Analyzing Earth's Role: Resource to Exploit or Place to Cherish?

This essay delves into the critical question of whether Earth is primarily a resource to be exploited or a place to be appreciated and cared for, exploring the interplay between human needs and environmental sustainability. It examines the importance of environmental assets for human well-being, including clean air, water, and natural resources, while addressing the dangers of overexploitation and the impact of human activities on ecosystems. The essay discusses the historical context of environmental degradation, the role of globalization and trade, and various potential future scenarios, including the need for nexus strategies to address complex environmental challenges. It emphasizes the importance of sustainable practices, circular economies, and the revaluation of existing political and social norms to promote environmental integrity and social fairness, concluding that Earth and its resources should be used wisely and sustainably for the well-being of all.

The Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The growing world's population engages together locally and globally ecosystems to erode
ecological including human resources, contradicting growth-oriented social ideals and using
innovation to reduce environmental issues. So even though there's a need to address the
environmental crisis, crucial to life sciences, developed environmentally friendly editions of the
strategies for the development, world needs fundamental shifts in attributes that help make sure
transformation process from a development society to one affirming neural network and focused
on life form well-being and biodiversity conservation (Carter, 2018). This essay seeks to analyse
if our Earth is a resource and asset to exploit or a place to be appreciated and taken care of?
MAIN BODY
For individual quality of life, environmental assets are essential. The pure air that we
breathe, the vegetables we eat, or drink the water we can't survive without. To put our roofs over
our heads and to heat our houses, we require natural resources. They are necessary to survive and
prosper. Natural resources are natural components of the Earth system, such as plants, fisheries
and fungus as well as water, soils and minerals. A major approach to look at natural resources is
to see them in terms of their danger of depletion: are they regenerating and, if so, how quickly?
Some resources, like trees and plants, are regenerative since they comparatively quickly
replenish. Others are considered non-renewables, such as copper and oil, considerably longer in
shape. Natural resources are frequently seen as essential assets for the growth and production of
prosperity. The consumption of resources grew through time and with gradual industrialisation.
In certain instances the amount of exploitation exceeded the pace of natural regeneration of
resources. Such overexploitation ends up threatening people's livelihoods and their well-being,
and endangering the health of ecosystems.
Environment plays a very important role in the whole world and it is one of the major issue
with which almost every individual is known with (O'neill, 2017). Since the 1970s, human
pressure has been growing on nature. Individuals are increasingly utilizing natural resources, and
at a cost. When significant areas of the environment are lost, the quality of human existence is
greatly degraded and the lives of future generations are jeopardized unless action is taken
effectively. The capacity of nature to sustain humans has decreased during the past 50 years. The

quality of air and water is decreasing, soils are diminishing, and planting is less pollinating and
the coast less sheltered from storms.
The population of Earth almost twice itself during the 1970s, while consumption per capita
grew by 45%. The globe is increasingly controlled to maximize material flows from nature in
order to satisfy increasing human demand for resources such as food, energy and wood. As a
consequence, at least 70 percent of the earth has been directly changed by people largely in
plants and animals. This requires deforestation, land degradation, biodiversity and environmental
contamination, and has a major influence on land and freshwater ecosystems (Massin, 2020).
Approximately 77% of rivers over 1000km are no longer free from origin to sea, even after huge
numbers of people being supported. Overfishing is the major source of alteration in ocean
conditions, but other activities such as agricultural rush or plastic pollution have also damaged
66% of the ocean surface. Over the past 150 years, live coral cover has almost halved and is
expected to vanish in the next 80 years. Some of the most varied ecosystems in the world are
located in coral reefs. As people transfer creatures throughout the world which disturb and oft
decrease the wealth of local biodiversity, the number of alien types - of species discovered
beyond their native range - has increased. In conjunction with human-driven habitat changes,
many endemic species also face threats. Furthermore, lesser variations are conserved for farming
standards, demands on the market, broad-based commerce and the decline of traditional and
indigenous expertise. In non-material ways, Environment also rewards society. We are inspired
and we learn from it (Hakimov, 2017). It brings our experience of physics and psychology and
supports our identity and feeling of location.
Ecosystem loss is mostly driven by changes in land use, marine exploitation, global
warming, contamination and endangered species invasion. Several activities have an immediate
effect on nature, such as garbage disposal into the sea. Something else is indirect. These include
demographic, economical, socio-political and structural systems based on social ideals that
interact. For example, large tracts of land maintained by indigenous populations are declining
more slowly than anywhere else in ecosystems. However, there are threats to indigenous rights
that might cause these regions to worsen quicker. The impact on broader ecosystems and society
will be deleterious.
Overseas trade has expanded since the beginning of the post-industrial period by 900%
while living material extraction from the environment has grown by 200%. The increasing

