Nowadays, environmental problems are serious enough to threaten not only biodiversity and ecosystem services, but the existence of human kind itself. In fact, problems such as climate change, energy and food crisis, water shortage, wastes, pollution ... etc exit in our thinking, behaviour and lifestyle. The solution of all these problems is in our minds.
We have to change the way we think. If we want to green our lives, we first have to green our minds. Frankly, many of the green solutions are obtainable. Some are even very cheap and available in traditional knowledge or from modern clean technology solutions.
In order to have a greener living, we have to understand how nature functions and how human beings can live in harmony with nature. For example, in nature, there is no such thing as “waste”. One organism’s waste is another’s food. The rotting tree nourishes the fungi and the worms, which enrich the soil, and the soil in turn supports another tree.
We need to re-think many of our current concepts like development, wealth, assets, growth and all that. This means that we need to think about them from a sustainability point of view. So, development has to be sustainable as natural assets are the real wealth of nations and even growth has limits. In other words, our thinking has to be green and that means doing something that protects and supports the environment and doing things that take into consideration the carrying capacity and ecological principles. That in turn means that natural resources should be able to support current as well as future generations. The green thinking does not apply only to individuals, but to corporate sector as well as governments.
One of the best think-green methods is recycling and we need to learn how to recycle. Since most of the things that we buy are now recyclable, we can look at them in another way — which is to reuse products such as water containers and reusable bags. If every person starts to think green, we will have a healthier, cleaner and greener environment and we can thereby guarantee a green future for our children and grandchildren.
Environmental awareness undoubtedly plays a key role in instilling green thinking in our minds. Though we hear a lot about these awareness campaigns, creating and promoting awareness is not an easy task. Awareness is linked to each person’s values and beliefs, his/her sources of information and his/her economic and social condition in general. Therefore, we usually find a big difference in individuals’ reactions and responses to such campaigns. Thus, the target of such campaigns should be clearly outlined in order to be able to evaluate its success or failures.
Campaigns should focus on giving priority to specific groups such as children as they represent the future, and women, as they play an important role in making the house greener and in turning their children’s thinking towards green habits.
Another important point to take into consideration is that environmental awareness campaigns should be part of a continuous process. Individuals must be constantly reminded of the importance of conservation and turning to a greener living. This is likely to be a long process, but this way we can guarantee a change towards a greener lifestyle over the long term.
It is important to have specific awareness campaigns focusing on religious leaders as they can convey the message to a wider audience, especially since there are many Quranic verses as well as the words of the Hadith, which encourage conservation. Religious guidelines must be an integral part of any environmental awareness campaign.
Obviously, many of the environmental problems we face nowadays are a result of the “black minds” or “polluted ways of thinking”, so the best approach is to have a green life and strive for a green future. We need to have a strategic goal for environmental awareness campaigns whose target is “Greening our Minds”.
Dr Mohamed Abdel Raouf is an independent environmental researcher.
