“Towards Ecopedagogy” Synthesis

          Has the wave of catastrophe already hit or is it only on the verge of hitting our world? Some may say that this wave hit a long time ago; some may say that there is no such wave and we are all just a bunch of radical, ludicrous thinkers. To those who question the wave of catastrophe I say take a look around; there is oil dispersed throughout the Gulf’s waters, our Arctic glaciers are practically gone, many animals are going or have gone extinct, the world is faced with a heavy economic crisis, and greed has defaced the population more so than ever. The wave of catastrophe has yet to hit, but every day society see the remnants brought forth by this oncoming wave.

          In Kahn’s paper Towards Ecopedagogy, he mentions our society as a transitioning technocapitalism society that is a threat to organisms and their environment. I took this comment to great lengths of thought asking, “What exactly is a transitioning technocapitalism society?” I came to a consensus that Kahn is referring to a free market that is solely reliant on its technology and rapid expansion. The common person would probably see no problem with this type of society at all; however, there is a huge problem. In a society that is comprised of technological sufficiency the rate of growth is highly inclined. With a high rate of growth, the people, the animals, and the environment suffer. The more people there are in the world, the more the world’s resources are exhausted. Most of the resources that exist in our world are limited; therefore it’s important that we watch what we are doing and watch the rate at which we consume our resources. Kahn goes on to make many important points in his paper; such as, living beings and organic habitats are being culled and destroyed for human production of goods, tree consumption for paper products has doubled over the last forty years, and throughout the oceans, global fishing also has doubled resulting in a recent report finding that approximately 90% of the major fish species in the world’s oceans have disappeared. These statistics are truly fascinating; the people of today’s world need to take a good look around and realize what they and not take it for granite. Our nation is extremely fortunate to have the lifestyle it has; there are many people around the world that would kill for it.

          The world is a gruesome place; we have vast fields of slaughterhouses for fast food chains, we attack our forests with heavy machinery all for the sake of some paper, and we pollute our world’s air with millions of factories. The fact of the matter is that people know the world is being destroyed, and the problem is nobody cares. Man’s greatest flaw is his greed and with this flaw comes the great downfall of civilization. In life we are all given an opportunity to do the right thing when time calls for it, and now is the time. Do the right thing and don’t be the cause, but instead be the solution.