I would like to explore in my paper why environmental sustainability is far from being achieved on the global level, when the critical demand for it in the 21st century has long since been acknowledged.
The many books in the library on the environment are far more than enough to provide evidence on the damage of the environment. As demonstrated in the book by the Worldwatch Institute, the ocean ecosystems are damaged by overfishing and pollution, the consumption of fossil fuels are higher than ever, the deserts are expanding, and climate change is shifting deeper into the irreversible. As humans themselves are animals and mortal inhabitants of the planet Earth, these changes are irreversibly linked to survival. Any other issues on humanity’s advancement can only be dwarfed by the immediate threat of mankind disappearing over the course of a few generations.
Yet this is nothing new. Humans have been modifying their environment since their very existence, from domestication to other forms of life to modifications of the environment. And despite common beliefs, the history of recognition on environmental pollution dates back to more than two thousand years ago. In the book, Foundations of Environmental Sustainability by Larry L. Rockwood, Ronald E. Stewart, and Thomas Dietz, the authors express that India constructed the first policy on environmental protection around 300 B. C. What’s more, there now are tens of thousands of organizations working to improve the conditions of the environment, and nearly all governments have laws on sustainability—not to mention international institutions.
Why have we, then, as mankind, made little progress? Despite of the advance on technological efficiency, the consumption of fossil energy keeps rising, harvests keep declining, and diseases threaten human mortality. Despite the apparent rise in numbers of laws and regulations regarding sustainability, water quality keeps dropping, the area of rainforests keeps decreasing, and more and more species become endangered by day. Whatever we’re doing isn’t working, and there are two possibilities—are we doing something wrong, or are we not doing enough in the first place?
One of the books I discovered while researching in the library was The Psychology of Environmental Problems, by Deborah Du Nann Winter and Susan M. Koger. With it, I became curious about the role of the psychology behind everyone from the individual person to the global community that is deterring the progress of what is so obviously important. What keeps individuals from taking action to sustain their world when the threat to their and their children’s survival is at stake, and what keeps the governments and communities from finding out that sustainable development is more profitable in the long run, in comparison to draining owned resources in short-sighted efforts to lift the economy?
The book by Winter and Koger focuses on the more general level of psychology; of the response of humanity to environmental pollution as a group, a community, providing a little more weight on government policies. My work will differ from the book in two ways: the first in that I will focus slightly more on the individual, inner workings of psychology behind the actions that they, or we, make every day; and the second in that I will focus less on the immediately following reactions to the results of environmental pollution, and more on the lack of action for sustainability. In other words, the focus and therefore the originality will lie on the psychology that directly keeps individuals from acting for environmental sustainability.
Along with providing specific evidence on the reasons from books and studies on why sustainability is important, I will use psychology as the secondary focus within the topic. I will analyze the reasons behind the problem, and possibly find some solutions, with the interactions of the two topics. This will provide a strong basis for the issue, providing the readers with a deeper understanding on the reasons that create the modern environmental state, and thereby give them a better chance of grasping and solving the ultimate problem.
Bibliography
Costanza, Robert, Ida Kubiszewski. Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future: Insights from 45 Global Thought Leaders. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2014.
Falkenmark, Malin. Water and Sustainability: A Reappraisal. Environment, 50(2):5-16. 2008.
Juniper, Tony. What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? New Mexico: Synergetic Press, 2013.
Rockwood, Larry L., Ronald E. Stewart, and Thomas Dietz. Foundations of Environmental Sustainability. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
The Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability. Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2015.
Winter, Deborah D. N., Susan M. Koger. The Psychology of Environmental Problems. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Your perspective on climate change is really interesting, I don’t know if you read my proposal but we have some similar ideas! I think you could make your proposal a little more concise by including less background information (you can put that in your paper) and getting to your topic more quickly. I was also wondering if there are more questions you are planning on asking, and what they are. Other than that it’s great!
I think your proposal is really interesting. I never thought to ask why there is so little being done despite the fact that most people are aware of our environment’s poor condition. I think that looking into the psychology of it will both help to answer your question and be an interesting addition to your paper because you are linking together two otherwise dissimilar things. If you can do it without downplaying the psychological aspect, you could also acknowledge how politics and economics are also undeniably big factors that keep environmental problems from being solved.
I loved your topic. I think it is relevant and that everyone should know about this important issue. Your background evidence is impressive for so early in the research stage. However, you may want to consider focusing more on your topic and how it will evolve with the evidence rather than just presenting evidence. I am a little confused on what you are trying to prove. Also, your third paragraph is strong. I am just wondering where you get these facts about the water, rainforests, and endangered species. I think these are powerful statements but I think you should include where this information came from.
I believe that you have made a good choice in topics with sustainability being such an important part of the future. What is a little confusing is the focus of the topic in the actual proposal. It is an interesting idea to analyze the psychology of environmental problems, but possibly bring that to the beginning of the proposal and state the complete goals of the topic in one or two concise sentences. Otherwise the proposal feels like two separate topics put together. I am sure that you can make this topic and scope work, but again be careful of the scope and do not get too spread out in your research. One other thing to look for would be including contradicting opinions or reports to generate discussion in your paper. Find research that states the opposite of your argument, if possible, and analyze it to solidify your topic and opinion. You have a solid foundation of sources, and seem to have gotten a good start to researching. Keep up the good work and good luck!
Diane, this is a very important issue and your topic seems to be more and more relevant every day. You use a lot of different background information to show you know a lot about the topic. That being said, I think you could reduce the amount of background information and focus more on getting right to the point of your paper. Also I was a little confused on how you were going to use psychology to prove your reasoning.