Samantha Curtis
June 16, 2022
Professor Lauren
English 101
How Far Should Humans Go to Protect the Environment
An environment is a common ground where humans and different species of all kinds meet,
where all living or nonliving things have mutual interests in that all living things share. Over the
years, pollution has been a huge common factor in a threat to the environment with
environmental pollution. Therefore, with this vulnerability at stake, humans should attempt to
protect the environment from environmental pollution. It is a human’s right to a healthy, safe and
ecologically balanced environment but it must be taken care of by all humans. There is a
considerable amount of debate on how the environment should be protected and how far humans
should go to protect it, but there should be no limit on how far a human should go to protect our
environment, each human should take responsibility in doing his or her part to keep the
environment safe.
I. When thinking of how far humans should go to protect the environment human health is an
important factor to consider as well and the government has a protection agency whose job
is to protect the environment.
The EPA known as the Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 to protect
the planet and human kind.
A. (Will Kenton, 2021) states that, “the EPA is responsible for creating standards and laws
promoting the health of individuals and the environment.”
B. The Government is responsible for keeping us safe in this world, including protecting
our environment.
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Again, (Will Kenton 2021) states, “Some of the areas that aren’t covered by the EPA
include wildlife, wetlands, food safety, and nuclear waste.”
C. The government has created this agency to take matters into their hands to protect the
environment from these catastrophic events and to protect us humans as one.
II. Our world is a crossroads and falling apart fast, without the help of humankind our world
will be destroyed.
A. By 2030 our planet will be destroyed by climate change, meaning we must protect
twice as much land and four times as much ocean so that we can protect our
ecosystem alone from climate change. (Enric Sala, 2020)
B. Our planet is a stake with many factors taking a toll on earth and humankind, killing
our environment one day at a time.
C. (Enric sala, 2020) also states, “The future of life on our planet – and thus our own –
is in jeopardy.”
D. We have to each take a apart in being responsible with keeping our environment, and
climate safe from these disastrous events destroying our world.
III. We as human, it is our responsibility to protect and keep the environment safe.
A. People tend to disregard earth and treat it as a wasteland for everything. Over the years,
the world has suffered with mistreatment from humans.
B. Ricoeur states, “The responsibility is the free human being as a longing and striving for
being, then one only attains actual responsible existence through the encounter with the
other.” (Ricoeur, 1990)
C. The responsibility of the environment starts with humanity, and each person is
accountable in doing a part to keep the environment safe and respected.
D. We as humans must come together as a community and protect the environment.
IV. One thing human kind is very reliant on, is the environment.
A. Our ecosystem is at the top of being very complex and having high vulnerability.
B. This includes our water, air, vegetables, and all things humankind needs to survive
on the planet.
C. In the bible it said, we humans are commanded to care for God’s creation, meaning
we must take care of the creation God has made for us to live on and create
humankind with respect. (Genesis 2:15)
D. Everything God has created is decaying one day at a time. Each time the news is
turned on there is another fire destroying lands, depleted oxygen, and several other
huge things happening to destroy the world.
V. We as humans must come together to take responsibility to make our environment a better
safer place. We must act to save our environment fast from disaster. All human’s
responsibility for the environment must start with humankind, humans should be
responsible for taking action on protecting the environment in doing his or her own part to
keep the environment safe. We have until 2030 to save our environment from one of the
catastrophes upon us.
References:
Ricoeur 1990, Ernst Wolff, Political Responsibility for a Globalised World: After Levinas' Humanism
,2011
Enric Sala, 2020 Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society, Member of Friends of Ocean
Action and Champions for Nature, 2020
Will Kenton 2021, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2021
