Follow, The Orange
Feb 12, 202210 min
The World Meteorological Organization (2019) website indicates that 2015 was the year that the concentration rate in CO2 reached its highest peak since records of these levels began. What is more, 2018 was the fourth warmest year on record, and the past four years (2015-2018) were the top four warmest years in the global temperature record (World Meteorological Organization, 2019). The World Meteorological Organization recently released a statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2018. In this statement, A. Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, said, "The data released in this report give cause for great concern," and "There is no longer any time for delay" (Statement by the United Nations Secretary-General).
One must consider local demographics and sub-cultural contexts when it comes to addressing what many Scientists around the world believe is climate change caused by humans to determine root causes of this worldwide trend. Like, what is the medium income? What subcultures are prominent? According to Livinginhawaii.com (2019), For instance:
The cost of living is so high in Hawaii that most people do not own things like jet skis, boats, and trailers. They typically have their home and a surfboard, and that is it. Hawaii takes on a more qualitative lifestyle compared to the mainland's quantitative lifestyle. (Qualitative vs. Quantitative lifestyle)
Regulators & Intercultural Relationships
For this reason, how locals quantify the quality of their life differs from that of others.
How they utilize their resources will no doubt arise differently from that of others. Comparatively, Lustiq & Koester (2013) state, "European American individuals are motivated to achieve external success through things, position, and power" (p.93). From this, one summarizes that a European American coming from the mainland to the Hawaiian Islands will find stark differences in the culture. How this particular culture sees themselves as members of a culture may not coincide with that of the Chinese or Australians. Thus, how each of these societies and groups perceives their role in climate management vary. How significant the size of these cultures' families typifies unique cultural patterns and identities, and so too has an impact on the environment as well as intercultural relationships. For instance, according to Beckwith, Bliss, Dye, Elia, Kaneshiro, and Soon (2015), "Core Hawaiian values of children and family strongly affect how Native Hawaiians view pregnancy, pregnancy planning, and unintended pregnancies. 'Ohana (families) are large and characterized by tremendous support, which is perceived to lessen the burden of unintended pregnancy" (p. 167).
Contrary to this, however, is recently, the Chinese regulate the number of children born, primarily to control the population. Cultures will view their impact and role in the world at large in different ways about their overall impact on the environment. One way to create shared understanding and meaning on this issue is to use the internet to do some research on the culture, ask friends, neighbors, and co-workers if they have any experience within a specific culture.
It is essential to consider perceptions culture has on our own, and how that also relates to impacts a culture has on the global climate. The more each of us knows about each other, the more we can positively influence climate trends. Ethics comes from the ideas that culture believes and about their surrounding cultures. As groups evolve, so does their basis for judging surrounding cultures. As a result, people within a culture can be murderers of people with differing views or allies towards basic universal Human needs, like that of clean air and water.
When views are so extreme not to have consideration or tolerance of opposing views, these individuals or groups of individuals can exert tremendous force to dispose of those who have contrary views as human history shows this pattern throughout life on this planet. All cultures and their people have problems. Depending on how people solve these problems individually or collectively often depends on how the broader context of the culture approaches general solutions to the whole. Many people within a culture, for whatever reason, believe false narratives because that is what they were taught to believe. One way to avoid this is to do one's homework and research to dissolve false ideologies and correct misconceptions. According to Lustig and Koester (2013), "Depending on the culture, some people might be regarded as superior to others because of their wealth, age, gender, education, physical strength, birth order, personal achievements, family background, occupation, or a wide variety of other characteristics" (p.105).
Intercultural Relationships
Sometimes, people within a culture, or subcultures, stick together no matter what. Either because they have strong viewpoints or because of persecution or neglect. African Americans and Jews and the LGBT community, for example, may have strong ties because of their unique experiences (Lustig & Koester, 2013, Chapter 3). A new cast of characters always emerge in cultures, yet they typically ride on the curtails of those who came before them. These are the cultural patterns that define human groups, as has been the case for the eon. Human civilization is changing the world so rapidly, never before has it been more critical to understand the methods for effective intercultural communication (Lustig & Koester, 2013, Chapter 2).
