Environmental Awareness: What is it? Importance and how to increase it?

Are you a lover of the environment? Would you like to be part of the development of environmental awareness? In this article you will be able to learn about the objectives, the dimensions, the characteristics and more about this aspect, do not stay without doing anything and help to improve the planet through the environmental awareness.

What is environmental awareness?

But what really is consciousness? If we point to the definition given by Mother Teresa of Calcutta we have that:

“It is having criticality, which allows the individual to be a committed person and responsible for the role they must play in society”

This message speaks of commitment and responsibility, which can be directed towards what has already been mentioned about nature, the human being must be responsible for his actions and decisions, being committed to the home, to the world.

Another definition of conscience could be: the foundation that every person has to analyze and understand, so that all their actions do not harm third parties, also implies the participation of the human being in activities for society and its well-being.

Therefore, both definitions can be aimed at environmental awareness, where the actions we carry out in the present do not affect third parties in the future.

Acting with environmental awareness is knowing that every drop counts, that there are different ways to save the important water resource that we currently have; the fact of not buying water at the kiosk but taking with us a pot for daily use generates less plastic waste in the long term; When going to the supermarket, do not ask for plastic bags, but take a cloth one with us.

Learn to recycle the leaves, carry out tasks with the various disposable objects that allow their repeated use, such as pots, fountains, notebooks of reused leaves, among others.

Each of these actions implies environmental awareness, putting it into constant use will generate an impact in the short and long term, we may not see it with the naked eye, but the truth is that we are generating a positive change of which we can feel proud and of which generations future will be grateful to us, we just have to put creativity into practice.

Characteristics of environmental awareness

There are various characteristics that environmental awareness possesses, always seeking to take it in depth to all aspects of society from the micro to the macro, from the home to the governments of the entire world, positively influencing nature day by day without faltering. since time does not forgive.

Their characteristics are:

• Recognize, value and optimally use each of the resources provided by the environment.
• Maintain an education of the environment and its conservation at all levels of life, school, university, work and adult, motivating with activities such as planting in public places, useful recycling courses, explaining the reason for everything that is done, to be able to want what is being done and that the effort is worthwhile.
• Generate ethical values ​​directed towards the environment and society, where words are associated with deeds, and empty speeches are avoided in this way, this can start from home and be reinforced in schools, workshops and even through community teachings .
• Be conscious in purchases, looking for products in which the packaging is biodegradable, avoiding buying what we do not need, if the consumption of plastic is greatly reduced, companies will find it necessary to change their form of presentation, in packaging of another material that collaborates with the environment and life.
• Development of coercive norms, plans and programs that are managed by the State, that allow the internalization and understanding of the importance of environmental care. This as the implementation of the Glass recycling process

With the development and evolution of the human being, which has allowed the implementation of multiple systems in any field, facilitating various activities and satisfying needs, natural resources have been running out, daily sustenance is about to run out, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics mentioned and put them into practice as soon as possible.

Objectives of environmental awareness

It is important to determine the objective of generating environmental awareness, which is developed at various points, such as:

• Awareness: motivate society in general, without any distinction, to be more sensitive regarding the planet, the problems that can be generated if it is not valued from this moment on.
• Knowledge: generating knowledge is the most essential objective of all, since what is not known is not loved, if knowledge is generated for the planet it will be easier to generate sensitivity and empathy for its care and appreciation. In this sense, it is important to emphasize the function of the human being within the planet.
• teach responsibility of each person towards the world, generate knowledge about what they should and should not do, but beyond this, generate transferable knowledge, so that those who acquire it can multiply it to many more, such as indicating what all the Recyclable materials.
• Attitudes: headed in the same direction, it is the generation of social values, where there is a deep interest in the environment, in this way they will feel motivated to actively participate in pro-environment activities, protecting and improving it.
• Evaluation capacity: when the human being has adequate knowledge about environmental care, he will be able to generate social programs and evaluate them, devising them taking into account ecological, social, economic, aesthetic aspects and more.
• Participation: if all the people of each of the societies are involved in the generation of programs, they will be more motivated and will become part of its evolution, being more precise in their actions.
• Promote environmental behaviors: It is necessary that there be words that are congruent with actions, that there be ecological ethics guided by fair, rational, supportive and equitable criteria.
• Enable relative competencies: through sustainable lifestyles it is possible to generate competencies that are possible to concretize them and daily actions.

Your strategy How to increase it?

