‘The Giddens Paradox states: ‘As people experience no clearly tangible effects of the dangers of unchecked global warming in their everyday lives, they will not change their environmentally damaging actions.
Yet, if they wait until global warming clearly interferes in their lives, it will be too late to do anything about it’
World Environment Day is celebrated on 5 June every year and is the United Nation's principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of our environment.
The term environment and nature were once used interchangeably. Th meaning of environment has changed over time to refer and reflect different types of environment, perhaps underlining the fact that modern life is becoming disconnected from nature.
In the 1950s, the word environment was applied to a number of diverse situations such as business, urbanization, working environments, social, economic and political environments.
Furthermore, during the 19th and 20th centuries, the politics of modern societies was dominated by the major conflict of interest between employees and employers. Today, environment risks gain prominence due to economic growth and material prosperity. The world risk society implies the environmental risk consciousness and risk avoidance which are becoming central features of post-modern society.
Environmentally damaging actions
We live in a natural environment as well as a social environment. Due to industrialisation, nature is seen as an obstacle which needs to be tamed in order for the world to make progress. In the face of this, we need to examine the relationship between the two types of environment and the impact of human actions on the natural environment, as there are several environmentally damaging actions and issues at stake:
• Water pollution
• Water insecurity
• Global warming
• Food shortages and GM foods
• Allergies, asthma, and infectious disease outbreaks
• Disruption of habitats
• Rising sea levels
• Melting of glaciers
We live in a world of great economic development and consumerism where consumption refers to goods and services, energy and resources that are used by people. While acknowledging that consumption has its positive effects, the negative aspects should not be sidelined.
As we are constantly bombarded by a global capitalistic and consumeristic society, where the media influences us, many times to buy all the “crap” that it tells us we should, the pleasure of consumerism lies mainly not in the use of products but in the anticipation of purchasing them. Many times consumer products are becoming embedded in the routines of our everyday life and are taken for granted. Moreover, the treadmill of production is increasingly running faster due to increasing demand and more environmental damage is resulting.
The term “sustainable development” was coined in the UN – Our Common Future (Brundtland Report) in 1987, which regarded sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development means that economic growth should be carried on in such a way to recycle physical resources rather than deplete them and keep levels of pollution to a minimum.
Environmental justice and ecological citizenship
Environmental justice is the idea that all people have the right to a healthy and sustainable environment. Campaigns have focused on the removal of inappropriate environmental risks borne by poor communication.
As citizens of this country, we need to take a more direct interest in our relationship with the natural environment and understand how environmental problems are distributed and how they affect our daily lives. We also need to understand how patterns of human behaviour create pressure on our small natural environment. “Behaviour” here is understood as our behaviour as individual citizens and that of the large corporations that affect our environment.
More importantly, as citizens we need to be empowered to take part in directly evaluating policies and proposals aimed at providing solutions to Malta’s environmental problems.
Aristotle once stated that “Citizenship and ethics are one”. Ethics is from the standpoint of the individual. Citizenship is from the standpoint of the group. The moral character of an ethical person is the same set of characteristics or virtues needed to be a good citizen. Since we are citizens, not merely consumers, our environment requires citizen preferences, not just consumer preferences. As citizens, we need to protect nature, not just buy, sell and consume it. It has a dignity, not just a price.
Environmental citizenship is a recent extension of citizenship to include the rights and responsibility of people to the natural environment. Environmental Justice movements seek to bring to light and resolve some of the worst environmental issues facing working class groups and communities (for example, many have concentrated on the re-cycling of toxic dumps and waste incineration close to housing estates).
Ecological citizenship is seen by some as the next stage of citizenship following the civil, political and social forms. It would impose new obligations on people to consider not just their own needs and rights but those of other animals, the natural environment and future generations of people.
Ecological citizenship implies:
• A Green lifestyle
• Participation in environmental decision-making.
• Holding businesses to account
• Access to environmental information
• Access to justice in environmental matters
• A clean and healthy environment
Anthony Zarb Dimech