We teach our kids not to litter and our salaries push us to save water, but in general, most people have a casual attitude towards protecting the Earth and its resources.
In the past few decades, people have started becoming concerned with preserving natural resources but only because we have been warned that we may be depleting the resources we so depend on. Images of homeless polar bears are being pushed out as warning signals to scare people into caring.
But temporary concern isn’t enough. There has never really been a mainstream cultural ethos about preservation and stewardship. Our kids are read stories about Native Americans and their strong ties to the Earth and their resourcefulness, but how much can they relate to? Pocahontas is now just another Disney princess. So here is the question – has technology placed another barrier between the Earth and us?
Ever since the Industrial Revolution, man has been in a race – against himself. To develop a newer, better, faster, more efficient technology to replace previous ones and to provide a replacement for human labor. We’ve grown from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian society to one where three year olds play Angry Birds on iPads.
While technology and “development” are moving us further away from tilling soil, we are moving even further away from understanding how our actions impact the Earth. The concept of the “ecological footprint” is now gaining traction.
In the past decade, Environmental Studies has become more prominent as a major at colleges and even as class in schools. Documentaries such as Planet Earth and the Blue Planet have influenced students to become bio majors and start nature appreciation groups on campus. Companies are also integrating environmental conservation into their corporate social responsibility programs.
Why is this important? Not because by the time we become senior citizens the glaciers will have melted or Venice will be submerged, but because we have to take on the mantel of passing on lessons not only to the next generations, but also to our contemporaries.
Cultivating a respect for the Earth is up to us. Stewardship is an ideology that maintains that humans are responsible for protecting the Earth for all living beings, instead of taking advantage of it and leaving the other organisms our leftovers.
And being environmentally and ecologically responsible is for our own good too, not just for endangered species. Our health, our economies, our development, our future all depend on our current response to environmental issues.
Why do we care? We at Maxim believe in stewardship and we believe in protecting women’s health. Our products are consciously made so as to pose less dangerous side effects to our environment and women’s health!
Help us protect the Earth and chip in any way you can. If you’re in college, take an environmental science class. Or, write a blog about environmental issues that concern you (there are dozens of topics from overfishing to more frequent earthquakes). Watch the gorgeous documentaries above and share them with your friends. Contribute time or donate money to an NGO working to preserve our ecological systems. And share your ideas of how to help with us by commenting below!
The Green Feminine Hygiene Queen 