In all aspects of life it is necessary to have strategies that allow achieving objectives, fully carrying out environmental programs, avoiding failure.

Some strategies in this regard are:

• Intersectoral and Interinstitutional Coordination.

Generating education regarding environmental protection must be dynamic and creative, for it to be effective and productive, so it is extremely necessary to generate coordination between the different sectors, that is, the public and the private, if they are not united In the long term, the plan could fail.

But in conjunction with these sectors, the different civil organizations that are involved in this transcendental issue must be included, in this way those organizations that are part of the State can mobilize some training processes more quickly.

• Inclusion of Environmental Education

Not only in the formal, but also in the non-formal, in the extracurricular, in the case of the first, the environmental dimension can be involved as a form of learning that is just as relevant as the rest, that is, that it be part of the curriculum both in school, high school and college.

While in the second case it is necessary to develop environmental projects, even through contests and/or educational competitions, so that society wants to constantly get involved in the area, not only children but adults as well.

• The development of ethics and environmental education

As has been mentioned, there is a primary need in terms of environmental ethics, being essential to achieve each of the proposed objectives and approaches, the values, behaviors and principles must be part of the training, so that there determination and confidence in the process.

Improving in this way the quality of life, optimizing the use of the resources provided by nature, allowing awareness, the implementation of values, finding ways to intervene taking into account others, and managing and implementing projects.

What dimensions does it reach?

It is important to determine the proportions that the management of the proposed objectives could achieve and make them known to the whole society, in this sense there are four types of dimensions according to the specialists Martín and Bereguer, these are:

• Cognitive: these are those ideas that bring up the skills and knowledge about everything that has to do with caring for the environment, seeing this not as another topic to discuss but as part of a reality that afflicts us day by day and for which must generate debates and actions consistent with each other.
• affective: they are the emotions that can be manifested in each person and in the social group about the care of the environment, they are the real beliefs and concerns that exist in each individual that motivate them to make decisions and actions to avoid the development of its deterioration.
• Conative: this is the whole set of activities that you are about to carry out, adopting behaviors under rational criteria, in which there is a sincere and ethical interest to generate better by contributing ideas and actions to improve the existing problems in the activity and those that can be generated through future.
• Active: are those attitudes that people have to carry out practices and behave in a certain way, that is, responsible with the environment in which we live daily, it is important to highlight that this is not only individually but also collectively.

Through the development of an environmental awareness, the idea is to form people full of respect and responsibility with the world in which they live, where they can be able to see the consequences that their actions can have with the environment, making reflections and acting in accordance with these , contributing directly and indirectly.

Su importancia

Environmental awareness is considered a social movement, a group that cares about a common goal, the improvement of the environment in which humans operate, this is constantly manifested by the color green.

This is a wide-ranging issue, involving an entire society, since every human being that lives on the planet is affected by the state of the environment. Therefore, in this lies the importance of generating the necessary awareness, since if we do not take care of it, no one else will take care of it.

It is necessary to highlight that each one pollutes the planet in one way or another, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, due to this it would be opportune to have knowledge about those materials that generate greater contamination, for which they can be changed, and what utility they are used for. it can hit those objects in the house that seem useless.

Knowing about these aspects, it would be easier to contribute to the reduction of environmental deterioration, seeing education as a vehicle to reach the final goal.

There are activities that are more overwhelming than others, many of them are directed towards the continuous consumption of the human being, for example; the containers in which food products come, from the most basic such as a liter of milk, the wrapping of vegetables, the pot of soda, among others, which end up in the garbage can once their content is consumed.

That is why the great emphasis on consuming only what is necessary, avoiding unbridled consumption that sooner or later has monetary, environmental and social consequences.

Perhaps much of the damage caused to date is not reversible, but it is possible to ensure that from now on the damage does not continue and the damage to the ecosystem increases, with the disappearance of many species in danger of extinction such as the White Tiger, plants and other natural resources.

Phrases of reflection for environmental awareness

“If someone were to observe planetary society from the outside, they would be amazed at such behavior that sometimes seems suicidal”, Pope Francis.

• If you can't find a trash can, keep it in your pocket or bag until you get home.
• The planet is a dangerous place, not because of those who do wrong, but because of those who do nothing to prevent it.
• We will not own a society if we take it upon ourselves to destroy the environment.
• Plant a tree and you will be planting awareness.
• Think that in the future you will need that tree you have cut down to breathe.

