Sometimes I like to wonder about why it is that poverty still exists in the Third World Nations. As a student of Development Studies, I hear a lot of theories but no one really explains to me why this issue cannot be addressed. This is because we are all in the classroom; learning theories that we forget must be applied in order to move forwards. I like to envision a classroom scenario with different students, me as a lecturer and a group of people I have termed “forgotten people”. The forgotten people are individuals we, as development practitioners and the rest of the world, seem to only understand and see in the context of statistics and numbers. These people are inclusive of the natural environment that we know is there, we use it as much as we deem fit but we hardly ever really think that one day it will all be gone. Some people understand the need to care for the environment today but since that so many others do not comprehend what our naked eyes see; it is difficult to carry on the environmental health mission.

The students in my classroom and I like to take walks to all different parts of the world in different times in the past, present and future. I envision scenarios to visit, to understand and then try to find new solutions to these. A concept I like to use to explain these scenarios is euthanasia. This is because euthanasia involves a sickly individual asking someone to give them a free pass to death so that they do not have to suffer anymore. In this case, the sickly individual in our environment and I often wonder if it would choose to ask for euthanasia or not. Our misuse of it and nonchalance attitude towards it has brought environmental issues such as acid rain, increased temperatures and decreased natural resources. In theory, we understand what this means but in practice, we don’t actually comprehend what this involves. At the back of our minds, we blame the big corporations, the industrialized countries but we continue to also do activities that harm the environment.

Africa has its own share of environmental issues but the continent also has a great advantage. For one, we have witnessed what bad environmental policies do to the Earth, secondly, we know about the green movement and thirdly, as undeveloped nations, we have the opportunity to develop in the right way. The Third World is a large territory and if these nations were to take it upon themselves to find ways of developing that instead of harming the environment, celebrated its revival, the Earth would grow healthier. In this time of innovation and technology, many countries and companies have come up with green technological infrastructure and products that reverse environmental issues instead of perpetuating them. Having the Third World adopt these strategies and also focus on building on to them would create a whole new side of the developing world. Instead of thinking of environmental issues as the Western problem, we need to realize that we have the means (land, human potential) and the technology to build a green side of the world.

It is about time that the Third World started to leave the rest of the world in this fight for a green Earth. As nations that appreciate land and all its natural resources, we need to build a decade of hope so that humanity remembers that it is possible. In truth, the Third World has been silent for way too long, only crying out for help when poverty hits too hard. The reason that this is important is that we are also people who have been blessed with the same capacities, capabilities and potential as with the rest of the world which is actively fighting environmental issues.

Third World Environmental Issues

Sometimes I like to wonder about why it is that poverty still exists in the Third World Nations. As a student of Development Studies, I hear a lot of theories but no one really explains to me why this issue cannot be addressed. This is because we are all in the classroom; learning theories that we forget must be applied in order to move forwards. I like to envision a classroom scenario with different students, me as a lecturer and a group of people I have termed “forgotten people”. The forgotten people are individuals we, as development practitioners and the rest of the world, seem to only understand and see in the context of statistics and numbers. These people are inclusive of the natural environment that we know is there, we use it as much as we deem fit but we hardly ever really think that one day it will all be gone. Some people understand the need to care for the environment today but since that so many others do not comprehend what our naked eyes see; it is difficult to carry on the environmental health mission.

The students in my classroom and I like to take walks to all different parts of the world in different times in the past, present and future. I envision scenarios to visit, to understand and then try to find new solutions to these. A concept I like to use to explain these scenarios is euthanasia. This is because euthanasia involves a sickly individual asking someone to give them a free pass to death so that they do not have to suffer anymore. In this case, the sickly individual in our environment and I often wonder if it would choose to ask for euthanasia or not. Our misuse of it and nonchalance attitude towards it has brought environmental issues such as acid rain, increased temperatures and decreased natural resources. In theory, we understand what this means but in practice, we don’t actually comprehend what this involves. At the back of our minds, we blame the big corporations, the industrialized countries but we continue to also do activities that harm the environment.

Africa has its own share of environmental issues but the continent also has a great advantage. For one, we have witnessed what bad environmental policies do to the Earth, secondly, we know about the green movement and thirdly, as undeveloped nations, we have the opportunity to develop in the right way. The Third World is a large territory and if these nations were to take it upon themselves to find ways of developing that instead of harming the environment, celebrated its revival, the Earth would grow healthier. In this time of innovation and technology, many countries and companies have come up with green technological infrastructure and products that reverse environmental issues instead of perpetuating them. Having the Third World adopt these strategies and also focus on building on to them would create a whole new side of the developing world. Instead of thinking of environmental issues as the Western problem, we need to realize that we have the means (land, human potential) and the technology to build a green side of the world.

It is about time that the Third World started to leave the rest of the world in this fight for a green Earth. As nations that appreciate land and all its natural resources, we need to build a decade of hope so that humanity remembers that it is possible. In truth, the Third World has been silent for way too long, only crying out for help when poverty hits too hard. The reason that this is important is that we are also people who have been blessed with the same capacities, capabilities and potential as with the rest of the world which is actively fighting environmental issues.