geographical distance separating market forces implies that the devastation produced by its use is
not seen in individuals. People had to take after their surroundings well before Industrialization,
as they obtained their commodities from here. Humans have huge environmental effects now
with globalization, which is far from where people reside. However, humans are isolated from
these effects and they are thus abstract to everybody. Trading abroad both causes and enhances
imbalance. Mainly medium and high-income nations exert pressure on material commodities and
regularly meet low- as well as middle-income nations. For instance, 64% of world trade of fish
products were eaten by Japan, the United States and Europe combined. The nations with high
incomes have their own fisheries but most have collapsed (Black, 2018). Fishing is currently
being carried out in previously untapped or undertaken fisheries, the majority of which are in
low-income nations. With huge trade growth, sustainable decisions no longer have to be made.
The extent of human decisions is unseen for all us individuals and humans might overexploit the
natural resources elsewhere in the world.
A lot of study was done, which determined numerous potential possibilities. The report
analysed the globe in depth in three quite distinct situations. The whole globe is shifting towards
sustainability via respect for the environment under the Global Sustainability Scenarios and
ensuring that economic progress covers everyone. The distribution of wealth on an equal basis,
reduced usage of resources and energy and a focus on economic progress and human well-being.
According to the regional competition environment, nationalism is growing with a focus mostly
on national problems. Education, especially in the poor countries, is less invested. High-income
nations are going to export harm, which means that subsequent generations will face strong and
permanent degradation of the ecosystem. The system depends on unique and modern
innovations, those that are yet to be inventsed, that work in conjunction with environmental
challenges, according to the economic optimist outlook. Pollution will remain, but the concept
will be mitigated by innovation. Investment in health and education will be strengthened and
global markets will be connected with common objectives.
Combating ecological degradation will be challenging and a nexus strategy will be needed.
This entails understanding more about interaction of multiple dimensions of the challenge,
including environment, political and the social and cultural (Saleh, 2020). One illustration of a
nexus strategy would be a reduction of loss of biodiversity by modifying our way of farming
while also providing people with sufficient food, not undermining their livelihoods or

aggravating social tensions. Many of these problems can be avoided by focussing on
rejuvenating as well as rehabilitating high-carbon ecosystems like forests and wetlands.
Likewise, a change in lifestyle practices and a reduction in waste might meet the food need.
Switching to sustainable energy is a crucial step to make further changes easier. Coal and gas are
obtained by the destruction of large quantities of land and marine areas and through extraction
pollution. To do this properly, however, the world has to revalue existing political systems and
social norms that do not appreciate nature. One method is to improve existing environmental
laws and regulations and to eliminate and modify bad policies.
Whilst the Stockholm Declaration of 1972 put out basic principles for sustainable use of
resources, a half century later, and the situation is grim (Andrić, Koc and Al-Ghamdi, 2019). The
United Nations Environment Panel (UNEP) established that the worldwide average per capita
demand for materials increased from 7.4 tons in 1970 to 12.2 tons in 2017, with substantial
environmental effects, including increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. The IRP also shown
that the "usage of natural resources and associated benefits and effects on the environment are
unevenly spread among nations and regions"
Enhanced empowerment and involvement by local groups was lobbied by activists and
practitioners working to preserve natural resources rights and secured tenure and to create
sustainable and just governance of resources. Alliances have developed, link local to global
initiatives and draw worldwide attention to inequities between women, young people, indigenous
peoples and community-based local groups. This covers grassroots coalitions, including La Vía
Campesina which pushed and played an important role in the establishment and implementation
of UNDROP to safeguard the rights of farmers and farmers as of the 1990s. Despite attempts
since the 1970s, the present trends are insustainable with possibly disastrous effects in the
utilization of natural resources. The IPBES Global Evaluation Report 2019 highlighted the need
for changes to preserve the resources of human life and well-being. The report also recognizes
that the changes are typically resisted by those with interests in the status quo by their very
nature. Civil society actors thus stress the need of governments addressing the vested interests
and fostering participatory decision-making, as well as reconciling rights and interests priority in
order to guarantee environmental integrity and social fairness (Li, Qian and Zhou, 2017). The
above stated Local Biodiversity Outlook provides key examples of bottom-up resources
management techniques that can encourage sustainability while resolving past inequities.

