt on the ground. No place for plants to grow out. Animals cannot find a safe place to take care of their offspring. Living in the wild is not easy, but at least it helped maintain balance within the ecosystem. Consumers, producers, and links between species. Mutualism. Parasitism. All sorts of relationships and diversity. It was balance that sustained the intricate values of the society. When humans stepped into this, everything has changed. It is as if humans have given up to become a part of the ecosystem itself.

Moreover, on top of destroying the habitats of other organisms and continuously polluting the environment, a lot of people do not even show the merest compassion toward animals. Every day, hundreds of animals are killed, in order to produce the world?s finest fur coats. The animals die when their skin is scraped off their bodies. They die painfully. Animal abuse occurs often among us. The shows that we have at zoos are sometimes very abusing.

And now, people are suddenly very interested towards preventing climate change and keeping the environment clean. Why is that? It is because they believe that if we do not conserve the environment, because the entire world and ecosystem is interconnected, someday all the harm will return to themselves. The reasoning is logical, but it lacks morality. After all the bad deeds that humans have done to the environment, and after all the abuse, the only reason they can think of is because they don?t want to get hurt. Or they want to pass down a clean environment to their own kids.

We hear every day that it is important to not throw away trash, keep the planet green, save water? So on and so on. But the problem is only getting worse. Even if we work so hard to change ourselves, to campaign and tell the world about the importance, at the end, things don?t change. This is because people like you – who care enough to be reading this article – try so hard to save the environment. Try so hard to do what is best for our planet. But people who don?t listen don?t care to listen. We are developing technologies and finding out how science can help prevent climate change. Yet the ultimate problem lies within us. The ultimate problem that deters peace and makes us fight amongst us. The problem that leads to wars and abuse, discrimination, pollution, crimes, mortality, stereotypes, egalitarianism, arguments, invasion, profit seeking, destruction, desertification, extinction, and so on.

Of course, it would be impossible to live in a world without such challenges. Yet if we change the way people think, at least about the environment that surrounds us, we will be able to be a step closer to changing the world. We have to ask us the same question again: Why do we have to save the environment?

I believe that it is an obligation. Not because humans are more intellectual or superior to other species, but because of what we have done in the past. There is no reason behind to why we have to do this. It is because we have to. And we need to. It is not because if we do not do this, we will get hurt. It is because we must save the ones we have already hurt. It is because we are members of the environment around us, and we have capacities. We have to clean up the mess that we have already made. We can do this.

The only way is to start changing ourselves. Before we tell other people to not throw away garbage, we have to make them understand why they should not.