1 Modified by me on Canva
Hello steaming Steemians, happy to have you here again today after a great gift of Easter from God to mankind. Todays we shall start a first sequel of a new series on the environment with the focus on it's relationship with man (environmental psychology).
The environment has been considered as one of the most valued resources of mankind, but many people pay very little attention to the environment and are also unaware of the influences the environment has on them. The invaluable role of the environment to man justifies why interest in the environment has become so intense in professional and development circles today.
International, local organizations and communities are preoccupied with issues affecting quality environment, in the quest for person-environment fit (Krupat. 1985), the physical and social conditions that best suit our living needs at a given point in time.
Although the environment is a source for fortunes and misfortunes, a better environment is still a preoccupation of man since it's the only base for planning, organisation and operation. Current attention towards environmental management has been attributed to it's rapid deterioration and effects on human beings and society as regards development.
According to Arene;
Beautiful environments make people feel good while filthy environments repel people and even provoke apathy and odium in them
-Arene(1991)
This implies that human beings need to strive for a more attractive environment in order to experience pleasant moments and emotions. Some common variables affecting the environment are droughts, desertification, deforestation, natural disasters (earthquakes, floods etc.,), pollution, crowding, environmental design, illiteracy, poverty, corona, HIV/AIDS, accidents, etc., .
Although some of these disasters are natural, many are man-made and attributed to human thinking and behaviors. As builder and conqueror of the environment, man's perspective is to maintain an overall equilibrium with the environment and when this is upset, it's followed by mental consequences (Proshansky et al. 1976). The idea of the rapid deterioration of the environment and the need for redress has been the preoccupation of many local and international organisations.
According to World Bank Report;
The poor are both victims and agents of environmental damage and hence alleviating poverty is not only a moral imperative but also a pre-requisite for environmental sustainability and sustainable development.
-World Bank Report (1992)
This orientation, with those of other pressure groups, no doubts brings another impetus in environmentalism. The concept of environmentalism cannot be examined without the notion of the ecosystem and human ecology. In my next post on this sequel on environmentalism, we shall explore more into these concepts.
Thank you all for following through and let's meet again tomorrow for more insight.