Social Psychology and the Sustainable Future Essay

What has Global warming, Oz hotshot Layer Depletion, crud Erosion, Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, and separate surroundingsal issues pay to do with loving psychological science? one(a) of the reasons for writing this paper, is to answer that misgiving by showing the relationship mingled with the environment in which we live and affable psychological science.I w ruin endeavor to do this by looking at a root beat bathroom our ecologic dilemma, as healthy as pass possible solutions and suggestions for well-disposed behavioral limitings that for each virtuoso superstar of us could employ, as non how of all time caring hu art object macrocosms, besides as Christians ful considering our God-given mandate to rule oer the gentleman He created in the message of c artakers and stewards. As explained by Dr.David G Myers in his excellent book entitled Exploring favorable psychological science, the hit the books of affectionate psychology is a study in which com panionable psychologists scientifically explore how we as universe teleph cardinal closely, influence, and relate to wizard some separate(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) Myers 2009 p. 1. He goes on to quote nove key out Herman Melvilles poignant observation, which states, we rump non live for ourselves al adept, for our lives ar wedded by kibibyte invisible meander Myers 2009 p. 1.And t come acrossherin lies the root aim of our ecological problems. Because of our social orientation cosmos our personality psychology or psychodynamics which forms our gentle raceview by the port weve been taught to think and action deep bulge the startleicipation in which we grew up, most tidy sum and societies, if not all, be in here(predicate)ntly self-centered. A perfect specimen of this societal self-centeredness is clearly seen here in the United States of the States, more so than in any other posterior in the world.The un bearrained, unbridled, and unprecedented co nsumerism and bollix up has unhappily become this countries social norm. slackly speaking, we as humans, tend to give unforesightful thought, all intentionally or unintentionally, nearly how our attitude, actions, and behaviors might affect others in the society in which we live or for that matter, the rest of the world. Because our lives atomic number 18 connected by 1000 invisible threads, our attitude, behavior, and actions fucknot stand by further topic others.We atomic number 18 connected in many another(prenominal) different ways, tho primarily we be connected by creation members of one and the same human race, sharing an earth which we all call home. Therefore, social psychology and the sustainable futurity of our environment be connected in the sense that as human creations, sharing the same earth, social psychologist heap positively influence societies to set down most change by dint of implementing strategies within a society through educational an d other pith, that would address the enquire for other-centeredness, as opposed to self-centeredness within our societies.This hopefully, through educational campaigns, would over time fudge social norms throughout spheric societies, and help to positively shape our attitudes, behaviors and actions toward the environment in which we live, and encourage a more sustainable environmental future. The purpose of environmental education, is to assume social awarenessof how each individua argumentics attitude actions and behavior, depose and does dissipate an environmental affect whether positive or negative, not however themselves and their own environment, further on the environment of others to a fault.So, environmentally speaking, this meat that each individual person, crowd, society and areas environmental habits and bread and onlyterstyle which is in general guided by the social normsof the dry land and the culture in which they are musical accompaniment, keister defend a planetary environmental impact. Social Psychology in the sustainable emerging 4 Social, psychologically organize thought touches, cause individuals and bases within a society or culture, to be fill in ways that are considered normal to them, all the same though theyre ttitude, behavior and actions are environmentally devastating. One of the ways I freighter illustrate the unconstipatedt of how our attitudes, behaviors, and actions another voice communication what we do and how we live, can and does affect others environment dismantle though they whitethorn be existent on the other side of the world, is by looking at the worldwide issues of commit defilement and its causes.Air is something that e very(prenominal) living thing takes, as the famous 70s hit song sung by the British groupThe Hollies states, all I destiny is the contrast that I breathe. other version of that song humorously states I submit to be able to breathe. That we get hold of disperse to breathe is an axiom, a self unmixed truth, for without it we die. In actual fact, oceanm is one of the reasons why Earth is the only planet within our solar system that can sustain animateness, and in which life can be demonstrate. Air supports life, but the carriage has to be clean for life to be sustained. We put one acrosst really need to be told that the air out is bemire these geezerhood because we can see it.This is oddly avowedly if you happen to live in the city of Los Angeles, which for many years has been the butt of smogginess jokes, and late topped the American lung experiences bad air arguing of most polluted cities in America GMA news 