The Threat to the Environment
The environment has over the recent few years been under threat by human activity. Air and water pollution which are the major effects of improper disposal of wastes have been on the rise year after year. Global statistics indicate that if this trend is not curbed, we are likely to experience devastating times of drought and famine due to global warming. This worrying trend is what has prompted environmental researchers such as Bill McKibben and Derick Jensen to write about whom they thought bears the greatest responsibility in the management of wastes. Bill McKibben's essay "Waste Not, Want Not" first published in Mother Jones in 2009 advocates for simple living so as the rescue the environment from unwanted wastes. He therefore attributes how we live as a probable cause of the wastes that are eating into our environments. Derick Jensen's "Forget Shorter Showers" on the other hand is an essay that refutes McKibben's argument that associates the wastes to individuality. Jensen's argument is that those in authority are the ones to be blamed for the wastes that have taken over the environment.
Thesis: The Role of Individuals and Authorities in Waste Management
Although the essays differ on trying to unravel who is behind the wastes that have devastated our environment, they both acknowledge that in one way or the other that both individuals as well as the authorities have a role to play in waste management.
McKibben's Argument: Individual Responsibility
McKibben's essay blames individual activity for the wastes that have ruined our environment. He attributes the huge heaps of wastes on human extravagancy which makes them end up purchasing and being in ownership of things that they do not really need. These wastes range from the plastic bottles we use as well as the bags we carry items with which end up in to our rivers and oceans because we don't have proper waste disposal mechanisms (Jensen 332). The author also attributes our desire to own things that are no longer in use, he terms this as the old-fashioned waste. He therefore recommends that for wastes to be significantly reduced, it should begin from us as individuals taming our extravagant culture of being in ownership of things we do not even need as well as items that are considered hazardous to the environment such as plastic.
Jensen's Argument: Authority Responsibility
Jensen's essay on the other hand refutes claims made by McKibben that wastes can be tamed from an individual level. Derrick Jensen instead argues that the responsibility of waste management lies on the authority and that those in power are the ones that are responsible for the environmental degradation and global warming. He argues that it is the responsibility of the authorities to ensure that proper waste management mechanisms are put in place so as to curb improper waste disposal. According to Jensen, those in authority have failed in their role, he gives an example of corporation's management that has failed in its role of ensuring that the wastes emitted by its corporation, are proper managed and disposed using correct waste disposal channels so that they don't end up polluting both the air and water resources (Jensen 341).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, both arguments presented in both essays by McKibben and Jensen respectively are strong and valid. This is because both individuals and the authorities are responsible for the waste mismanagement therefore, both of them should take responsibility of developing mechanisms that would aid in proper waste management.
