I am pained to look across a landscape tainted with acid rain deposition. I am pained to hear of a third world country deprived of access to clean water. I am pained to know of a global human disillusionment to pressing issues. Though I find that so many of my peers and superiors care about our planet, so few of them do anything to care for our planet. I am pained, but I have considerable hope. It was the pioneer environmentalist Aldo Leopold who said, “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” This astute ecologist was quite right about our psychology: we abuse the environment because we think we can. The thought is a false one. There is simply no way that we as a composite global people can continue our far-reaching neglect and injustices; our environment is fragile and yet we poison it to such an extent. We, as a contemporary people, are required to care for our planet (if we have any care for ourselves); we are the custodians of a beautiful biosphere and it is about time we did our job.

One need only look to the Dust Bowl to understand the pressing need. The grand scale of the event is unimaginable, and it left so many hard working Americans in the cold literally and economically. The Dust Bowl was, surely, tragic in every sense; but perhaps the greatest tragedy was the avoidability of it all. It was all caused by irresponsible farming habits, and by the removal of prairie grasses in the midwest that had dominated the area long before man. The summer of 2012 was likened to a new Dust Bowl, with record high temperatures and drought scorching America’s breadbasket, and yet these conditions were and still are perfectly avoidable with proper regard for the environment. Water, soil, and nutrient conservation techniques are economically feasible, environmentally supportive, and beneficial to the looming threat of national food security; and yet these tools are constantly ignored. If we do not care explicitly for our environment, let us at least care for our stomachs, care for our wallets.

Though the actions of the individual do great harm to our planet on a daily basis, perhaps the root of this epidemic of wastefulness and nonchalance can be traced to our governments. Some nations have truly taken great initiative to right the long-enduring wrong but our own government is wasting potential. Our own government appears fundamentally against the custodianship of our shared planet, and in this way appears almost self-destructive. To this day, our government is giving monstrous subsidies to companies employing agricultural techniques that turn land fallow and food processing techniques that poison their consumers. The organic movement gaining momentum seems more than deserving of the tax breaks that the less equitable practices benefit from, yet still one can find that the most affordable food is the food that will do to them the most harm. According to the USDA, only 0.1-2% of pesticides applied to crops reaches intended pests, the rest ends up in our air, our water, and our food. Alternatives such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are both sustainable and economically viable (as was the case in nations such as Indonesia, Sweden, Cuba, and Denmark) but the amount the U.S. invests is negligible. Though it is widely known that the agricultural practices that fostered the substantial growth of this nation are fundamentally harmful to the environment; contributing to CO2 emissions, point-source pollution, and both desertification and waterlogging; efforts to improve the sustainability of agriculture are being neglected. The care of the earth is at its core fundamental, of perhaps the highest importance, and we need a government that recognizes that priority.

Easy it is to carp on what affronts are being committed. But with these negatives, come positives, the silver linings on the SO2-laden clouds. I am lucky to live in a country where through informing, extensive complaining, and mass lobbying, anything can be achieved. It is with certainty that I remind myself that the state of the environment can be enriched with the choices of the everyday consumer and the dedicated efforts of environmentalists in the world. Each and every day, the consumer chooses what products to use and this freedom brings hope.
There can be no doubt that the effect we are having on our shared planet is great. We have taken great strides as a contemporary people, rapidly industrializing and improving life as a whole; but with these strides came unforeseeable damage. We have begun to see the light, and many eyes have been opened. Many more remain shut. I know that humanity is inherently good, though, and I am sure that all will be mended with the understanding of the pressing need and the heightened regard for the environment. Perhaps the damage to the planet is so deep that there is never enough that one can do to mend it; but then again, perhaps human innovation is the brightly shining panacea that can cure the ills, and launch us into a new green revolution.