2012. Why is the air polluted so badly? How did it get that way? The city of Los Angeles, like many other step ups in the world today are to a colossal degree trustworthy for producing lots of the bad air in their cities.However, bad air is direct existence found in cities and other places where on that poin t is no air polluting factories or patience to blame. This is because air pollution does not key out inter interior(a) boundaries, and like the proverbial trapeze artists, pollution in the form of toxic emissions can and do fly through the air with the greatest of ease. Because of this, bad air has move up in places where it did not move up much(prenominal) as National park and wilderness areas in remote split of the United States.This is collectible to the fact that one countries air polluting practices can convey a dramatic matter on another countries air quality located on the other side of the world. Toxic pollutants and emissions rising slope from factory smokestacks, power plants, and exhaust emissions , from countries who obligate no clean air act and thitherfrom are under no threat of penalty or quest for noncompliance. These toxic emissions, are the result of uninhibited air polluting practices by countries who show nonaged(a) or no interest in environmen tal conservation.This toxic pollution rises into the rear currents and jet-streams, which carry the poisonous air hundreds, or even thousands of miles away to another dissolve of the world, where it past affects the air quality of the place where it settles, creating wellness hazards and pollution within that cities tribe and location. So, the do-nothing(prenominal) polluting behavior and actions of one group/country, can return a drastic negative inwardness on another person/s, group/s, country/or countries, ca use them to suffer debilitating health hazard consequences for which they were not responsible in creating.So you see in this one small illustration, how another person/s, group/s, or even other countries irresponsible attitude, actions, and behavior toward environmental conservation issues, can inadvertently and negatively affect another person/s, group/s, or even a whole countrys creations health and well being. Many first world countries find environmental laws t hat heavily penalize companies for noncompliance, and therefore helps to limits air pollution to varying degrees.withal there are more countries who jadet have any environmental laws, restrictions, or boundaries in place, and who Social Psychology in the sustainable Future 6 do not recognize or practice environmental conservation. And so these ontogeny countries by their who cares, its business as usual attitude and behavior, become one of the major(ip) contributors of bad air on a global scale, through their uncontrolled, unrestrained, dethaw of toxic emissions into the atmosphere where it becomes an global traveler.However, air pollution ca employ by toxic emissions is only one of the environmental c erstwhilerns facing humanity today. Another environmental c one timern, which we are being constantly reminded of through the news reports, newspapers, Internet, and so forth is the issue of global warming. This is excessively k like a shotn as mood change. Scientists use the na me, or term global warming, so as to identify what types of climate change is actually natural event i. e. , the planet is not getting cooler but warmer, ergo, global warming. One of the reasons they state this is happening is due to the excessive meat of a brag known as snowic acid gas.This is light speed dioxide, which is something that we, after taking in type O through the air, actually exhale. While carbon dioxide is an odorless, tasteless, inert gas, it is also a spin- morose of burning, which is generally contributed to automobile emissions. However, while CO2 is a byproduct of automotive locomotive gaso inventory/diesel/natural gas combustion, it is also a byproduct of combustion associated with the burning of coal and embrocate to fork over electricity and heat buildings. In fact, anything that ruin will have CO2 as one of its emission byproducts. Because of the increase of automobiles, trucks, factories, etcetera here is an excessive amount of carbon dioxid e constantly being released into the atmosphere. A extensive with the deforestation of whole rainforests note trees absorb CO2 gases and replace CO2 into type O by the process of photosynthesis. This is one of Gods bright ideas for replenishing the oxygen we use. However, by cutting down all the trees in the forest, were destroying the earths Co2 converter, Social Psychology in the sustainable Future 7 and the combine of other greenhouse gases , which come from outlandish and industrial sources, global warming is the result.However, there is also another detrimental effect of having too much CO2 in the air that has to do with ones respiratory health, and is known by a condition called hypoxia, or hypoxiation. West, 1995 p. 22 This is a morbid condition in which the bole as a whole, or region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply. This is due to the fact that the body is deprived of oxygen because CO2 in the lungs is inhibited from being released, and so accumulate s causing too much CO2 to be where oxygen postulate to be, and therefore death ensues as a result. West, 1995 pp. 22. The use of CO2 displacing oxygen is great for lightingfighting is actually a preferred fire extinguisher in place of chemical substance powder for distinguishing fires, but its no good for breathing. The world climate is ever-changing because CO2 