Culture and the Environment

How many of us think about our effect on the environment?

I think about it every minute of the day, everything that I do from brushing my teeth to throwing away my trash affects the environment. We live in a culture where you have to consume to be an active member.

Well that means that our earth has to produce all the goods and services we wish to consume.

Over time our culture has turned wants into needs. Material objects represent class status and help us fit in. What we buy we do to satisfy society in many ways. Clothes we wear fit us into stereotypes. The technology we buy is often to keep up with new trends. How is our consumer culture affecting the environment?

Our activities from driving to the use of electricity, to our agricultural practices, to our waste management, are contributing to climate change by changing the earth's natural cycles and affecting the natural flow of water, weather patterns, natural resources, animals, and the atmosphere.. By changing these cycles the ecosystems can no longer sustain life effectively and are losing their resources that maintain life.

International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that

1 in 4 mammals are facing extinction, if the temperatures keep rising over 70 percent of the world's species will be threatened including humans.

During The UN Refugee Agency Climate Change Meeting it was stated “for the first time that climate change is projected to increase the displacement of people over the 21st Century, Climate change will force people into increasing poverty and displacement, exacerbating the factors that lead to conflict”

The UN Refugee Agency recognizes that by not addressing and fixing the effects of climate change we are infringing upon human rights. The UN is worried that the rights of the people being displaced will not be protected as we have seen in SYrian refugees. The refugees may face prejudice, poverty, homelessness, malnutrition, and fear. Many countries do not accept refugees or do not have the government infrastructure to do so. Areas without proper government are going to face a harsher strain on resources and increase in violence.

The UN refugee Agency is creating structures on how to integrate these new people into the places they will be forced to call home. These people will lose their culture, their cuisines, their land, possible their lives, and mainly their identity. Imagining being a doctor one day and the next you are fleeing your country and forced into poverty. Cultures will  have to accept each other, and as we have seen in early US migrations their will be racial, gender, and class issues.  The culture we live in has been built upon infrastructure that are leading causes to climate change. In a way our culture is directly responsible for the loss of other people's habitats.

Most species care about the survival of their own, for some reason our individualistic culture has distanced us from this instinct. We live in a culture where our wants are destroying our natural habitat. We all have to participate to make a change. By learning how to change the way we affect the environment we can begin to protect our species. It is hard to care or see the effects our culture has on the earth because we are so privileged and have so many luxuries. Human rights are being violated due to differences in culture, how we participate in the environment has great effects on the future and even the now of many humans and species. We are consciously able to make a choice to protect the earth and our species it is time our culture incorporates this as a core belief. The earth does not have the ability to limit what we use, but we as conscious humans have the ability to choose what we take.

Sources

Steffen, Alex. 2011. Worldchanging: A user’s Guide for the 21st Century.  New York: Abrams                                                            Publishing.

Marine Frank. The UN Refugee Agency. 2014. “Second Preparatory Meeting of the 22nd     OSCE.Session II : Cross dimensional Impacts of Natural and Manmade Disasters   Population movements in the context of natural disasters”. UNHCR Headquarters. Division for International Protection.

The UN Refugee Agency. “SIDE EVENT UNFCCC WEDNESDAY 3 JUNE, BONN CLIMATE DISPLACEMENT AND THE PARIS AGREEMENT”.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2013. “Session 2: International Cooperation and Respect for Human Rights Seminar to Address the Adverse Impacts of Climate Change on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights”. Division of International Protection. UNHCR Headquarters.

How Restaurants can Reduce

I am a server and a bartender at a restaurant. The amount of waste I encounter each day is awful. There is usually no recycling bins located at these establishments. It is very hard to be environmentally conscience and work in a restaurant. I give people about 75 plastic straws a day, wash about 200 plus dishes, and throw away countless glass and aluminum bottles. As well as materials that are used to put the food and beverage in restaurants throw away a ton of food!
America Definitely has people who are starving. Many people have little to know access of fresh fruit and vegetables let alone a steady supply of food to fulfill their nourishment. It would be nice to imagine a future where the waste from restaurants was turned into something useful. Possibly their food can be turned into compost for local farms and gardens that could supply the restaurant. A program could be set up so that glass bottles could be returned and reused to save on cost and waste. Even the ability to distribute food to those in need is a possibility. Rethinking how we use waste is just one way we can make a difference. Lets look at some ways restaurants are or can begin to do this.
Food for fuel. Much of the food waste ends up in the landfill and that is causing a large release of methane gas into the air. Just another way humans are contributing to the disruption of natural cycles. According to an article by Elizabeth Daigneau titled "Turning Americas' Bad Food-Waste Habit Into Renewable Energy" she states that most Americans do not care how their food is effecting the environment. Well some cities have decided to make it seem more interesting by adding economic incentives. By researching ways food can become a renewable resource these cities are pairing the economic interests with environmental. Organic waste can essentially be turned into bio-gas which can be used to operate city transportation fleets and eventually power homes and businesses. Not only would this save on money for power but it would eliminate the amount of waste and trips that make their way to the land fill. "San Jose, Calif., as an example of an effective bio-gas project. The city collects food waste from restaurants and commercial businesses, processes it in 16 anaerobic digesters until methane is produced and then, in turn, uses it to power the facility and create fuel for city vehicles" (Daigneau).
Compost. Fresh fruit and veggies are cut up daily in many establishments. Their scraps are thrown straight into the trash. Recycled city is a local business that pairs with Bukashi Bucket a self composting bucket and local businesses to help create compost and distribute it to urban farms. This means that everything is staying local as well as reducing waste. This company is making aclose loop when it comes to waste. The farms that provide us with food will then get that food back from the businesses they sell to in the form of compost. Here is a video from the founder of the company Recycled City. Basically they are taking the foot work out by distributing it to local urban farms.

Food waste is a large issue of the United States and restaurants are a growing industry. There is a need for solutions to eliminate food waste. Hunger is a worldwide epidemic, while we throw away tons of food others are starving. While we get the freshest produce others are forced to have poor quality food.  Many countries are jumping on board the elimination of wasting food. France has made it illegal to throw out food waste and is donating it to those in need (White). It helps with reduced waste and reduced hunger. The idea of equal distribution keeps coming up in my blogs. It is the most important aspect of  improvement of society. While many live in excess some live in poverty. Lets work together to help the environment and each other.
Sources:
Daigneau, Elizabeth. "Turning Americas' Bad Food-Waste Habit Into Renewable Energy". Governing the State and Localities; Infrastructure.March 2016 . Web. 4 March 2016. http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-food-renewable-energy.html
Recycled City. Composting Made Easy. 2013. Website. 3 March 2016. http://www.recycledcity.com/
White, Daniel. "French Parliament Unanimously Approves to cut Food Waste". Time; World. 11 December 2015. Web. 3 March 2016. http://time.com/4146012/france-food-waste-law/