Asma Hinawi_ Human's Ecological footprint

How Can I save my Earth?

·         Summary for Wendell Berry's speech

According to Washington post national, a speech made by Wendell Berry “mankind’s ecological imprint”. Berry discussed in his speech about human footprint on earth and environment. Also, he stated that the effect of industrialization on not just the environment but also the ecology. 

Berry gave seven steps that people all over the world must follow; in order to, clean their foot prints up of the environment. These steps will help people on earth to fix the damages that been made by the industrialization. Berry in his speech was calling people to wake up and observe the effect of their squander of the environmental resources, and the result of their extreme usage of nature. Moreover, these seven steps that Berry confirmed in his speech are consider as a guide and start to clean the world from the remnants of industrialization.

·         Wendell Berry’s Agenda:

   First, we must not work or think on a heroic scale. In our age of global industrialism, heroes too lightly risk the lives of people, places and things they do not see. We must work on a scale proper to our limited abilities. We must not break things we cannot fix. There is no justification, ever, for permanent ecological damage. If this imposes the verdict of guilt upon us all, so be it.

Second, we must abandon the homeopathic delusion that the damages done by industrialization can be corrected by more industrialization. we must quit solving our problems by “moving on.” We must try to stay put and to learn where we are geographically, historically and ecologically. Fourth, we must learn, if we can, the sources and costs of our own economic lives.

   Fifth, we must give up the notion that we are too good to do our own work and clean up our own messes. It is not acceptable for this work to be done for us by wage slavery or by enslaving nature.

 Sixth, by way of correction, we must make local, locally adapted economies, based on local nature, local sunlight, local intelligence and local work.

  Seventh, we must understand that these measures are radical. They go to the root of our problem. They cannot be performed for us by any expert, political leader or corporation.

       My critique:

The ecological foot print is a measure of human demand on earth. Moreover, it is a standard measurement of a unit’s influence on its habitat based on consumption and pollution.Wendell Berry explained the slow crisis that is increasing each day. Based on people aggressive reaction toward natural resources, nature started to shrink and disappear while industrialization is taking its space. The first step on Berry agenda was “we must not think on a heroic scale” (mankind’s). If each person stared to improve their habits that might pollute the earth like smoking, and be responsible for his\her own mess our world will be cleaner. For example, people cannot just blame industry for producing unrecyclable plastic bag; in the other hand, they should blame themselves for buying the unrecyclable plastic bag. In his third point Berry stated, “solving our problems by “moving on.” We must try to stay put and to learn where we are geographically, historically and ecologically”. What Berry was referring to in the previous step is to start working on the solutions we put for the foot print problem instated of keeping these solutions on the paper, and that when he said “Moving on” (mankind’s). Moreover, Berry mentioned that “we must learn the cost of our own economic live”. People must not massively use the source, or use harmful component that pollute the environment. For example, “carbon emissions and rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere unless major changes are made in the way we produce and use energy” (Brown). As a result, “Many scientists agree that a doubling of atmospheric [CO.sub.2]*

 concentrations could have a variety of serious environmental consequences, including rising sea levels, more-turbulent weather, and an increased incidence of drought” (Brown). 

Berry confirming that people should use the amount they need from these harmful chemical components because the extraordinary usage of these components can result huge and serious polluting issues.

 Berry affirmed that people should start to think locally as he said “locally adapted economies, based on local nature, local sunlight, local intelligence and local work”. Locally adapted economic will help each nation and country to focus on what they have from natural resources and invest them, so each country will be able to be self-sufficient. In sequence, countries will no more need to import and export. As a result, people will not waste energy and fuel resources to ship goods from country to county. Moreover, people will not waste fuel resources for transportation. In addition, the risk of transportation means accident will decrease, so the pollution that arises from transportation accident will decrease as well.