In order to achieve transforming change in relation to global and local inequality in resource
distribution and advantages, strong government action needs to be taken upon both nationally
and internationally contexts (Niewöhner and Lock, 2018). We need to make major changes in the
patterns of production and consumption, pay particular attention to worth and supply chains and
promote the use of circular resources and circular economies. The circularity of resources breaks
with the linear paradigm 'waste as a resource' which promotes lower resource extraction and
supports higher reuse, repair and recovery. These aims are already established in the Sustainable
Development Agenda 2030 with the goal to ensure that governments manage and utilise natural
resources efficiently by 2030. While its implementation is too sluggish, more care is taken to
encourage the circulation of resources, to work together to promote safe labor standards and to
limit the effects of the exploitation of resources on the environment. The most prominent are
legislative measures that raise manufacturers' accountability across the lifespan for the effects of
their goods (Gentleman, 2019). Putting the duty on manufacturers' after-use disposal greatly
enhances the rate of material recovery and encourages less wasteful product design.
Therefore, it is vital to realize that for the globe, quality and well-being of life the
environment is very significant. Therefore, all the environment-related assets and resources are
naturally extremely essential and should constantly be used by the world's people wisely, given
that all people on earth are given respect and not to be considered as an asset which is always
explored for human egoism.
CONCLUSION
From the discussion above, it is determined that the Earth is for every person and their
wellbeing a wonderful place to live. It gives all the natural resources and other environmental
assets that all the inhabitants of the globe have to be used wisely. Earth and its resources should
be treated and utilized appropriately by humans and still not exploited at any cost. This is simply
going to cause world issues and nothing else. Thus, it is vital for resources to be used in a way
that is sustainable and can be used by future generations. This problem cannot be addressed.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andrić, I., Koc, M. and Al-Ghamdi, S.G., 2019. A review of climate change implications for
built environment: Impacts, mitigation measures and associated challenges in developed
and developing countries. Journal of Cleaner Production, 211, pp.83-102.
Black, R., 2018. Refugees, environment and development. Routledge.
Carter, N., 2018. The politics of the environment: Ideas, activism, policy. Cambridge University
Press.
Gentleman, A., 2019. The Windrush betrayal: Exposing the hostile environment. Faber & Faber.
Hakimov, Z., 2017. Uzbekistan's clothes market: Condition, competitive environment, and
development. TRANS Asian Journal of Marketing & Management Research
(TAJMMR), 6(2and3), pp.4-11.
Li, P., Qian, H. and Zhou, W., 2017. Finding harmony between the environment and humanity:
an introduction to the thematic issue of the Silk Road. Environmental Earth
Sciences, 76(3), p.105.
Massin, C., 2020. Effects of feeding on the environment: Holothuroidea. In Echinoderm
nutrition (pp. 493-497). CRC Press.
Niewöhner, J. and Lock, M., 2018. Situating local biologies: Anthropological perspectives on
environment/human entanglements. BioSocieties, 13(4), pp.681-697.
O'neill, K., 2017. The environment and international relations. Cambridge University Press.
Saleh, T.A., 2020. Characterization, determination and elimination technologies for sulfur from
petroleum: Toward cleaner fuel and a safe environment. Trends in Environmental
Analytical Chemistry, 25, p.e00080.