The module discussed the environmental ethics which concerns us and the environment. It is also related to our morals and sympathy to non-human environment. The topic itself is crucial not only for us students but also for everyone who shares the same planet with us. Our actions are the reflections of our morals, aspirations, and perspectives. Thus, learning the right ethics towards the environment could change an individuals action in accordance to what the planet needs. This ought to be one of the things that mankind focuses on the environmental ethics. They say that morals starts at home hence if every family includes environmental ethics as one of the morals foundation of a child, the future generations may have a lot of possibilities to live in a greener place than what we have today.
The topic starts in defining what Environmental Ethics really is and why it is important for us to study and learn environmental ethics. It is a good start to build a foundation of information first before widening the topic. The environment is was defined as what people considered as their home which makes it more crucial for us to take care of the environment more that ever. Because, then again, it is our home. No other planet or places place inside this galaxy that could replace the earth in terms of giving a sense of home. Moreover, I learned that the environment is not just about the home territory but it is also about the places and things that are part of nature and the planet. Even though the planet is our only home and environment, we are still continuous in killing it and these actions are referred as environmental problems. Yet, I think that it should be addressed as human problems rather than environmental problems. The term environmental problems makes it look that it is the environment's problem and gives a vibe that people could sleep tight at night without thinking of issues such as deforestation, water contamination, and pollutions. But, if we would address such things as human problems, it would be very clear that it is us who needs to solve those issues because we humans are affected and it is a big problem if we would lose environment because of our actions. Nature is raging, so many disasters are occurring which resulted to the decrease of population. We know for the fact that these issues we called environmental problems are a result of overpopulation. We consume a lot so there is a need for a lot of production which cause more CO2 that resulted to global warming, climate change, and storms.
Moreover, huge amount of resources do not allow the nature and the environment to heal and rest because we need many resources in a short period of time to satisfy our needs. Among the ten (10) biggest environmental problems of 2020 that was discussed in the module, I am looking for the root of it all which is the huge amount of population that the planet holds. The making of our foods emits carbon dioxide and other harmful chemicals that disrupts the atmosphere and the earth itself. Thus, buying and cooking more than we can consume will result for more Carbon dioxide being emitted day by day. The food people have wasted could be a consumption for other people. In that way, the production of food may have been lessen and so as the harmful chemicals it emits. Not just the processed food can contribute to environmental problems but also the meat on our plates. Livestock contributes 18% of greenhouse gas that was emitted by mankind. Moreover, food production also contributes to plastic pollution and air pollution. On the other hand, poor governance contributes to biodiversity loss as some governmental offices failed to protect biodiversity habitats or even sometimes they are the one who are doing the move for biodiversity loss. It is also interrelated with deforestation since government projects needs land space that can only be acquired through deforestation. Which then would also result to habitat invasion and also lessen the spaces for agriculture. Nonetheless, agriculture also contributes to environmental problems as it also emits CO2. Melting of ice caps are very evident these days. In a documentary film I watched a few weeks ago entitled An Inconvenient Truth, it was said that a scientific study shows that there are polar bears found who was drowned due to swimming of long distance of sixty miles just to find the ice. It hurts my heart hearing those and I get to reflect with my actions that contributes to global warming. However, as I was analyzing everything, I realized that one person really can't live without causing harmful effects to nature. We can only reduce our impact but we cannot purely eradicate it because we still needs to ride vehicles that produces harmful gas emissions, we still need to consume food products and use some plastics as storage, we need to put up some clothes, use papers and ink, burn fuels, and use devices that emits harmful rays to the environment. And maybe even after all of us tried to reduce our impacts to environmental issues, we may might still have environmental problems as long as the planet holds too much number of people that it can hold. Thus, the big thing we could do is to reduce our numbers through family planning, sex education, and open conversations about contraceptives and other things related to it. The environment needs to be save from our growing population and being a conservative country makes it even more harder for the Philippines. Overpopulation may be somehow out of topic since it has never been discussed in this module but I think that this module would not exist if people has right ethics towards nature and nature holds just an exact amount of people it could hold.
There is no other planet or place in this galaxy that can replace the earth and give people a sense of home. Although the earth is our only home and environment, we continue to kill it. These actions are called 'environmental problems when it should be called human problems. The term environmental problem sounds like it is the environmentâs problem, giving people a sense of peace of mind at night without having to think about the problem where in fact it is humans problem caused by humans too. People are well aware of environmental issues and other potential factors related to them, but most people have not taken action. Maybe even if we all work hard to reduce the impact on environmental problems, we may still have environmental problems as long as the environment sustains too much people more than it could hold. This may be a bit difficult for some of us, but it is a serious problem, and everyone should solve and work together to solve the environmental problems we are facing.