Environmental awareness: who is responsible?

Environmental awareness means the individual's recognition of their relationship with the environment: the need to live harmoniously with the environment, the sustainable exploitation of its natural resources, as well as recognizing local environmental problems [such as air pollution, water pollution and food contamination] before proposing the most appropriate methods to address them. This right to a clean environment is problematic because who is responsible for enforcing that right? The individual? Or society? Which institutions are responsible for it? Is it a daily responsibility? Some people place the priority for environmental education at home. Others think that education and environmentalism must go hand in hand. Some even see environmentalist culture as an intellectual luxury, or cultural vanity. According to that belief, environmentalism is of very minor importance and lies at the bottom of the hierarchy of human needs because there are much important things such as providing a living, a decent house and other essentials for life. One might say that our deserts are vulnerable to daily contamination because of the wind raising local soil and clay soil from far-off places contaminating everything, no matter how hard we try to clean it up. However, I think that the issue of the environment is one of the most important human problems, due its close association with the essence of life: the home, through the street and the neighbourhood, ending with the larger environment: the city or the country. A sense of responsibility and a sense of citizenship are the main pillars in any culture of the environment, and the preservation of it. Perhaps the best way to achieve a clean environment is through a very simple and direct answer: that by achieving cleanliness within the citizen's environment it will lead, in turn, to enhancing the wider environment (*). Experts in environmental studies agree that awareness means the development of humans' behaviour towards their surroundings through a process of building perceptions, skills, values and the appreciation of the relationships between humans, civilization and one's natural surroundings. Apparently, the reality is different. That spirit of citizenship is absent. Citizenship is simply one’s bond with a specific spot of land, any person who settles in a state, or holds its nationality and is an active participant in its ruling, abides by its laws, enjoys a set of rights, and commits to a range of duties towards the country. That concept is absent. Instead there is a continuous demand for rights without commitment to the duties - including the duty to protect the environment. The citizen who only pays attention to his own house while contaminating the area around his home, throwing garbage, spilling dirty water in the streets and helping to form pools of dirty water which his children, as well as other children, will soon play in - are they a conscious citizen with a sense of citizenship? Of course not. How can we classify the citizen who does not respect the dates for taking out the trash, throwing his garbage whenever he wants and does not care if it becomes a home for stray animals, or gets tampered by children? He might even wait until the workers finish cleaning the streets to throw out his garbage. Does that citizen have a sense of citizenship? If we talked about the state of our markets, streets, and facilities; if we talked about the building waste, our dusty streets with their pot-holes and drainage pipes next to drinking water pipes; once we got started, we wouldn't be able to stop. Is the municipality the responsible institution for the cleanliness and protection of the environment? Civil society, with its associative, partisan, trade union, and public facilities with young people, scouts and others - is that responsible? Do you think the forums held in universities are enough; do you think that the local associations can succeed in establishing sufficient awareness among the citizens or even its members to create an environmentalist culture to protect the environment? Where is the vital educational role of the religious establishment? About two years ago, the Algerian Ministry of Environment sent a booklet -- prepared in conjunction with the Ministry of Awqaf -- to every mosque in Algeria to help imams guide people in protecting the environment. I’m sure that most of them didn’t read it because people always seem to ignore such issues. The situation doesn’t bode well. We have the right to be pessimistic, especially because of the mentality of the Algerian citizen to naturally reinforce the idea of the separation between citizen and authority from the colonial era, so he thinks that the belongings of the state -- or anything under its supervision -- are of no interest to him. That mentality is entrenched in the mentality of the elected officials, and the worker in the public sector, and the employees. As long as this is the case there is no wonder we see most municipalities only paying attention to clearing away the garbage. What is left for us to do? Are we going to reiterate that the right of a clean environment is a genuine right of the citizen, acknowledged by our religion? The right to a healthy life depends on the citizen himself, not on the municipality or any other institution. Citizenship includes duties and rights and duties should come first. There is no doubt that we are in dire need of attention to the environment and nature around us, as we are part of it. Neglecting it will have an adverse impact on us - this is what scientists expect. Neglecting the environment will bring diseases and trouble, polluted air and unclean water. Protecting the environment around us may not require a lot of work: we can protect the nature around us with very little effort. It is very important to live in a healthy natural environment. I believe that if Arab societies started placing waste in the correct locations, especially in high density areas, it will herald a promising first step towards protecting the environment and natural world around us. We must know how to live in peace with the surrounding environment. There is nothing wrong in allocating a part of every industrial or commercial project to the protection of the environment, and to make sure that these projects won’t harm the environment and nature. We must also support the companies which take the environment into consideration to encourage other companies to follow in their footsteps. We should also encourage civil society groups concerned with the environment, not only in the annual forestation campaigns but in all their efforts, and them the continuous support to help fulfill their role. Moreover, municipalities should pay attention to that role because if the environment deteriorates, diseases will spread. Citizenship means the conscious feeling of civic and national responsibility by the individual and the group. In my opinion, the individual should feel this responsibility before feeling awareness of the municipality or other institutions. The citizen has the right of a clean environment, but citizenship requires the participation of that citizen in maintaining the environment. (*) Rashid Al-Hamad, Mohammed Said Sparini / World of Knowledge Series, Kuwait. No. 22, p: 180 --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.