Humanity V. Trash

There is no ignoring the climate change happening around us; the strength of hurricanes is picking up wind and are getting immensely stronger; entire coral reef ecosystems are withering away, and Earth is experiencing another mass extinction. The evidence is heavy and concrete, but the preventative measures taken by world superpowers to reduce this change are frail and ambiguous. It seems the focus of countries such as China is more on growing economic systems and not preserving the existing ecological systems. 

Image result for jiangcungou landfill
Jiangcungou Landfill; Source: ImagineChina/Rex/Shutterstock

China's Garbage Problem

In 2015, there were 723 deaths due to an avalanche that occurred in the southern city of Shenzen. This was no ordinary avalanche though, a landslide at a 160 meter tall garbage dump was the cause of all these deaths. Straight away one can see the unethical consequences of a country producing so much waste and improperly managing it. Lives were lost due to the the government ignoring the limitations of what the landfill can hold. The landfill crisis in China will only get worse, as recent reports show that China's largest landfill, Jiangcungou, is already full, 25 years ahead of schedule. Being that the landfill is the size of 100 football fields, one has to think about how much wildlife was displaced to build such an enormous landfill. Destroying whole ecosystems just to dump waste is unethical in the sense that genetic diversity is decreased and if the landfill fails and garbage leaks into the ground there could be toxic effects on the water surrounding the landfill. This endangers populations living near the landfill by exposing them to deadly chemicals. Furthermore, China's government has made no new commitments to battling climate change. There have been protests in China urging the Chinese government to change policies regarding ecological footprint, but the Chinese government didn't take any new action in the U.N. Summit. This is anti-utilitarian as most people in China would enjoy having cleaner air to breathe and less trash in their country. Trash doesn't just simply disappear and sweeping the problem under the landfill cover is not an effective solution.

To effectively battle climate change, we have to change the current climate seen in the U.N. Summit and ensure that every nation's leader is completely dedicated to providing a cleaner and less polluted Earth for future generations. 

References:

Comments

  1. Anna PetersonDecember 11, 2019 at 11:53 AM

    I love the detail here (also, great photo). What values are involved in this issue? What do people care about more than addressing climate change and other environmental problems?

    ReplyDelete

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