Human Values, Culture and Environmental Crisis Essay Example

As the world continues to advance technologically into the future, the environmental state of the earth is worsening as the years go by. There is no longer an equilibrium in the ecosystems, and natural biological processes are getting destroyed. Global warming has resulted in raging floods, droughts, fires, ocean pollutions and the natural habitats for flora and fauna are getting being destructed (Little et al., 2012). The world has witnessed numerous species of plants and animals getting extinct, and only a few are concerned. The tech culture, on the other hand, is advancing immensely in that it is almost unimaginable the world in which in which we will live in the next century. One might be tempted to ask, how did we get here? How has culture contributed to the environmental crisis? This paper investigates how overpopulation and urbanization have played a role in causing an environmental crisis.

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Two words synonymous with environmental degradation, and are also topics of interest for environmental sociologists, are overpopulation and urbanization. Urbanization refers to the study social, economic and political relationships in cities. Demography, a study of population and its relationship with urbanization, is another area of interest. The current world population has reached 7 billion and the earth is already struggling to sustain this number due to environmental degradation. Overpopulation is witnessed in cities and urban centers. One can only wonder what will happen when the population exceeds 7 billion to eight. Because of these numbers, the amount of wastes/trash generated is massive. Toxic waste, plastics, industrial chemicals, obsolete cell phones, and food wastes have negatively affected the environment in which we live. These effects are due to the high, increasing population and worse in cities and urban centers. Cultural values determine the standards according to which a society lives while beliefs are convictions that held to be true by a people of a common culture. The modern-day cultures and beliefs seem to drive the satisfaction of human desires and neglect the effects on the environment. The consumer culture, for instance, has driven humans to overproduction and consumption which results in huge amounts of wastes that contribute to environmental degradation in one way or another (Little et al., 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, environmental degradation has continually worsened while the advancement in technology is increasingly growing. Environmental crisis can be attributed to increased population, urbanization and consumer culture which has made humans to neglect their surroundings. Ideally, the future of the planet does not look good. There is danger looming ahead, possibly human extinction if human causes of environmental degradation are not addressed.

References

Little, W., Vyain, S., Scaramuzzo, G., Cody-Rydzewski, S., Griffiths, H., Strayer, E., ... & Mcgivern, R. (2012). Introduction to Sociology-1st Canadian edition. BC Open Textbook project.