By: Jemimah Chungu
Every human being’s lifestyle should be guided by good morals otherwise, will be considered ill. Morals are behaviours, principles, standards, consciousness or ethical judgment of enacting right behaviour as opposed to wrong. Morals on the environment are virtues because the environment is our home, the environment is us. The environment starts from who we are till we include the entire planet earth; your body is your environment, your house is your environment, your community is your environment, your country, your continent and the planet are your environment. This alludes that everything in the environment is to be cared for and prevented from degradation (environmental damage), otherwise where will people go if the environment is completely damaged?
Some of the most frightening environmental damages are disturbance of biodiversity; pollution, improper waste disposal and pouching. Water, land and air pollution cause a lot of human discomforts and illnesses, to ozone layer depletion and climate change as worst result. Wars and conflicts, sexism, poor governance, unhealthy lifestyles are other forms of environmental damages. There are so many others and they are interrelated. To take care of the environment means every step of one’s lifestyle should be accorded by good morals and changing attitudes towards the environment.
Physical environment
Love for nature is an environmental moral. This compels people to develop a proper approach when treating the environment and consumption habits. A love for nature reduces deforestation. Since it is inevitable to consume (use) trees, plant two trees or more to replace one. Additionally, it is not every bush that has to be cleared. For every piece of land, there is need to analyse if the benefits of the purpose of clearing are worth more than loosing biodiversity, save biodiversity.
Love for nature also compels people to curb the habit of killing animals or fauna generally. This alludes eradicating illegal pouching, fishing and bad fishing methods, pollution and others. There are other means of human survival that are legal and environmentally friendly.
Using organic (natural) products; food, cleaning and dermal products and others and making it a norm is one way to go about environmental protection against degradation. Organic products are harmless to the environment, from production to consumption.
Organic products are grown without using artificial fertilizers but natural fertilizers like poultry manure, and so they do not cause pollution especially land and water pollution through runoffs from chemicals found in artificial fertilizers. This also reduces monetary spending as natural/ organic fertilizers are more economical than artificial fertilizers.
Organic food and other products are not genetically modified (GMOs) therefore, they reduce pollution by that, and are healthy to consume as they do not cause diseases to the human body as opposed to inorganic food. Ideally, food and other products should be as unprocessed as possible.
Environmentally friendly products are quite similar to organic products. They are usually made from organic products unlike inorganic and artificial products with chemicals. These products are processed and are likely to only give minimal damage or no damage at all to the environment. For example, soap from natural products like avocado or turmeric and decomposable shopping bag. It is moral to use environmentally friendly products.
It is moral to develop an attitude of not littering waste, no matter how big or small the litter is, or in a situation where no one is watching or even extreme situations of nowhere to dispose waste or other situations. It is immoral to environment to litter waste anyhow. Make use of bins and enhance environmental protection from visual, land and water pollution, as well as climate change and others.
Political environment
Good morals in the political environment are accompanied by good governance; corrupt free governance, free from violence and brutality, free from tribalism, free from sexism and anti-feminism, free from nepotism, free from Cardizem, free from selfishness, entailing everything done by political groups and associations as well as the involvement governance ought to be done with love the country/ environment.
Good governance involves sound decision making on issues of the environment, for example, recognizing importance of wildlife and stiffening punishment and security against pouching, fisheries and forestry reserves.
Another example is enforcing the rules and regulations of pollution such as permits of industrial firm to emit a certain level of pollution and penalties if otherwise. Minister of Barbra Creecy of South Africa welcomed declaration of the Ingula nature reserve as a wetland of international importance and on 4th may, 2021 and 2nd May 2021 released the report of the High-Level Panel that was appointed to review policies, regulatory measures, practices and policy positions that are related to hunting, trade, captive keeping, management and handling of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros (Department Of Forestry Fisheries and Environment of The Republic of South Africa). Others are ban on plastics to prevent plastic pollution in Zambia and Kenya.
Social environment
Environmental morals of the social environment are usually based on how people live their lives in order not to affect themselves as individuals, other people and the environment. Some of these morals are; pollution free habits in public by not; smoking, urinating, spitting, littering and others.
A noise pollution free environment is also moral so as not to disturb other people and wildlife quality.
Vehicles are a major source of air pollution therefore it is moral to sometimes take a walk or bike and reducing pollution. It could be a big difference if many adopted this moral of less reliance on vehicles, besides taking a walk and biking are healthy, they are body exercises.
Morals in the social environment include green habits in one’s lifestyle example; using organic and environmentally friendly products and generally green consumerisation to live healthy and prevent environmental damage. Working out is a moral lifestyle in order to live healthy. Moreover, it is moral to workout using power such as jogging instead of using a treadmill.
In the sense of saving power, switching off anything that uses power when not in use to save money and the environment. It is moral to the environment as some power sources can degrade environmental resources like hydro-electricity. Considering that, a lifestyle of power choice to environmentally friendly ones such as solar and wind energy is also moral.
It is moral to live a violence and conflict free lifestyle. This necessitates courtesy and accepting and respecting; religions, tribes, ethnic groups, sex, sexual orientation and others and promoting ‘Ubuntu’ (oneness).
Economic environment
Rising in the economic environment as an individual also benefits the community. It is morally right to develop economically and get innovative and productive instead of being a social charities seeker. It is even better to do so while being environmentally conscious. One can develop talents and execute environmentally friendly businesses and entrepreneurship while doing nothing unlawful, for instance trends; hair plaiting, tailoring, sculpture, art, horticulture, catering and others.
Environmentally sound economic growth can also come from total environmental protection morals like recycling. Recycling is ideal to reduce waste but it can also source income through scrap businesses, recycling used clothes, food (planting food waste), furniture, plastic materials and others.
An example is Nzambi Matee, an entrepreneur of Gjenje makers in Kenya that use plastic waste of commercial facilities to create beautifully designed bricks that can withstand twice the weight threshold of concrete.
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