We had two lectures last Monday, October 28, so I will be writing a separate post for each. This is the first one.
The first lecture was about environmental management by Engr. Luis Yap. He spoke about the state of the environment; the social responsibility aspect of environmental management; sustainable development tools; air, water, and solid waste pollution; and the laws and initiatives that are advocated towards environmental management.
Hearing discussions about the state of the environment is an essential part of living on this planet. You can’t be alive and be in civilization and not hear about how we’re — not even slowly anymore but — rapidly destroying the world we live in. The industrial revolution and technological advancements are what people often consider the common enemies of nature, but it is us, humans, who brought these about, who never thought of the side- and aftereffects of whatever we are introducing into the world. Sure, sometimes it is only after technology has advanced further that we discover the ramifications of what we’ve done earlier, but more often than not, it is with knowing that this environmental degradation come to exist.
Now that technology has advanced even more, now that we are capable of changing the “lifestyle of technology,” we can bring about more change than ever. But on whose hands does this responsibility fall? Is it in the individual consumer? Is it in the people in power?
I often see posts on social media that say — albeit with good motive — that the obligation falls on the individual person. However, while that is right, how much change can the individual person really bring about if the system that individual adheres to cancels out the efforts of that person?
If we fail, it is often because we have no other choice. These are “choices” narrowed down by the system before they even appear before us. The people in power should do their share. The moral obligation rests on their hands as well, and not just on ours.