Environmental Pessimists and Environmental Optimists

Environmental Pessimists and Environmental Optimists
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Environmental Pessimists and Environmental Optimists
Environmental pessimists consisting of a vocal group of doomsayers, and environmental optimists mainly comprising economists and politicians, are two groups that have been in an intense debate for a long time over the state of the world. According to environmental pessimists, the death of birth is occurring right now. Conversely, environmental optimists argue that we are on the way to sustainable development. These two divergent viewpoints of looking at the environment are gaining more and more prominence in the society. This paper outlines the respective arguments and describes my standing on this debate.
Environmental Pessimism
Pessimism has taken root in the environmental movement, creating an aura of apocalyptic panic. According to pessimists, climate change would lead to the extinction of humankind. Others even propose that instead of continuing to damage the environment, everyone should commit species suicide (Follett, 2014). The pessimists’ assessment of the environment is that everything is getting frighteningly worse. Environmental pessimists therefore assert that we are witnessing the death of birth. They give emphasis to destructiveness of the environment (Ehrlich, 2013).
Environmental pessimists are by and large doomsayers who overstate the declining purity of soil, water and air; over-population; global warming owing to human interference; and mass extinction of species. The future of mankind is bleak, according to these doomsayers, unless far-reaching and radical changes are made. In fact, some of them hold the view that humankind is already doomed in a few decades to come (Dutton, 2015). The pessimists also maintain that human beings have already experienced the ending of nature.
Furthermore, environmental pessimism, as Follett (2014) pointed out, has little relation to scientific facts. Scientific problems and environmental problems go together: interest groups overstate the scale of a problem for the purpose of pushing their own agenda, and the media attempt to make the most of the issue by adopting the rhetoric of a disaster in progress. On the whole, environmental pessimists point to the significant amount of damage that has already been done to the environment, and the damage that is actually still being done (Ehrlich, 2013). According to their view, the world at the moment is in a much worse state than as depicted by the media.
McKibben (2013) is one of the leading environmental pessimists who asserted that through their actions, human beings have touched all parts of planet earth, including the atmosphere, the oceans, and the poles, and that the actions of humans have influenced patterns of weather and therefore destroyed nature’s independence. Man has altered not just the weather, but also the air for breathing. These damages are the result of people’s altered perspective of nature. Nowadays, humans view nature, not as an entity that deserves respect, but rather as a hobby (McKibben, 2013). Human beings do not need nature any more with the exception of when they want to satisfy their superficial wants.
McKibben (2013) offers a few instances of the destruction that people are reeking on the environment at the moment. Firstly, human beings are warming the globe. He reveals that 1988 – 1999 were some of the hottest years in the earth’s history. During the same time, people increased their emissions of carbon-dioxide by 15% and automobiles have become bigger and less fuel more efficient rather than becoming smaller and more efficient (McKibben, 2013). The key to remedial measures, as McKibben (2013) mentioned, lies within mankind’s philosophy and ethics. Problems which have been cited severally include a Christian ethic which sees nature as something that is subservient to human beings. Rectifying most of today’s environmental dilemmas therefore calls for a new philosophy or ethic that is, in fact, more on the same wavelength with the workings of nature.
Environmental Optimism
On the other side of the debate are environmental optimists, or realists, who believe that people are exaggerating and being melodramatic to the present environmental situation. They comprise a various group of people ranging from those who think that humans cannot do anything and that the earth would adapt to the needs of mankind; to people who think that there is no problem and that things are actually improving each day with or without humans’ actions; to those who suggest that science and technology would always find a cure or solution to the problems that humans face (Cole, 2014). Environmental optimists give emphasis to the idea that human beings have not been destroying the environment. They also assert that environmental changes which have been occurring, especially climate change, are caused by natural causes. Environmental optimists have suggested the issue of sustainable development, and promote the protection of the environment (Easterbrook, 2015). As such, they claim that we are, in fact, on the way to sustainable development.
Sustainable development has three main aims: promoting development devoid of causing environmental harm; minimizing the depletion of natural resources; and using eco-friendly practices (Easterbrook, 2015). One specific environmental optimist is Bjorn Lomborg, who asserted in his book that social and environmental problems are either too insignificant to worry about, or they are improving. In addition, he claims that progress has been made in addressing social and environmental problems (Lomborg, 2013). Optimists also point out that the forests of the world are not under threat based on data which indicates that forest cover on earth has gone down at an average yearly rate of 0.2 percent in the 1990s. Moreover, Lomborg (2013) mentioned that humankind is better nourished on almost every count. While his basic point has some truth in it, it is without doubt that nutrition levels for hundreds of millions of people are actually worsening, particularly in developing countries. Thus his conclusion that humans are better nourished on almost every count appears a little misleading (Cole, 2014).
Sustainable development essentially refers to the development which meets the present needs devoid of compromising the capacity...