Raise Environmental Awareness in the face of Environmental Problems

The human being since his arrival on planet earth has been accumulating environmental problems, his evolution has caused setbacks in the environment, although in the short term with the inconveniences the real problems that future generations will have have been noticed, that is why it is necessary raise environmental awareness today.

Society has to understand that the only home we have is planet earth and if we continue to degrade it, very soon we will have nowhere to live, the quality of life and health will gradually deteriorate, affecting everyone, from the smallest to the grandparents. .

If emphasis is not placed on this problem of great magnitude, it will soon be too late, each society in the world should take care of generating education by different means on environmental awareness, seek to generate an impact on people who manage to change their way of thinking and acting with respect to this problem.

Each person can contribute a grain of sand through simple recycling, stopping using plastic, at least in the market bags using cloth, which can be reused over and over again, in this way each daily action generates a change, no matter how small it is, it is a contribution.

Making rational uses of the objects that the environment provides us, it will be quickly understood that what is used is scarce and that it must be managed properly, one day we will no longer have water. Therefore, neither electricity, and without these two all the services we know today will disappear, if we understand this in time we can improve quickly.

In this same sense, it can be established that an education in children about environmental awareness is essential since these are the future and the next generation, so if we create a conscious generation we will have a conscious and healthy world.

Environmental crisis

It is quite common to talk about the environmental crisis that the entire planet is suffering, you hear each of the world's governments talk about it, some of the countries' funds are destined for this area, but they never place it as an absolute priority, it is even observed that they are empty speeches.

Speeches in which they talk about reducing the use of plastic, waste, fuel, but we never see a president or a minister using a bicycle. On the contrary, they arrive in armored cars and surrounded by escorts each in a car.

It is necessary to generate a stronger commitment to our planet, perhaps through the implementation of laws and fines for those who do not comply, so that the mark we leave to the new generations is seen in reality and in the quality of life.

The quality of the air we breathe is increasingly precarious, the water we consume as time goes by will bring more chemicals to purify it, and every day we will have fewer natural resources that allow us to continue evolving.

For these reasons it is extremely urgent to raise environmental awareness, so that we can win this hard battle that is gradually degenerating the world, the main thing is to educate not only children but adults, although in this last twilight it will be more difficult change consciousness.

It is necessary to put on the table and radicalize the environmental problem, beginning to take actions and decisions in this regard, we must always keep in mind that the planet is the house we have in common and that we must take care of it as much or more as we take care of our earthly home.

Being environmentally aware now means pointing to the future in a positive way, without being afraid of what will happen to our children and grandchildren later, knowing that we will leave a better world for them.

Reflection

There are certain elements that do not allow us to assume that with each passing day we are depleting the resources that nature gives us, determining that these are not infinite and that they are irreplaceable, global warming is getting worse and we can feel it with the constant change in temperatures.

Biodiversity is no longer as varied as before, it is becoming limited as the years go by and species become extinct, diseases are on the rise due to environmental contamination, there are more respiratory diseases, a greater possibility of infection and many more, which They won't stop if we don't act now.

The trees fulfill a function of life or death, and the human being insists on disappearing them to act in an unlogical way, to create sheets on which to write "take care of the environment, be aware", little reflection has this type of actions, of which we should not delay in repenting.

Since these are the most basic livelihood of human beings, it seems that companies and the state do not stop to think what they will do when there is not one left, they are irreplaceable, and although there are world organizations that are dedicated to generating environmental awareness, these are not taken seriously, it is always postponed for a "better occasion" will there ever be one?

Many people exempt themselves from blame, saying that governments and companies are responsible for what is happening, but the truth is that each one contributes their grain of sand to the deterioration of the planet, this way of thinking is what is being tried to change , making conscious consumption and acting in such a way.

Take action Now!

Each and every one of the problems that have been mentioned throughout the article are impossible to solve if a collective consciousness, a global consciousness, is not generated.

The proposed objectives and scope are possible if each one does their part and raises awareness of each of their actions and decisions, without affecting a third party.

It is necessary to generate education at all levels of society, without discriminating against rich or poor, children or adults, since we all live on the same planet, regardless of age or wealth.

It should not be left aside that it is never too late to solve environmental problems, but we are increasingly running out of possibilities.

Contributing ideas, generating education and imparting knowledge is contributing a grain of sand.

It is necessary to keep in mind that:

“Nature is not dominated, it is obeyed”