The overwhelming tragedies human civilization transcends generations and persist on every continent. Perhaps nowhere are these tragedies more evident than in the modern-day natural world where total disregard for life itself has led to widespread destruction of our most cherished plants and animals. Just as humans have destroyed themselves and others since the beginning of time, we find the very same harmful attributes omnipresent in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and South Africa where human genocide resonates in those who care and debilitate the souls of those who do not (J.P. Fogarty, personal communication, November 3, 2019).
Commonly said, nothing lasts forever, but in the case of the nonstop Human saga of mass graves and killing fields, this has not been the case. The brutal truth of climate change has brought numerous species to the edge of extinction, riding on the curtails of human pollution and an endless appetite for such things as hamburgers and SUV’s. The human race sees the impact of the burning of fossil fuels at every corner of the globe. Humans and their ancestors have walked the Earth for nearly 6 million years as most people realize. In less than 6,000 years, our civilization has managed to transform the Earth faster than at any point in history. Humans have so mercilessly hunted animals and destroyed their natural habitats; This reality boggles the mind. With this grotesque perspective of Human negligence, it is not difficult to see how our species manages to default to the same brutality against ourselves in the name of religion, hierarchy, and ego.
Not surprising then shall the ominous nature of our habitats reveal itself so clearly as it does in the modern world existentially the world over. The Human race must take immediate action to restore balance to our precious planet or face the dire consequences.
People must work together, and communicate inter-culturally perhaps more than ever before to solve the global climate crisis. To do this, we must engage one another with tolerance and respect to deliver positive and lasting change. Accomplishing such a task requires intercontinental, international, and intercultural competence. Similar reactions to shared ideas and values resonate with cultural patterns (Lustig & Koester, 2013, Chapter 4). In some cultures, like India, these cultural members believe that the Human body and mind are the same with nature and spirit. However, in other cultures, they are distinctly different, as much of the European Americans. They believe the land and trees are separate from themselves and are theirs for the taking. In Hawaiian culture, children are taught to take care of their parents forever. In America, children grow into adulthood and are expected to move out, albeit this trend may have changed in recent years. Greetings, social practices, and behaviors merge from their shared beliefs. What is right and what is wrong in their culture certainly does not match that of others.
Human Dignity
Again, these cultural patterns shape the very fabric of how one interacts within a culture and what they are expected to do. Intercultural collaboration requires competency in intercultural communication in accomplishing shared goals of protecting our environment. As a result, human dignity distinctly carries with it needs for survival. Since the beginning of time, cultural divides exist between the masses, and a mixture of good and evil persist to this day. How a person regards past, resent, and future depends much on how the broader context of their cultural community views these time perspectives. Some cultures see the present most important, while others see the future more important.
Nevertheless, some have the highest regard for the past and their ancestor's role in it, such as the Native Americans (Lustig & Koester, 2013, Chapter 5). Much of society today yearn for experience as opposed to meeting needs. Do our cultures desire clean water to drink? Clean air to breath? Plants to nourish? Is this not the essence of human dignity- survival at the very least? The social relations orientation describes how people relate to each other and how they see themselves partake and belong within a culture (Lustig & Koester, 2013, Chapter 5). Some cultures look up to their elders, while others do not. Respectively, what about the generations to come? What about their right to breath? Cultures who propagate more significant resources than others must share the cost. To some, perhaps a carbon tax is appropriate.
Meanwhile, cultures also differ in how they view other cultures in that people are inherently good, like the Chinese, and must protect against opposing and fixed alternative points of view. The human race has a propensity for postulating of the Earth's resources we have proselytized from immense havoc on these systems- we now propel to find sustenance in the rhythm that predisposes our rapidly changing planet. According to Lustig and Koester (2013):
Most European Americans view humans as separate and distinct from nature and other forms of life. Because of the supremacy of the individual and the presumed uniqueness of each person, most European Americans regard nature as something to be manipulated and controlled in order to make human life better. (p.93)
Cultural Patterns
European American orientation to time suggests that the future will innately get better, while Native Americans and Latinos value the now and resinate closer to Earth's natural resources (Lustig and Koester, 2013, Chapter 5). Like mental programming, patterns existential to cultural phenomenon shape the contour of human thought and ambition through a kind of "screen" from which much of our actions and interpretations of what is acceptable and unacceptable merge. In this way, a person, or group of persons find it okay to tear down all the forests for trade or see such an act is a betrayal. With that said, one should be aware that not every individual in a group or culture will share the same ideology of the group at large (Lustig and Koester, 2013, Chapter 5).
