Abstract

This paper describes the impact and importance of environmental protections. Environmental protections are ways a community can come together to combat and point out problems affecting the environment around us. Dangerous substances and materials such as greenhouse gasses and plastic overuse have been causing many problems, like climate change and landfill waste. I include certain examples of how important of a topic environmental protections is by bringing up countries that have adopted and developed customs and technologies that benefit the environment around them. I will also bring up countries and communities that have struggling environments to discuss why they have not been able to adopt a way to help their environment and what has happened in that area to cause it to be such an environmentally displeasing area. The idea of an environmental utopia is not an easy task to achieve but it is a task that must be taken into consideration to guarantee the wellbeing of the world.

The Global Threat

The global threat we are facing today is mostly our fault, and that is the weakening state of the earth. Many factors come into play, whether it is the overuse of gas that pollutes the air we breathe and the water we drink, or the millions of pounds of plastic that consumes our oceans and taints our land. To achieve an environmental utopia, everyone has to change how they use some of the world's most dangerous resources that we use daily. Many people in this world like to litter or use “Gas guzzling” vehicles, and in this essay, I will discuss how your average citizen that liters, is actually participating in the killing of the earth.

Figure one is a data table that displays the most common items that are polluting the oceans. I have also used and cited this data using Statista.

Figure one:

Countries Making A Change

Firstly, I will show a few countries that have adopted and invented ways of protecting their environment. For my first area of focus, Sweden. During the early 2000’s, many environmental groups, such as, “The World Wildlife Fund”, have taken notice of the problems in Sweden that threatened their way of life. Many environmental issues such as pollution and the logging industry are taking huge effect by leveling entire forests. This information comes from the author, Brett Smith, and he reveals that Sweden is actually becoming one of the most environmentally stable countries by stating, “its policies have led to just 1 percent of solid waste going into landfills, with 99 percent of solid waste recycled” (p7). Sweden has achieved a sort of economic utopia by cutting down and limiting the amount of materials that could build up into problematic waste. To add to the roster, I will be talking about another country that has adopted or invented new ways to keep their environment safe.

Another example of an environmentally stable country, Switzerland. In Switzerland, they are trying their best to combat air pollution, waste, and water pollution. Many residents in Switzerland have come together as a community to form systems and treatments to combat these problems, similar to Sweden. Switzerland has also made a few goals for themselves and the world to better the state of the environment: 

A variety of measures have been taken in Switzerland to help keep the rise in average global temperatures below 1.5°C by 2050. The focus is on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main cause of the climate-warming greenhouse effect. Measures must also be taken to adapt to climate change, such as greening  public spaces and facades to prevent the formation of heat islands. (House of Switzerland, 2020, p. 3).

Switzerland is trying to educate and inform the world to help decrease problems such as greenhouse gasses. It is strongly believed that making these changes would benefit the world's troubled state and could decrease the chances of heat islands forming as stated above.

Figure two is a data chart I have gathered that shows a few countries that have been ranked for their EPI (Environmental Performance Index). I have gathered this data from its respective source, Statista.

Figure two:

Struggling Environments

Now that I have discussed some of the “higher tier” countries that have ways to help their environments, I will now look over and explain why some countries are not up to par with the ones mentioned above. These countries either give some effort into protecting their environment or give little to no effort into it. 

In The Dust

Figure three is a display of a few countries that have been proven to have the lowest EPI’s in the world. I have gathered this information from a variety of websites and compiled the information I found to be useful on a chart using google sheets. 

Figure three: 

The First Point of Interest

As seen in the chart above, the countries in the poorest environmental conditions are among a top 6 list of the countries in the worst condition. In this section, I will be talking about why their scores are so low and why they have not done anything to improve the state of the country. All of these countries suffer from an overuse of materials, landfills, and water/air pollution.

Liberia, as seen above, is ranked as the most poor environmentally stable country in the list above and it is that due to the incredible amount of negatives that are present in the country. The authors on the, “Liberia environmental profile” ,gives a rough description on what would be found in liberia and what is causing the environment to fall behind other countries, “shifting cultivation, uncontrolled logging, fuel wood harvesting, encroachment by human settlement, illicit fishing and unsustainable mineral and sand mining activities” (pg. 6). Even though this information is a bit old and somewhat changed, it is still very accurate information of what Liberia has gone through in the past and what is most likely still happening today. 

Conclusion

To solve this global threat, it may take decades to convince most or all of the world to make it a necessity to take better care of the environment. It will be a very hard task to accomplish and may even only start taking a huge effect after most of us are gone, but it is still worth trying. 

References

House of Switzerland.(2020, May 29). “Key aspects of Environmental  

protection in Switzerland”. 

tndfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15693430701859653

Smith, B.(2015, July 21). “Sweden: Environmental issues, policies  

and clean technology”. 

azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=557

McCarthy ,N. ,Roper, W.(2020, January 16). “Europe Leads the World in Environmental

Protection ”. 

statista.com/chart/20500/european-countries-healthiest-environments/

Brandolini, G. ,Tigani M.(2006, December). “Liberia environmental profile”. 

file:///C:/Users/djcoo/Downloads/cep_liberia_2006_en.pdf