I felt that this was an appropriate title for week 2 as we were given the chance to learn about human civilisation and how we have impacted upon the earth, and how we are cotinuing to impact it.

Beginning the week I was unsure as to how exactly all aspects of life made a connection with nature. It seem’s as though many people go through life, living there relatively ordinary lives doing relatively normal human things. However, what we may consider a normal way of life today was not so in the way in which early human populations lived their lives. Our thoughts on the world around us have changed dramatically.

 It was evident from the way in which Peadar Kirby was conveying his numerous facts that he has an incredible passion for the greater good of our planet. I found his particular style of lecturing very thought provoking. I thought to myself while sitting there, hanging on his every word, if only more people had the oppertunity to get such an enthusiastic person to speak to them about our world, our society, our way of life.

What we may see as lesser more primitave early human beings, I think, had a much greater grasp on the way we should think about nature. The name “mother nature” seems to be loosing its meaning. It seems to me that many large corporations and indeed the general public are forgeting that our humble little planet is not an object which can be continuously exploited to meet the ever more demanding needs of our generation, but is a place that can provide us with a great deal of sustainable resources if it is treated in the right way.

  Destruction or Restoration:

Our lecture with Mags Liddy highlighted a few important issues for me. One of which was the notion of, Origin and Impact. I found this to be something that I had never really payed much attention to before, but for me kind of sums up the way in which we think. Companies producing massive amounts of toxic gases, do so in order to provide a service for their customers, but they also do so ultimately to make large amounts of money. However, how often do they sit down and examine just how big an impact they are creating in the environment. One example of which is acid rain.

 

A Rural society in harmony with nature:

This video may seem a little extreme but it gives a good representation as to how life can thrive without causing damage. How humans could learn once again to live with the land. I find it funny how many people harp on about how we must set an example for future generations when it is many people in our generation who need to be shown this good example first.

Sustainable development for me is where we will sink or swim. I have come to form this opinion through the help of our last lecture. Showing us the 5 major areas of society, allowed me to clearly see where the battle over climate change could and can be won. Since the first signs of environmental awareness in the 1970′s, peoples views and opinions have been changing, but I really believe that now is the time to implement serious changes to the way we live.

 This picture illustrates the challenges we face when we try to change towards sustainable development. Each of these three topics must be changed, new laws, legislations, ways of thinking, but we cannot change one without changing the others. It is obviously a tough and arguous process, but we can all clearly see that it so badly needs to be done. The hope is that we can learn from our mistakes in the past and not have future generations looking back wondering where exactly it was, that it went so horribly wrong for us.

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