THE ENDANGERED ECOSPHERE

THE ENDANGERED ECOSPHERE No other species on Earth has and still can radically change the environment than us Homo sapiens . Our every move directly or indirectly affects the world we live in . We as a sentient , intelligent being are capable of wanting more than we need . Also , we are the only ones capable of devising ways to obtain our wants . The rise in the human population has brought a great burden upon the environment . Obtaining resources for human use has often times greatly affected our world . And we as the prime changers

of our environment must define our role in managing our environment . We must attempt to manage our environment , for our own existence

Man cannot live without the environment but the environment can continue without man . Man 's quest is to survive as long as it can in the planet Earth . To this , he obtains shelter from plants , firewood from trees and food from other animals . That was in the stone ages . Today man 's needs have become much more complex . We now need , vehicles , fuel for electricity and other things we deem necessary to lead a normal life Times may be different now but what stays the same is that we still derive the resources to fulfill those needs from the environment

Our Earth 's resources are finite . The oil that we burn to provide electricity to our homes will run out . The air that we breathe will only be serviceable to us with the right proportion of oxygen , nitrogen and other gases . The forests that we harvest for our , our pencils , our chairs and tables will in the future cease to exist . The resources that we humans depend on will someday be utterly consumed by us

There is no question that we cause destruction , extinction and decimation to the environment . Our needs come before other concerns

As humans have the power to destroy , we also have the power to save . We have the potential to minimize our impact and manage our effect on the environment . But therein enters a debate . Should conservation be for man or nature 's sake

Lately , there has been widespread concern over the environment . An increase in lobbyists , environment groups and movements has been seen world wide . We have finally felt the impact of what we do to our world We have seen deaths by landslides caused by excessive logging . We have come face to face with the corruption of our vital resources like air and water . We have realized the extinctions we have caused , the effect we have on other species

Sentimental environmentalism as defined by Krauthammer means .taking a highly selective view on the benignity of nature . In this , the regard for the environment knows no bounds . Everything must be saved regardless of the cost . The predator must be preserved along with the prey . This views the environment as an omnipotent source with man just a passenger

I beg to differ . I lean more towards the anthropocentric view...