REFLECTION ABOUT THE 9 ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES

This past few weeks, we have discussed the 9 principles in our Environmental Science Class. At first, I thought this topic would be uninteresting. Well, actually, it is. But I learned a lot from it. So after discussing it, I finally found it a bit interesting.

THESE ARE THE 9 PRINCIPLES:

1. NATURE KNOWS BEST- This principle is the most basic and it encompasses everything. Any disruption in the cycle can bring imbalance in our environment.

Most of the examples of this principle are connected with burning something. Like, burning farm wastes. This results to to the disruption of the cycle. Instead of this, we can just allow them to decompose naturally.


2. ALL FORMS OF LIFE ARE IMPORTANT- Each organism plays a big role in our environment. Big or small, boy or girl, hard or soft, attractive or ugly, what ever it is, it is important. We must not belittle those organisms which are not attractive. We must realize that like us, they also play a big role. Appreciating beautiful butterflies and birds are so easy. But why can't we appreciate worms? Just because they aren't attractive? Well, it's not a valid reason. WE MUST NOT JUDGE SOMETHING BASED ON HOW THEY LOOK.

3.  EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING ELSE- All components interact with each other to ensure the system is continued. this cycle may also have an imbalance if there is an outside interference. An example for this are the natural resources where it collides with the concept that everything is connected to everything else are rivers that are primordial to any civilization.

4. EVERYTHING CHANGES- Life is full of changes. There is nothing permanent except change. There are three types of change, the linear, cyclical and the random.

An example of change is a caterpillar who grows and became a butterfly. In connection with the second principle, we don't easily appreciate caterpillars. But when  it became a butterfly, we became attracted to it.

5. EVERYTHING MUST GO SOMEWHERE- When something is being trashed, it disappears and simply go somewhere. We need to change or throw-away society attiture in order to develop better methods of waste management and recycling.

6. OURS IS A FINITE EARTH- At first, I find this principle a little bit hard to understand but it simply goes this way....  Earth is classified into either RENEWABLE or NON-RENEWABLE. Renewable resources are the air, plants, water, and animals. Non-renewable are the coal, minerals and oils. In connection with this principle, we must be sensitive and aware about the limit of these resources.

7. THE AMOUNT OF LIFE NATURE CAN SUPPORT IS LIMITED- Nature cannot always support our mother earth all the time. We must also be considerate with this and we must not always use nature to do all the things we want.

8. HUMAN PROGRESS MUST CONSIDER ITS EFFECT ON NATURE- Things that humans do may affect nature. But humans nowadays don't care. We must again be considerate with the things we do. We must not use nature to be successful. It is not the right key. We must not destroy nature. There are a lot more things we could do to succeed and to progress.

9. NATURE IS BEAUTIFUL AND WE ARE STEWARDS OF GOD'S CREATION- Nature is beautiful. Nature is attractive. Nature is at its best. Why? It's because of us, living things that make nature beautiful. This principle is inherent in most tribal and religious beliefs.