Why is environmental protection so important? If you are asking yourself this question right now, then you are absolutely right here! We humans have maneuvered ourselves into a predicament and are struggling today with environmental problems, such as the Climate change or the Air pollution. Every day, through our personal behavior, we are either a causative part of these problems - but we can just as easily become a part of their solution.
Why should the environment be so important to all of us? Here I would like to introduce you to my personal reasons and motives to stand up for the protection of our planet through my daily actions.
- Save lives
- Create jobs
- Conserve resources
- Protect animals
- Improve coexistence
- Solve environmental problems
- Prevent natural disasters
- Be smart
- Have fun
- Be a role model
Why is environmental protection so important?
Unfortunately, our Western society lives in a fundamentally polluting way, i.e. at the expense of nature. We are the reason why environmental protection is necessary at all. Because no other living being on the planet interferes with nature as destructively as we humans do.
But fortunately, we are capable of learning - and can improve our daily actions. Just use the following reasons to make yourself aware of why environmental protection is so important. They will give you more motivation and energy.
1. environmental protection saves lives
World hunger, global warming, increasing natural disasters, polluted air, water and soil, pesticide use in the fields, Species extinction, crop failures - we must not believe that we, as the only living beings on a sick planet, remain healthy. In nature, everything is interrelated. This shows us not least the Corona pandemic from which we must learn.
Environmental protection is therefore so important because it creates rather than destroys livelihoods. It helps to ensure that vital natural resources are available to us in the long term.
Notice: By the way, the fact that we are losing potential herbal remedies due to the destruction of nature also underlines the importance of environmental protection. For example, through the Deforestation of the rainforests.
2. environmental protection creates new jobs
Environmental protection is often pushed into the background for economic reasons. Yet it is already an essential part of our economy and, quite incidentally, ensures that it also does well in the long term. Around 2.8 million people in Germany already work in environmental protection. With 6.4 percent of the total workforce, this sector is a major factor in our labor market.₁
And the opportunities for employees and the self-employed continue to grow; after all, you can't build a sustainable economy on the crumbling pillars of environmentally damaging activity. I am a good example of this myself, as I can now devote myself to my environmental protection project CareElite on a full-time basis every day.
Why protect the environment? Because it is the future - and can be the only future.
A component of this project is also the sustainable job portal - be sure to check it out if you're looking for a career change. There you'll find environmentally friendly jobs with real added value for you, nature and our society. From eco-farmer to marketing manager for an animal welfare organization to wind turbine engineer, you'll find it all.
3. environmental protection conserves (limited) natural resources
The Earth Overload Day is steadily moving a little closer to the beginning of the year. It is the day in the year on which we humans have consumed more renewable resources than the earth can reproduce in the entire year. For us Germans, it already fell on May 3 in 2019. If all people in the world were so wasteful with natural resources, we would need 3 earths.₂ For example, we waste resources by consuming a lot of meat. To produce one kilogram of beef, more than 15,000 liters of water are needed for watering, cleaning stables and growing feed. In addition, up to 25 kilograms of grain are used.₃
And to produce one animal calorie, seven plant calories are needed.₄ So if we simply ate the plants ourselves, no one in the world would have to go hungry anymore, for example - despite increasing world population.
Use the following articles to learn more about the reasons why plant-based diets are so important for environmental protection:
4. environmental protection means animal welfare
Cheap meat in the supermarket is only so cheap because someone else pays the price for us. In this example, besides the environment and other people, it is the animals that suffer most from our everyday behavior. For one thing, because we lock cows, pigs and dozens of other farm animals in dark, cramped cagesWe fatten them up, impregnate and exploit them, separate them from their children and stuff them full of antibiotics so that they survive these ordeals at all. The Factory farming for our gustatory pleasure is a cruel habit that future generations will look upon with disgust. It is certainly one of the Things that are actually absolutely out of date nowadays.
On the other hand, however, also by giving wild animals their Take habitat. For example, by cutting down forest areas for arable land and pasture - or spraying insect-killing pesticides on our fields. Yet we depend on insects. Around a third of our food would not even exist without the bee, which pollinates plants and makes them grow.₅
Environmental protection is also important because it protects animals and ultimately ourselves. Use the following articles to learn more:
- The best animal welfare organizations
- Animal welfare in everyday life
- Dominon film
- Documentaries about factory farming
- Do animals have emotions and feelings?
5. environmental protection creates positive change
Environmental protection means consideration for other living beings. Not only for animals and plants, but also for other people. By paying attention, discussing, learning from and listening to each other, we improve our life together a little more every day.
