EnviroHumanImpact

Envirohumanology may be the start of a movement that cures the issue that could be our greatest downfall and makes it into our greatest triumph. Environmental degradation as a result of human actions has the potential to cause disruption of food supplies, ecosystems, and the normal weather and geological conditions that now make life relatively hospitable.

This situation could lead to mass starvation or death due to environmental disaster (think natural disaster, without that “natural”), famine, disease, and the ensuing battles for increasingly limited resources.  In many places, these conditions have already appeared, partly as a result of human action and/or inaction on myriad issues.

We care specifically because the the condition of the environment directly effects the human condition. This is the key of envirohumanology.

Envirohumanology tackles environmental degradation as:

A Moral Issue: When we pollute, degrade the environment, and generally show disregard for the envirohuman impact of our decisions, others suffer, in small and large ways. It is immoral to not do what is necessary to improve our envirohuman impact, protect the environment, defend biodiversity, and work toward a sustainable future for the Earth. Small steps to reach great heights.

A Quality of Health and Life Issue: By improving our EHI, we are helping everyone have a better chance to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat clean, natural foods, all of which contribute to longer, healthier, and happier lives.

A Personal Responsibility Issue: In order to make consistent strides toward a more sustainable future, we must all personally make small sacrifices, display personal leadership, and give considerable effort toward smaller negative envirohuman impacts from each individual. Each of us is a small part of the bigger problem and likewise can be a part of the solution.

A Government Responsibility Issue: The large governments of the world hold much financial ability to invest into more sustainable technologies and practices, with little risk, that both individuals and large companies do not enjoy.

Politicians have a responsibility to work together to use that ability for the good of everyone to influence industry through investment and regulation to improve the envirohuman impact of large and small industries and to empower individuals to make their own EHIs positive.

A Corporate Responsibility Issue: Corporations have the responsibility to encourage for progressive regulation which keeps the playing field more fair for all participants when specific companies decide to invest into research for greener technologies and practices.

They have a responsibility to put more money into research and less money into lobbying for laxer regulations. Increasingly, a company’s envirohuman impact will become a cost of doing business, and corporations will do themselves, investors, and the public (their customers) justice by staying ahead of that cost and improving their EHI before regulation and costs force it upon them.

An Emotional Issue: Many people care about the environment, and at varying degrees. Some people passively recycle, some go out and petition people for signatures about key issues, other write letters to Congress or blog about the issues, while many more volunteer in meaningful ways.

But the opportunity to share that passion and encourage one another shows the human side of this issue. We care most specifically because the the condition of the environment directly effects the human condition. Our own. Our friends and family. Our future.

A Forward-Looking Issue: No matter if you are an individual, a company, or a government, facing the fact that improving envirohuman impacts is a matter of responsibility we all share is the first step. By doing so, we will be seen by future generations as having great foresight instead of great excess. Great willpower instead of weakness. Great hope instead of great despair. Better to deserve appreciation rather than blame from future generations.

A Community Issue: Our collective care for the environment, particularly because it can and will effect our current and future communities in myriad ways, is what will allow us to put differences aside on these issues and find a way to make continuous progress toward a more sustainable future, a future where improved envirohuman impact is not an issue, but a fact of life.