So, one can deduce that because many people from Brazil see an economic benefit from tearing down the entire Amazon Rain Forest, some will not. Cultural patterns determine what is typical in society, but does not necessarily propagate how a person will react to specific dilemmas, therefore, what has worked in the past, does not guarantee what will happen in the future. (Lustig and Koester, 2013, Chapter 6).
From this, one finds a possible way forward to changing the status quo, which is what is required to combat the global climate crisis many Scientists around the globe regardless of which culture they belong unambiguously agree (although to what degree varies). Lustig and Koester (2013), agree that "Beliefs, values, norms, and social practices are the ingredients of cultural patterns" (P. 98). These attributes must evolve to change the narrative surrounding the climate debate from the question of it is existence to the acceptance of its actuality to propel global cohesion on multiple fronts exacerbating uniform consensus on reasonable and attainable course corrections for the entire human race.
From this perspective, humanity might change its cultural values to match that of the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Because norms create the expectations of a culture, new norms can emerge (Lustig and Koester, 2013, Chapter 6). Consequently, the cultural patterns amongst the various cultures worldwide might coincide with the preservation of natural resources, protection of natural habitats, and significantly reducing waste from agriculture, perpetuating a global shift in concessions on pollution. Commonly known amongst people lies the notion that governments tend to react only when required. People amongst cultures must collaborate to infiltrate social systems to enroll needed climate protections; the likelihood that governments around the world will unite increases substantially.
A shift in world orientation might permeant a real convergence in human activity towards that of harmony with nature differing from that of the recent past among many of Earth's cultures. The propensity for war, violence, tolerance, and ambiguity comes from these attributes of cultures and society, so if this is true, humanity also carries the weight of correcting dangerous paths of passage from one landscape to the next. Sometimes, life is so complicated that only the strong among a particular culture may survive. In other cultures, life may not seem quite as difficult because of their cultural patterns within their societies tend to take care of their own. These are the characteristics that make up societal and cultural patterns on this planet. Cultures are complex entities encapsulating a wide array of attributes unique to the varying circumstances of geographical location and historical truths.
Concluding remarks
Humans should find a way of getting around, yet how to accomplish this task of survival often depends on how well we have assimilated within a culture to which we belong. In this light, one discovers that enacting lasting regulations on combatting climate change; society must realize that each individual plays a role in the battle. Multiple techniques exist to interact amongst different cultures effectively but are commonly laid out for us determined by those before us. Going back to harmony with nature like Native Americans might prove beneficial on this universal front.
People can reduce meat consumption, as most of our water pollution emirates from agricultural runoff and chemical contamination from meat and milk production, particularly that from cows. According to Arocena et al (2017), "The urgent need to implement best management practices at the farm-scale within each basin, focusing on adequate phosphorus fertilization, implementation of a complete dairy effluent treatment system and animal restriction to fluvial channels" (P. 76). Though every human competes for space to a certain degree, each of us lives on the same planet. With this in mind, each individual must partake in its sustainability to cohabitate effectively as each of us remain affected. Lustig & Koester (2013) state:
Cultural patterns provide the basic set of standards that guide thought and action. Some aspects of this mental programming are, of course, unique to each individual. Even within a culture, no two people arrive identically, and these distinctive personality differences separate the members of a culture. (p. 79)
If this is true, then so too, humans can reprogram themselves and, therefore, their cultures to adopt more holistic approaches to interacting together on this planet.
References:
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Weighting the impacts to stream water quality in small basins devoted to foraging crops
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