Humans Are Not Masters of the Earth: the Attitude of Environmental Protection

Humans are not masters of the Earth: The attitude of environmental protection

        Some people believe that humans are masters of the Earth (Parry, 2012). This point seems true because humans are more intelligent than other animals and have the ability to domesticate them. Accordingly, other species are less powerful and cannot restrict human activities. We also have some extraordinary achievements, such as cloning in biotechnology and the success of sex reassignment surgery. Therefore, people might be smug and think that we have the capability to change inborn characteristics and thus dominate nature. However, do these accomplishments prove that humans are masters of the Earth?

In fact, humans cannot be masters of the Earth due to our frail lives and inappropriate use of our power. According to official estimates, 316,000 people were killed and 300,000 people injured on account of Haiti Earthquake (United States Geological Survey [USGS], 2015). Although the number of people who die in natural disasters has decreased due to the development of technology, our lives are still frail when disasters occur. In other words, humans are not that powerful. In addition, “the marks we are leaving on the Earth are mostly unintended byproducts of our power: radioactive waste and mass extinctions, deforestation . . . global warming, and more” (Cave, 2014, para. 3). That is to say, sometimes we do not have the ability to control the influence of our behavior, and some human activities can negatively affect the environment. Indeed, we have to figure out how to use our power appropriately, and also we should have the proper attitude towards environmental issues because some impacts of human activities, such as radioactive waste and deforestation, do harm to the ecosystem and then reflect back to ourselves.

Improper human activities can cause man-made disasters. One famous example is the Fukushima nuclear disaster that was triggered by the magnitude 9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. “Cascading electrical systems failures resulted in a massive expulsion of stored radioactive hazards, including varying concentrations of strontium, cesium, plutonium, americium, iodine isotopes, and radioactive noble gases to the environment.” Consequently, the ecosystem in this region was strongly influenced, resulting in the restriction of shipping foods and agricultural animals in many prefectures, as well as evacuating over 120,000 people from their homes (Eddy & Sase, 2015, p. 26).

The aftermath of the nuclear disaster is highly influential, and the damage to us is huge when the ecosystem is destroyed. Why did such a nuclear power plant accident occur after the lesson of Chernobyl disaster? Why do we still use nuclear energy after we understand how dangerous the radioactive hazards are? Yet some readers may challenge the view that we should limit the use of nuclear power because the Fukushima accident was caused by natural disaster, and such problem seldom happens. However, the reason I choose this special example is not to convince people that we have to ban nuclear energy, but to remind people to recognize that our power is limited and not to cause any effects that can be out of control. In other words, before we use this kind of energy or make some significant decisions, we should firstly consider the consequences since these unintended byproducts can negatively influence the environment and ourselves, just like the effects caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.