The Cultural Basis of Our Environmental Crisis

In his article, Moncreif states that as human beings “the desire for a better life is universal; that is, the desire for higher status position and the achievement of culturally defined desirable goals is common to all societies.” He continues later with “there appears to be an almost universal tendency to maximize self-interests.” I think that this is one of the major, if not the most important, underlying reason to why we are in the environmental crisis that we find ourselves in today. It is the fact that as humans we essentially look out for our best interests. Whether some would like to admit that, it’s generally true. Sure, some people care more about others than themselves, but if a situation arose that would benefit them in some way, I wouldn’t doubt that they would take advantage of that. I think that is exactly what we do with our environment. We don’t care enough to actually do anything about it because we are all getting away with it and it is benefiting some people, either monetarily, or saving time, or what have you. The air pollution dumped out by chemical plants needs to be disposed of somehow and it’s easy for them to just open up their vents and let it out. Companies that dump waste, probably more than they are legally supposed to, into the seas and rivers don’t really care about what that’s doing to the animals or to our future generations; they need to dump it somewhere. Basically, my point is that there is no way religion is the cause of the crisis on our hands as White declared, in that respect I fully agree with Moncrief. When it comes right down to it, if you see someone throw their McDonald’s bag out of their car window, are you going to turn around and pick it up and take it to a trash can? No, you’ll shake your head and keep driving simply because it’s easier for you. As humans we will always want to be wealthier or prettier or happier, and sadly many people accomplish that, or at least try to, by exploiting our environment. They do it without caring because the Earth God isn’t going to come down and strike them with a bolt of lightning for doing so. Whether it’s wrong, that doesn’t matter. It happens, and I agree that it is one of the reasons our environment is in such bad shape.