World hunger, Cruelty to animals or Water shortage would no longer need to exist today if everyone acted responsibly. But fortunately, our society is constantly changing for the better, even if it may not seem that way when we open the newspaper.
Tip: To get a clearer view of the positive changes in the world, I can give you the Book Factfufulness highly recommend!
6. environmental protection against the environmental problems of our time
Positive change naturally also relates to the biggest environmental problems of our timewhich we humans have caused ourselves. A few examples? No problem. We discharge wastewater from factories into the rivers whose water we need to irrigate fields and drink. And to produce one liter of cow's milk, we simultaneously produce 3 liters of antibiotic- and manure containing nitrates₆ with which we overfertilize our fields.
Whether in the fight against Soil erosion, the water shortage, the Plastic waste in the environment or climate change - environmental protection is therefore also so important because we ourselves are sawing away at the branch on which we are actually so happy to sit.
7. environmental protection in the fight against natural disasters
Storms, droughts or floods are steadily increasing. Globally, the number of climate-related natural disasters has tripled since 1980.₇ They destroy entire livelihoods and, not least, jeopardize our lasting food security.
So environmental protection is also so important to protect people and to have food available in the long term. The more we place ourselves above nature, the more often natural disasters will hit us in the future. We must understand that we are only a part of nature - and not nature itself.
8. environmental protection is smart
"Environmental protection is not masculine" I once heard. So is it manly to destroy the environment? Of course it isn't. It's neither masculine nor feminine. Environmental protection is simply smart. Those who value nature show that they have understood its importance for our future and their own descendants. Respect for the environment also shows that you are a thoughtful and compassionate being with moral values.
9. environmental protection is really fun
"Too complicated" is also one of those clichés I hear all the time. Mostly from the people who believe you can only be one of the two: either "environmentally friendly" or "polluting. Thereby it is a constant development process with the most different levels of the environmentally conscious behavior.
Every rain begins with a drop. And once you have started and realize how easy it is to make a big impact for the preservation of our planet, the rain starts to fall. Environmental protection in everyday life to be really fun. Be it the Plastic waste prevention or the more frequent Cycling.
10. environmental protection as a role model for children & grandchildren
Why is environmental protection so important? If you are not yet convinced of the importance of protecting our nature, you should be after this reason at the latest. Environmental protection means taking responsibility. Responsibility for you - but of course also for your children and grandchildren, who may or must stay on this planet much longer than you. Whether this becomes pleasure or horror, you decide for yourself.
Be sure to check out my detailed post Environmental protection with children in which you learn how to promote the nature awareness of your offspring in a playful way.
Environmental protection is so important because we only have the one planet
Environmental protection means to protect our planet and to change our negative influence on it positively in the short and long term. If you want to make your everyday life more environmentally friendly in the future after all this - perhaps new - information, I can recommend the following further articles to you:
- The biggest environmental sins in everyday life
- Sustainable cooking - this is how it's done!
- Stop world hunger - tips for your everyday life
- Zero Waste for beginners
Do you have any questions about the article or can you think of other reasons for environmental protection? Personally, it was really good for me to once again become aware of my own motives for an environmentally friendly everyday life with this article.
Stay sustainable,
PS.: Also my Book Sustainable Living for Beginners should give you plenty of other tips for a more environmentally conscious everyday life. Enjoy reading!
References:
₁ Umweltbundesamt: Employment and Environmental Protection (as of Sep. 18, 2019), available at https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/daten/umwelt-wirtschaft/beschaeftigung-umweltschutz. [15.06.2020].
₂ Germanwatch e.V.: Earth Overload Day (as of July 22, 2019), available at https://www.germanwatch.org/de/overshoot. [07.05.2020].
₃ Federal Environment Agency (2017): Hidden water (as of 22.03.2017), available at https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/verstecktes-wasser. [07.05.2020].
₄ S. Weick; Brot für die Welt; Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V.. (2010): meat consumption (as of March 2010). https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/fileadmin/mediapool/2_ Downloads/NIFSA/NIFSA_Campaign_Sheet_Meat_Consumption.pdf. [07.05.2020].
₅ SCHWARTAUER WERKE GmbH & Co. KGaA: The influence of bees on our daily nutrition, available at http://www.bee-careful.com/de/initiative/der-einfluss-von-bienen-auf-unsere-taegliche-ernae. [07.05.2020].
₆ PETA Deutschland e.V.: (2018): Liquid manure pollutes drinking water and increases water costs (as of February 2018), available at https://www.peta.de/guelle. [07.05.2020].
₇ National Geographic: 7 facts about climate change. https://www.nationalgeographic.de/7-fakten-zum-klimawandel. [15.08.2020].
