The quality of our environment affects all of us no matter where we live. When people abuse the environment, this affects us all. If water is polluted, if the air is full of smoke and chemicals, if food contains poisons, people (and plants and animals) are harmed. Many of the natural resources that we use or consume every day, such as water, wood, minerals and fish, will soon run out if we do not limit the rate at which we use them. All people have a responsibility to protect and use the environment so as to ensure that it will be protected for ourselves as well as future generations.

Many people believe that human needs are more important than the environment and believe that our major aim should be promoting economic growth and creating jobs while the green (environmental) agenda should take second place. Some people feel hurt or insulted when others show concern over endangered species like rhinoceros when children do not have enough to eat.

However, the environment is really the whole planet on which we live. Everything (winds, trees, animals, insects, people, etc) forms part of the living system of earth. Because the earth has been so badly exploited and not protected, this has created changes in weather patterns – there are more droughts and more floods, good farm land is turning into desert, temperatures are rising and most importantly, the ozone layer that should protect us from the dangerous rays of the sun has been damaged and is not functioning as effectively as it did before. All of this impacts on how people live and is the reason why the concept of sustainable development is becoming more and more important.