Review article
The Environmental Crisis and Humankind
Vid Pečjak
; Sveučilišni profesor u mirovini, Bled
Abstract
Some environmentally-oriented scientists believe that we have passed the “point of no-return”, that is, the point beyond which environmental degradation may no longer be halted. It may be slowed down but not stopped: further development leads only to complete destruction.
In relation to their attitude towards global pollution, people may, according to McCluney, be divided into three groups: the fatalists, who believe that environmental death is our last stop on the train of development; the technological optimists, who claim that the environmental crisis must have stimulated the development of technology and unveiled many new technologies, and technology is the solution for all problems; the holists, who warn that environmental balance on the Earth is fragile: a single missing link may easily cause a sequence of unpleasant changes, which is why it is necessary
to preserve the environment in general. The author of the current paper also adds the sceptics: those who question the belief that global warming and its consequences have been caused by human activity, and therefore look for the causes in various events in nature (sunspots, radiation from the universe, the shifting of the Earth’s axis,
biochemical cycles of natural events, etc.).
In the remaining part of the paper, the author attempts to find the answer to the question why humankind is destroying itself, why the usual self-preservation instincts do not apply to the environment, and how to change this situation ‡ starting from families and schools.
Keywords
Ecology; environmental crisis; new culture; new ethics; care for the environment; learning by models
Hrčak ID:
82830
URI
Publication date:
15.10.2009.
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