Rina Al Mughni_Mankind's Ecological Imprint



Source: Google images,, The concept of ecological footprint   

 

             Wendell Berry is an academic, cultural and economic critic. Hence, listening to Wendell Berry's speech about "Mankind   Ecological Imprint" cannot help but make us think about several aspects that are related to ecology. These aspects might not concern people nowadays. Therefore, Berry strengthens his speech by using words to draw peoples' attention to environment and more particularly to ecology. According to the biology book" Natural Science for Today", ecology means" the branch of biology that studies the relationship between organisms and their environment" (Henry, p.56). In my opinion, ecology also means a combination of various systems that when put together to form a single complex structure creates the world. These systems consist of biotic and a-biotic elements. Moving on, focusing on Berry's speech about ecological imprint, we can deduce that his concern about ecology and how people have been causing it nothing but harm. As a result, he provides ways to stop that harm.  

             Berry starts his speech by mentioning the word ecology and how people must cooperate to adapt their environment and save it for a better future. For example, Berry said that" local adaptation does not work for a few financiers, and a few intellectual and political hotshots. This is work for everyone, requiring everybody’s intelligence" (Berry, 2011). Therefore, in order for people to live in a healthy ecology, they must all cooperate and share their intelligence and efforts without any exception. Accordingly, Berry provides people with several important ways that awake them from this distortedness, and encourage them to look after their environment. One of these aspects is to avoid thinking and behaving as heroes because they often risk people's lives by acting unconsciously. For instance, heroes often act as if they are the only ones alive. This is because they just want to satisfy themselves no matt what the consequences are. Even if it means that this hero is hurting the abilities of others and peoples' lives. Berry does not provide any justifications for peoples' damages, since they have the ability to think and choose how to behave. People should be more aware about ecology. This can be done by understanding the relationship between the people and their environment. Thus, once they know their risky effects on ecology, this opportunity can be taken advantage of in order to work to protect the environment from serious damages. For example, if people became aware about damages being done by their daily activities such as industrial, economical and other environmental activities, they will take into consideration the damages as serious problems that have to eventually be solved. Indeed, people must be aware that" damages being done by industrialization cannot be corrected by more industrialization"; however, by working to diminish the use of industrialization (Berry, 2011). This can be done if people study their geographic area, their history and their ecology. Having known these three aspects, people will become aware about damages they cause to ecology by comparing the current geographic area with the historical previous one. Therefore, they will detect the amount of damage that they have been adding to their valuable environment.

              Being aware about ecology and how much we have been affecting it negatively will make us feel guilty. Thus we should start changing our behaviors and attitudes that harm our innocent environment. People will think about environmental recourse they need and use them wisely without any action that could affect ecology. Also, people will become more aware about the importance of adapting their local economies and making a positive use of its factors which are local nature, local sunlight and local work.

                 In my opinion, Berry's speech about mankind's ecological imprint is such an important one because it provides us with awareness about ecology, which has been affected by humans since the beginning of industrial innovation. His speech calls for peoples’ attention to several aspects that help to save the ecology and create a better future.
Work Sited                                                                 
       Henry, Criss. "Definition of biology." Natural Science for Today. 7th ed. New

     York: n.p., 2010. 56. Print.       

                                    Mankind's Ecological Imprint. Berry, Wendell. The Washington Post, 5 May 2011. Web. 12 May 2011