Saving the environment has become the top priority across the world. No country in the world disagrees with the fact that the Earth is at the brink of a climatic disaster, but the measures taken neither have legs nor the lengths to address the issue. This essay intends to look into why the measures have always fallen short of the mark, and suggest some solutions to mitigate the problem.
The first reason why global measures have failed is that the developed world is shying away from the burden it needs to bear for the damage it did to the environment in the colonial industrial revolution times. Hence we are stuck in a limbo of bipolar world of developing nations on one side and the developed on the ather. And the compromises reached between the two have always been far from satisfactory. If we need to see a real positive change, the developed world has to do more than the developing world, it cannot just say that everyone should play an equal role. It can do so by providing wealth and technology related to renewable sources of energy to the developing and the least developed countries.
The second major reason of not being able to do for the environment is that our governments are acting in the interests of powerful lobbies and corporations. For example, the fossil fuel industries are trillion dollar businesses. If clean energy succeeds, these giants would lose. The clout of these is so strong that instead of acting with ambition and urgency, the governments are making feeble efforts. The solution, for this would be to create awareness that fossil fuel industries have to step down to let the greener energies succeed.
Finally, development and environment are always seen at loggerheads with each other. Environment always ends up taking a back seat to development. Thus, looking at the two as separate entities has delayed and brought us to our current position. The answer to this is sustainable development, which is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the environment.
To sum up, it can be seen clearly, why the steps taken so far have failed to save the environment. However, the time has come to do some soul-searching and take pro-active steps for the environment.