Focusing on the Environment

It’s often said that you are a product of your environment. Although this usually isn’t used in the context of our entire world, it still applies. Most animals that are native to an area live symbiotically with their environment. We as a human species do not, and we haven’t been for a long time. Unfortunately, we are starting to see the effects of our impact on the environment. Greenhouse gasses that cause climate change, microplastics in the water effecting our food chain, and lead pollution dumbing down the population are a few examples of our effect on the environment and its consequent effect on ourselves. As these issues become increasingly drastic, we are beginning to realize that it’s time to make a change. Although we’ve known about at least some of the effects we have on the environment for a long time, these often take a back seat to profitability when it comes to policy creation. Just take for example, Thomas J. Midgley, who invented and popularized the use of lead as a fuel additive. Through the mass production of lead based fuel, the human race suffered a number of detriments including IQ loss and an increase in violent tendencies. Although the warning signs of mass lead poisoning were abundantly clear from the beginning, it took years for policy correction to take place, with some parts of the world even continuing to use lead based fuel into the 21st century. With the recent exponential increase in climate change effects, hopefully we can start to put profits in the back seat, and focus on our impact on the world.