In the twenty-first century, global environmental problems, such as global warming, loss of biodiversity, destruction of tropical forests, and others, are worsening. They pose a threat to the foundation of life and development opportunities for both present and future generations. The scale of world production and consumption has led to a catastrophic imbalance of natural and social systems. It has exceeded the ability of the environment to cope with human activity (Wijkman and Rockström 1). In this way, humans deplore nature and the planet as a whole, making it bankrupt.
The 2008 financial crisis and the need for new improvements in production efficiency as well as energy security have put forward the challenge of reviewing state and international environmental policies. In this regard, it is possible to talk about the beginning of a new development stage of the world community – environmentally-oriented growth. Even though so far, a little amount of the population takes a responsible attitude towards environmental problems and introduces new technologies for nature protection into its economy, the beginning has been established. Thanks to such actions, the balance sheet for the planet is possible.
An example of a business that is close to balancing with nature is Apple, the famous technology company. The majority of their products are made of recycled materials, as the company independently processes more than 70% of served gadgets and computers (Environment). Specifically, for this purpose, they developed a trade-in program that allows exchanging the old user’s device for credit to purchase a new one. It is also possible to pay attention to such a part as packaging devices, which become smaller and more practical. It means that more boxes of phones can be loaded on a plane, and fewer flights will be required to carry them.
Thus, considering the fact that most environmental problems occur much later than the causes, the quality of the environment will deteriorate for many years to come. It is particularly relevant for the acute and long-term problems of climate change and the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer. However, there is also a growing awareness of the seriousness of these issues, both in developed and developing countries, which gives hope for improving the situation.
Works Cited
“Environment.” Apple, 2020.
Wijkman, Anders, and Johan Rockström. Bankrupting Nature: Denying Our Planetary Boundaries. Taylor & Francis, 2013.