Shift the focus from the environment to wars – Northern Star

Environmental awareness has increased over the past decade. Most people have noticed this, whether they are a media expert or just someone who watches the evening news every few days. However, not enough attention is paid to a devastating planet destroyer called war.

It’s fair to say that taking a stand against climate change has become “in” and something associated with Gen Z activism and liberalism, especially with the popularity of young activists like Greta Thunberg and statements like “save the turtles ” on TikTok. At a fundamental level, people accept the value of environmentalism and understand the importance of sustainability in various aspects of life.

Support for environmentalism is spreading with the rise of plant-based foods and vegetarian or vegan lifestyles.

The US Department of Agriculturee About 6% of Americans prefer a vegetarian diet, while another 3% call themselves vegan.

On a larger scale, social pressure needs to be put on companies to reduce their carbon footprint.

Unfortunately, the complex topic of sustainability is often used as a buzzword by brands as a greenwashing marketing strategy.

This often leads to excessive consumerism, such as buying electric cars $250 recycled shoes hoping to have a positive impact on the planet.

Individual choices such as eating Beyond Meat and using environmentally friendly products can reduce individual carbon footprints and waste. However, all these products and apparent solutions to the climate crisis are not an effective solution to what we are facing. It is also ineffective to rely purely on the choices of ordinary people to ‘save the planet’.

Sufficient solutions can be achieved through awareness, collective action, policy changes and corporate responsibility, along with individual efforts.

People have yet to pay a fair amount of awareness to a major contribution to climate change and pollution. This culprit is war.

In addition to being torturous and devastating to human lives, cultures and future generations, the wars in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan and other locations are causing a terrible amount of destruction to the planet we all share.

Much of the severe air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are the result of the intense wars currently taking place.

“The total amount of emissions after 18 months of war is estimated at 150 million tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide), which is more than the annual emissions of a highly developed country like Belgium.” said Viktoria Kireeva, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, at the COP28 climate conference.

Comparable, Israel’s bombardment of Palestine has produced 281,000 tons of CO2 in the first two monthsaccording to researchers in the US and Great Britain. Additionally, with a loss of 70% of homes in Gazathe carbon The fossil fuel emissions and energy needed to rebuild societies in war-affected countries will be enormous.

An estimated 48.7 million tons of CO2 would be needed to return Ukraine to its former status EU4Climate.

Mary Cozad is a climate activist, member of the DeKalb County Council and the Forest Preserve Committee, and a retired NIU Spanish professor. She believes that the effects of war ruin the environment before attacks occur.

“The production to produce weapons pollutes the environment,” Cozad said. “Many of them use coal and gas and materials that are bad for the environment; Even before a grenade hits anything, the force used to produce it has already made an impact.”

Cozad suggests that manufacturers should switch to environmentally friendly energy.

“Almost no one is in favor of war; we could put peer pressure on manufacturers to use solar or wind energy instead of gas for production,” Cozad said.

Pollution from chemical weapons and other war technologies persists in the environment and causes long-term toxicity in once fertile soils, a study published in ScienceDirect.

“Power stations and nuclear power stations have been destroyed by shells; it has polluted the entire environment for miles, not to mention the fire and carbon going into the air,” Cozad said.

This contamination will obviously harm citizens and their livelihoods. This is especially frightening for Ukrainians, who have the ninth largest grain producers in the worldand who have lost significant amounts of land on which to farm.

Several ecological issues are terrible side effects of wars, as people interested in climate activism understand.

Kay Harned, a former NIU researcher and member of 350 Kishwaukee, believes people are afraid to face the reality of their situation.

“In general, we are so sheltered from everything that happens during the war that it is difficult to get a groundswell (of public support), but there are so many groups here that are affected by the war,” Harned said.

Harned believes that people in the U.S. are hesitant to put themselves in the shoes of others to address foreign issues and connect them to the issues people face every day.

“Personality politics, everyone’s turning their heads,” Harned said. “In my mind, people are afraid of what’s going to happen, so they prefer not to talk about it, and war is even worse than the focus of climate, so it’s easier not to talk about it, because we don’t have to deal with it. ”

The focus of environmental activism should shift from consumerism to concerted policy change, holding politicians to their promises and positions, and ending climate change by solving the destruction that is coming our way.

We must recognize wars as massive polluters that will impact people inside and outside the conflict country for generations.

We must prioritize raising awareness and advocating for solutions, rather than pressuring consumers to succumb to greenwashing. Recycling and personal footprints are important to consider and practice, but this is just a drop in the bucket when intense wars are happening at the same time.

By addressing the environmental impacts of war among other climate-related issues, we can work toward a more sustainable and just future for all.