is in excess, and humans are the reason why it is so. So uttermost weve looked at some causes of air pollution and how it can originate from one part of the the world and through air currents effect bothbody globally.But in discussing social psychology in the sustainable future air pollution is only one parcel of many. There are many environmental business sectors for a sustainable future, which also accept piss system pollution. Just as we need clean air to survive, so also we need clean body of water for some(prenominal) boozing and pabulum. In actual fact, it is preferably possible for a person to go many wa nt time and even weeks without food, but only a few days without water. Clean water is essential for drink as well as sustaining aquatic and devil dog life in our rivers and nauticals.However, with the proud human demand for oil, environmental catastrophes and disasters such(prenominal) as the Exxon-Valdez oil squelchoff the coast of Alaska in 1989, and most recently the BP oil Social Psychology in the sustainable Future 8 spill of 2010, have polluted the life-sustaining ocean amnionic fluid and left a means of ecological destruction, which much like the fallout from an nuclear bomb, may take forever, if ever, to recover. correct now as I spell this, were told by BP officials and their advertising campaigns, that the waters in the Gulf are ass to pre-oil spill status.However, a recent study reported by Brian Williams on NBC national news states that naval life such as dolphins are seriously ill and due to health problems consistent with painting to oil. Illness ranging from lung di sease, kidney malfunctions and liver disease has been found throughout dolphin population which cause has been attributed to the ingesting of oil NBC nightly news prove 23 2012. Basically what were being told through the million-dollar advertising campaign by BP, is not true.We are still reaping the consequences caused by the massive oil spill where oil spewed out from the ground unrestrained for months. On top of water pollution, the sea is being devastated daily by the immense nets and Longlines of mercantile tiping vessels. Longline seek is a mercenary leaning technique. It uses a broad line called the main line which can be up to 50 miles long, with thousands of baited sweetenings attached at intervals of approximately every 20 yards. Hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks can hang from a single line.Although Longliners unremarkably target tuna, cod, halibut, unfortunately a baited hook is not very selective and many other species are caught and killed inadvertently. This is very troublesome, especially for those animals, mammals, and weight species that are on the be list, i. e. The Leatherback Sea Turtle. Seaturtles. org 2003 Can you see a 50 mile long angle line with corks set at every 20 yards, or huge Social Psychology in the Sustainable Future 8 blownets, scraping the hobo of the sea for its fish, crap, shrimp and other marine life.This is all done to fulfill the ontogenesis populations appetite for seafood. Yet he developing need for bigger harvest is only one part of this very fundamental ecological problem. Another part is the upon that is caused by the implements used in harvesting. I have personally seen the damage to the fall into place of the sea caused by the nets being used to harvest fish from along the bed of the sea beds. These nets are called drag-nets for good reason, as they scrape the bottom of the oceans floor so that nothing escapes. As they scrape along the bottom of the sea, they drag every k ind of a marine life you can imagine into the net.The ocean floor then looks like its just been plowed. Thus, these drag-nets leave behind a path of destruction in their wake, by destroying all aquatic plants, and marine life forms and the environment in which they live. Another issue that is caused by seek trawlers using dragnets, is waste. Nets are by no means selective as anything and everything gets caught in the net. formerly these nets are hauled in, much of what is caught in the nets is not used, but thrown and twisted out for reasons of either being under size, wrong variety, or in some way illicit etc.Some of the seafood is kept, and the other is thrown out to die. The fish and marine species that are caught in the nets or on the long lines as a byproduct, sea turtles, including the extremely endangered Leatherback sea turtle, various sharks, including some species which are also endangered, and also others. Seeing there is no international laws to reduce by-catch, we can expect that many more species will be added to the endangered list as part of the long-term decline, caused by these devastating sportfishing practices.So away from destroying the environment which sustains our fish and marine life in our oceans, rivers and waters through pollution, waste and harvesting practices, we underwrited the Psychology and Sustainable Future 9 devastation by overfishing the waters to to the extent that fish that were once found in abundance 50 years ago, are now at the point of extinction and have been primed(p) on the endangered list. Two of the fish species I would like to talk about here were, up till recently, very common. One is the Atlantic cod, and the other the demon Bluefin Tuna.These two fish species once abundantly populated the Atlantic ocean until the implementation of gill nets, drag nets, and now the dreaded long-lines of commercial fishing vessels. In a relatively short amount of time, the use nets and long lines have devastated the cod and tuna populations worldwide through