The United States is trailing behind Western Europe in alternative energy and environmental issues. When polled, 78% of Americans were for a better, more sustainable environment. When it was time to elect the president, only 1% cast their vote based upon environmental issues. Most Americans lack respect for the environment, and it’s not due to ignorance. Everyone knows littering is bad for the environment, yet people litter all of the time. It’s not that they don’t know better; they just don’t care enough, hence only 1% casting their vote based on environmental issues. People can be forgiven for things they aren’t aware of, but most of the things that are done only require common sense to realize it’s harmful. Littering, letting oil run down the storm drain, and leaving an unused light on all day are common ones that can easily be averted by the average American.
The thing I don’t understand, and this really puzzles me, is that Americans continue to degrade their environment at an alarming rate even though they have to live with it. The head of a company who causes air pollution doesn’t live in a bubble, so how in his right mind can he choose to allow mercury into the air knowing he may breathe some of it in, or even worse, his child? I understand that cleaner production is a dramatic shift financially from what industry is used to, but we have knowledge now that was unavailable to us previously. Industry would rather pollute than pay more money to have something taken care of in an environmentally sound way, but when they make that choice they’re not just affecting their finances positively; they’re affecting the entire population, whether it is regional or universal, negatively.
America has the financial means to become a leading advocate in alternative energy and environmental issues, so why don’t they? America has to stop acting like a procrastinating college kid that does their work at 2 A.M. the day it’s due. As powerful as America is, it can’t decide how nature operates. Nature is following a path, and America has to stop deviating from that path or things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
In the end, we have to protect the environment. There’s no other option when it comes down to it. We cannot live in a world where mercury is inhaled into our body in every breath we take. We cannot live in a world where harmful chemicals are in every sip of water we take. We cannot live in a world where the environment is treated as a waste site. This is our country, our piece of land on this life-sustaining planet; so how about we start treating it like we care about the quality of our health?
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