Sustainability Reflection "Who is at fault?"

 

After researching on oil spills, the question leads back to “Who is at fault”? In our opinion, we feel that everyone has a responsibility to play in causing the oil spills, be it the government, oil exporters or various corporations. Based on the graphs we have found, we observed that the production of oil by the Middle East is largely above the quota set by the OPEC. Thus, we feel that it is human greed that causes this main issue of oil spills. When exporting larger amount of oil, the risk of an oil spill occurring will be greatly raised, hence, the blame can be placed on oil exporters too. Nevertheless, it is also the fault of the government for not controlling oil production tightly and not imposing stricter punishment. Thus, the problem of water pollution caused by oil spills will persist as long as human has the desire to always gain.

Sustainability is not easy to achieve because it would require the efforts of each and everyone. This is not possible since everyone of us greed. We greed for money and hence produce oil excessively, resulting in these environmental problems. There is certainly a long way to go before we can attain sustainability.

For Singapore, sustainable development means achieving both a more dynamic economy and a better quality living environment, for Singaporeans now and in the future.
However, most people are greedy. They will always put themselves as the first priorities, taking care of themselves, and perhaps their loved ones only. Many will only plan the future pathway of their own, but   not as a country.
At government/country level: All countries desire economis growth--earning profits to them is important. Therefore, especially to those developing countries, they need to use alot of natural resources, such as coal, fossil fuels as their main energy driving force. Although renewable resources are available in the attempt to save the earth, due to cost and the slow output, not all the countries are willing to pump in the money to make their development a more environmental-friendly one.
At company level: Most of them are private companies, which mean that they had invested a hefty sum of money in setting up the company. Therefore, although it seems that companies are trying to go-green by recycling paper, switching off lights when not in use, and using energy-efficient appliances,etc, they are doing on a selfish mentality(greed), in attempt to reduce their running cost. If saving the earth is on the basis of own profits, it is not possible to achieve full sustainability. This is because once the company is satisfied with their profit, they will go on with the other greater plan, which may not be good.
At individual level: People are greedy, in terms of convenience. People wanted to do things at comfortable pace, therefore, they may become selfish and do things that they wanted to be. For example, owning cars as a proof of their status. However, they do not consider of the pollution that will be resulted of it despite of the government effort to encourage to go-green.

These human greed hinder sustainability as not everyone is actively doing their parts. However, it is still possible that we can achieve sustainability with the raising concerns.