Why is environmental protection so important?
Unfortunately, our Western society lives in a fundamentally polluting way, that is, at the expense of nature. We are the reason why environmental protection is necessary at all. Because no other living being on the planet interferes with nature as destructively as we humans do.
But fortunately, we are capable of learning – and can improve our daily actions. Simply use the following reasons to make yourself aware of why environmental protection is so important. They will give you more motivation and energy.
- Environmental protection saves human lives
World hunger, global warming, increasing natural disasters, polluted air, water and soil, pesticide use in the fields, species extinction, crop failure – we must not believe that we are the only living beings on a sick planet to stay healthy. In nature, everything is interconnected. This is shown not least by the Corona pandemic, from which we must learn.
Environmental protection is therefore so important because it creates existences and does not cause them to fall. It helps to ensure that vital natural resources are available to us in the long term.
- Environmental protection creates new jobs
Environmental protection is often pushed into the background for economic reasons. Yet it is already an essential part of our economy and, quite incidentally, ensures that it continues to prosper in the long term. Around 2.8 million people in Germany already work in environmental protection. At 6.4 percent of the total workforce, this sector is a major factor in our labor market.
And the opportunities for employees and the self-employed continue to grow; after all, you can’t build a sustainable economy on the crumbling pillars of environmentally harmful activity. I am a good example of this myself, as I am now able to devote myself full time every day to my environmental protection project
CareElite every day.
- Environmental protection conserves (limited) natural resources
Earth Overload Day is steadily moving a little closer to the beginning of the year. It is the day in the year when we humans have consumed more renewable resources than the earth can reproduce in the entire year. For us Germans, it already fell on May 3 in 2019. If all people in the world were so wasteful with natural resources, we would need 3 Earths. For example, we waste resources by consuming a lot of meat. To produce one kilogram of beef, more than 15,000 liters of water are needed for watering, cleaning stables and growing feed. In addition, up to 25 kilograms of grain are required.
And to produce one animal calorie, seven plant calories are needed. So if we simply ate the plants ourselves, for example, no one in the world would have to go hungry – despite the rising world population.
- Environmental protection means animal welfare
Cheap meat in the supermarket is only so cheap because someone else pays the price for us. In addition to the environment and other people, in this example it is above all the animals that suffer from our everyday behavior. First, because we lock cows, pigs, and dozens of other farm animals in dark, cramped cages, fatten them up, impregnate and exploit them, separate them from their children, and stuff them full of antibiotics so they can survive these ordeals at all. Factory farming for our gustatory pleasure is a cruel habit that future generations will look upon with disgust. It is certainly one of those things that is actually absolutely out of date nowadays.
On the other hand, we also deprive wild animals of their habitat. For example, by clearing forest areas for arable land and pasture – or spraying insect-killing pesticides on our fields. Yet we depend on insects. Around a third of our food would not even exist without the bee, which pollinates plants and makes them grow.
- Environmental protection creates positive change
Environmental protection means consideration for other living beings. Not only for animals and plants, but also for other people. By paying attention, discussing, learning from and listening to each other, we improve our coexistence a little bit more every day.
World hunger, cruelty to animals or water shortages would already no longer have to exist if everyone acted responsibly. But fortunately, our society is constantly changing for the better, even if it may not seem that way when we open the newspaper.
- Environmental protection against the environmental problems of our time
Positive change, of course, also refers to the biggest environmental problems of our time, which we humans have caused ourselves. A few examples? No problem. We discharge wastewater from factories into the rivers whose water we need to irrigate fields and drink. And to produce one liter of cow’s milk, we simultaneously produce 3 liters of slurry₆ containing antibiotics and nitrates, with which we overfertilize our fields.
Whether in the fight against soil erosion, water shortages, plastic waste in the environment or climate change – environmental protection is therefore also so important because we ourselves are sawing away at the branch on which we actually like to sit so much.
- Environmental protection in the fight against natural disasters
Storms, droughts and floods are on the increase. Worldwide, the number of climate-related natural disasters has tripled since 1980. They destroy entire livelihoods and, not least, threaten our long-term food security.
So environmental protection is also so important to protect people and to have food available in the long term. The more we put ourselves above nature, the more often natural disasters will hit us in the future. We must understand that we are only a part of nature – and not nature itself.
- Environmental protection is smart
“Environmental protection is not masculine” I once heard. So is it manly to destroy the environment? Of course it isn’t. It’s neither masculine nor feminine. Environmental protection is simply smart. Those who value nature show that they understand its importance for our future and their own descendants. Respecting the environment also shows that you are a thoughtful and compassionate being with moral values.
- Environmental protection is fun
“Too complicated” is also such a cliché that I hear all the time. Mostly from people who believe that you can only be one of two things: either “environmentally friendly” or “polluting”. Yet it’s a constant evolutionary process with all different levels of environmentally conscious behavior.
Every rain starts with a drop. And once you have started and realized how easy it is to make a big impact for the preservation of our planet, environmental protection in everyday life starts to be fun. Whether it’s avoiding plastic waste or riding a bike more often.
- Environmental protection as a role model for children & grandchildren
Why is environmental protection so important? If you are not yet convinced of the importance of protecting our nature, you should be after this reason at the latest.
Environmental protection means to take responsibility. Responsibility for you – but of course also for your children and grandchildren, who may or must stay on this planet much longer than you. Whether this will be pleasure or horror, you decide yourself.
credits: https://www.careelite.de/warum-umweltschutz-so-wichtig-ist/