After reading “What Is Biodiversity and Why Is It So Important,” by Vandana Shiva and “Healing Earth’s Scars: It’s Never Too Late,” by Jane Goodall, Gail Hudson, and Thane Maynard, I noticed common themes of environmental depletion, economics, poverty, and overpopulation.
The world, especially western civilization is predominantly run by a patriarchy. If we look specifically at the United States we find that although we are one of the wealthiest and most industrialized countries we also have a large population that is below the poverty line. A minority of the population controls the majority of the wealth in this country and unfortunately those who have the money tend to have the power. This is a result of numerous reasons including that the wealthy tend to have control over resources, if they do not have power they have the money to influence those who do, and people with money, power, or both tend to socialize within similar circles. Unfortunately more often than not those with money and power tend to focus on how to keep their money and power as well as how to obtain more. Far too often the consequences that such goals inflict on the environment and populations are viewed as acceptable or as a casualty of war.
Large corporations are taking their plants and businesses to other countries, often third world countries, in hopes of paying less for labor and resources and dealing with more lenient laws and codes of standards for their facilities. As a result other countries resources are being depleted and the environments are being damaged. The impoverished populations are working in often dangerous facilities for long hours and little pay. As a result many children are forced to get jobs in similar factories to help contribute income because their parents do not make enough money to support the family. These children are often forced to chose working over obtaining a basic education or furthering their education which often results in further poverty in the future. Those who are poorly educated tend to have larger families because they are uneducated about family planning and birth control. From there, overpopulation can become an issue and the environment can be negatively impacted by trying to support too large a population. This can occur forom the population cutting down trees for building or burning, or eroding the soil and depleting it of its nutrients, or polluting the rivers and lakes where vital marine life lives.
The worlds large corporations, as well as small, are often too involved with making profit through ways that they view as the most efficient and lucrative options. Restoring and maintain the environment and its biodiversity is not as tangible an object as the dollar signs in ones bank account and is often put on the back burner. Restoring Earths natural resources may not appear to be a necessary investment but further down the road the lack of action to restore such resources could end up costing companies even more money. It appears that as long as big businesses focus on the economic impacts of their company instead of their impacts on the environment, poverty, and overpopulation, these issues will continue to rotate in a vicious cycles going unfixed until more humanitarian and environmentalist ideologies govern the way these companies conduct business.
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