9 billion people, why not?

The problem is not only the world population but also the amount of earth a population consumes! In a world with half of the actual population, if each person has the ecological carbon footprint of the USA the problem would be the same. We are consuming too much. This phenomena is called  Consumption overpopulation and  its a challenge because “Highly Developed Countries nations represent only 20% of the world population, yet they consume significantly more than half of its resources”


In Highly Developed Countries, we could do so much for the environment with a collective and responsible attitude such as sustainable consumption and mandatory environmental ethics in school at an early stage of the educative system. The adoption of a deep ecology worldview, voluntary simplicity as well as environmental justice and social ecology can achieved a lot in the social sector. 

A radical change in our economical development based on productivity and consumption for a sustainable and long-term development including natural capital preservation, use of renewable energies, waste management and pollution control and so much more…If we all change the way we live and think and teach it to our children, we will prepare a world where more than 9 billion people could live in peace and harmony with the environment.


Reference:
Berg, L.R., & Hager, M.C. (2009). Visualizing environmental science (2nd Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

1.6 million tons of Household Hazardous Waste are generated per year

HHW includes corrosive, toxic, ignitable, or reactive ingredients. Products such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, electronics, and pesticides that contain potentially hazardous are considerate HHW. The average American home amasses 100 pounds of HHW in their basements and between 1960 and 2007; the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.6 pounds per day.

The most effective way to stop this trend is by preventing waste in the first place. Reduction is the key and it based on consumerism pushing people to purchase products that contain no hazardous ingredients. Communication and education are vital to push consumers to use alternative methods or products. People need to learn and realize how armful their wastes are to the environment and the impact of their daily life on the environment. Government must encourage new social behaviors with economic incentive, education and awareness. Being environmentally literate should be part of our civic duty as citizens.

The second option is collection. How many of us know the designated days in our area for collecting solid waste, the permanent collection site address or the special collection day to drop off?Municipalities and local governments must reuse, recycling, and proper disposal. Widespread campaigns on TV and advertising should guide us and explain us why, where, how and when to recycle. In addition, corporation should be involved in the process and give financial incentive to people returning hazardous waste products and create profitable programs for consumers and companies that could recycle and utilize a part of the returned waste.

By the way, what are you going to do about your old cell phone?...WATCH THE VIDEO

Reference
EPA. Household Hazardous Waste http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/hhw.htm

Access to water; a fundamental and universal right

An example of water privatization is the Coca-Cola's bottling plants in India which was accused to create severe water shortages and pollution. Coca paid for the land then gets the water for free, It was a private-public partnership in the state of Kerala “in a region that has such high rainfall that region has never had water scarcity, within one year of a Coca Cola plant coming, pumping up 1.5 million liters a day for bottling water, three lakes went dry, rivers went dry.” 

An illustration in the USA, is Southern California, where water has been drawn from the aquifer. In the California Mojave Desert water is such a valuable commodity that agricultural companies purchased the desert not to farm but to gain right water. Tucson, Arizona and surrounding areas supplies 700,000 residents and 30 golf courses with water pump from an aquifer that took thousands of years to form. The only way now for the city is to purchase water rights to private owners.

Reasoning in ecological model, you value water but you can’t price it because it is priceless. In a market theory you price water but you don’t value it, you get somewhere first, you buy and have absolute rights to exploit in unsustainable manner, to pollute, to destroy then, just leave. The end to the privatization of global water resources is a fundamental universal right. Water has to be governed by natural law, not by the market because water is not property of the state or corporations, water belongs to the people of earth.

The right to access clean water without discrimination is a matter of life and death. Our short-term profitability economy is incompatible with natural cycles, the geologic cycle, the hydrological cycle and renewability. There is a biosphere we inherit and a technosphere of our creation.


References:
Paget-Clarke, N. P.-C. (2002). Interview with Vandana Shiva. Discussing “Water Wars” Retrieved
from http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/vshiva3.html#Anchor-Corporate-23240