Wendy C Hamblet: Mending Fences, A Restructure Proposal for the United Nations
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The problem of the reduction of waste in consumer societies is something which must be taken on by the large corporation's not just individuals. The insistence upon the use of environmentally friendly products can be made once these are made available at a competitive price. Corporations, the entities largely responsible for much of the waste, can thus help the individual take an active role in reducing the problem of excess waste. One thing that must be stressed is that corporations can no longer live in the here and now of profit considerations alone but must be made to address their responsibility to future peoples of the Earth., we must look at how what we do now will effect the future.
According to the World Watch Institute, a total of 824 million tons of municipal waste is being churned out annually in developing countries. Population growth alone will boost this number to 1.4 billion tons by 2050. The worst problem is that waste rates tend to rise with rising incomes. This tells us that we must dread the state of the planet the more with every move we make toward bettering the lot of its human population. Add to this problem the fact that fossil fuel combustion causes more than 1 billion urban residents worldwide to breathe air that does not meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines, and you have a recipe for human disaster that keeps pace with the disastrous state of the planet.
Though some corporations are willing to be more "environmentally friendly", there exists a persistent fear that undermines their move to adopting more ecologically sound practices; they worry that their competitors will not also adopt sound policies and will thus gain an unfair advantage in world markets. This mutual suspicion has led to a downward spiral of regard for ecological ethics, for which the environment has suffered.
The solution to this would be to increase and enforce regulations of the major corporations.
Solutions to these problems are very possible and plausible. We have the technology and the assets to fix what we have broken. However, the problem becomes a matter of sound policies being seriously adopted and reinforced at a global level. Money has become the overriding interest on our planet. People have become blind to the danger of ignoring what they are doing to the planet that the live on and are more focused on instant material success, and gratification. In order to take control of what damage has been done and stop promoting destruction, we need to be able to take a step back and look at the current situation. We need a balance of human and environmental demands. We would recommend an environmental group formed under the auspices of the world governing body. This group must take an active role in overseeing that national governments comply with global regulations.
Environmental disaster transfers over into many other disasters affecting basic human needs and quality of life. Our best solution would be to have a government system in which environmental protection is given a sovereign position, and not only a sovereign position, but a position where it can overlook and balance out legislation. This is our solution to creating a better environment for the world.
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