The teepee of environmentalism

The idea of resource wars is timeless. I cannot think of a single group of living organisms that does not fight to get what it needs to survive—even vines in the rainforest climb up taller trees to get to much-needed sunlight, suffocating their hosts in the process. This competition is exacerbated and becomes a real problem when the losing party does not just die and become part of the soil that sustains their enemy, but rather take up arms against it, and commits atrocities to get the upper hand. When thinking about preventing global warming or stopping pollution, people forget that there are 44 such conflicts going on in the world today. And these conflicts, of course, deplete the environment’s natural resources even further.Speth mentions that the UN’s “[D]evelopment projects have often failed because they neglected the environment, just as environmental projects have often failed because they neglected development.” I feel that this is a key point to make. I am coming to realize that environmental and social issues are drastically interrelated. In order to solve environmental issues, we must solve social ones, but we cannot solve social issues without solving environmental ones.In order to even begin to solve such complicated and multifaceted issues such as what Speth mentioned as relating heavily to environmental issues, poverty, we must first gather the information necessary about environmental, social, cultural, and economic concerns. After we have found this information, it needs to be incorporated into a multi-pronged solution and implemented effectively. It seems that at this point, we have the first step completed, if that. Many proposed solutions only take into account one aspect of an issue; they are like a lone teepee pole trying to stand up. In order for this construction to be able to stand on its own, it needs the support of other poles. The same is true with social development projects. In order to solve this, the solutions must be as complex as the problems, with each facet, or pole, leaning onto another one to make it complete and self-sustainable.With my understanding of environmental issues, the more I learn, the more hopeless it seems. Poverty and resource conservation, women’s rights and population control, misallocation of resources and affluence, and so many more issues seem to be tangled in a web of environmental destruction. If there is any hope for the earth, we must all begin to consider all aspects of a situation on a global scale and use them together to make a complete, effective, sustainable, solution. No easy task, but it is possible. I am aware of several organizations that provide sustainable relief, but what would happen if all issues could be eradicated in one global solution? It seems that some people have the idea, but socially conscious environmentalism must catch on if we are to get anywhere.