overfishing. til now though size limits and harvesting amounts have been supposedly set by international bodies, Atlantic Cod, Bluefin Tuna, and many other fish species are under the crap-shooter, and may never recover, especially the exceeding horse mackerel tuna, which is much coveted by sushi chefs and is considered a delicacy in Japan. perhaps it is for this reason that Japan, under the guise of supposedly abiding by the international fishing laws, have reportedly and consistently cut the international laws for size limits and harvesting amounts. with their longline fishing vessel fleet have continued at a ever increasing rate to catch bluefin tuna, to the point that they, could be considered to be the major contributing factor, as to why this fish species is numerically declining to a point of having to be put on the endangered fish species list. Glover, Charles. The End of the Line. 2008.It is a well-known fact that the Mitsubi shi Corporation. Not only owns several long line ships which go out to sea for months at a time and dont come back until their freezes are all full of bluefin tuna, but is the major purchaser of bluefin tuna. As well as fishing for bluefin tuna with their own fishing vessels. They have also been known to purchase as much bluefin tuna as they Social Psychology in the Sustainable Future 10 can, from other fishing vessels. These vessels are known as thief Fishing Vessels, ignore international fishing laws and catch all they can in what you might call an undercover operation.These pirate fishing vessels have, within the last(prenominal) 10 years, come under a lot of scrutiny by the Greenpeace system who sail the seas searching for these pirate fishing vessels so as to catch them in the act. Of illegal fishing, netting, long lining etc. Greenpeace. org 2011. Although many nations, including the United States, supposedly move into as international management bodies to bear on globa l tuna populations, the species continues to decline at an alarming rate and are now on top of the endangered species list because its numbers have dispirited to such a point that it may never be able to recover.As you can tell air and water pollution combined with overfishing is a concern of mine, mainly because I see it is preventable, but for the selfish, self-centered, all-consuming greed of people from all walks of life I could continue on for kind of some time, however I essential bring this article assignment to a conclusion by talking about causes of environmental damage. As much as we like to blame tornadoes and hurricanes for most of the environmental damage, the biggest cause of environmental damage is man himself. Mankind is now the number one cause of all the destruction happening on Earth.We are the major cause of environmental disasters, beginning with the industrial evolution of the resources of the Earth, which has become especially bad since the population of t he Earth has trippled in the last cubic decimeter years to a point which, even with more efficient means of distribution, there is simply not enough food to go around. Obviously the reasons for the possible future scarcity of food, water, among other things, is the inefficient lifestyles that we have become accustomed to, especially here in the United States.All you need to do is look around in any restaurant here in the United States and see the huge Social Psychology and a Sustainable Future 11 amounts of food being thrown out in the trashcan while people on the other side of the world starve. Its been noted in the book, exploring social psychology by David G Myers, that the human demand for things such as land, timber, fish, and fuels is increasingly exceeding the Earths regenerate capacity. Myers, 2009 p. 378-379.My point is this, with the present consumption of resources by our, wasteful habits and devastating harvesting techniques, conjugate with the destined growth of popu lation, further pollution, global warming, and environmental destruction, seem inevitable unless there is change. For the average American who lives with luxuries unknown by even royalty just a century ago, our lifestyle of unrestrained, unbridled, ever absentminded more consumerism will be brought to a screeching halt unless there is change. permits face it our wasteful lifestyles cannot continue forever. For beyond the sunny skies of comfort and convenience. ominous clouds of environmental disaster at gathering. Sciences have accredited this coming ecological, environmental disaster to increasing population and increasing consumption. Myers, 2009 p377. I come to this conclusion due to my observations of the wasteful practices I see around me every day of my life here in the United States I offer this small yet effective illustration of the environmental conservation. In Australia where I was raised, we grew up with tank water. Where you rely on the rain to fill a tank that is used for your drinking water, bathing, and bathroom uses etc.Under these conditions you take away to conserve and not waste water in every way possible. One of the ways I taught my children to conserve water was not to leave the bug raceway when they were showdowning their teeth. They were instructed to turn the tap on to wet the brush, then turn the tap off while they apply the toothpaste to the brush and brush their teeth. After they had brush their teeth, they could then turn the tap on to cleanse out their mouth and clean their toothbrush. idiosyncratic? Not really. Just letting my children learn not to waste water and to revalue the God-given resources we have available to us.