I do. I think that we should be responsible for all the pollution we throw out into the environment and we should be doing the best we can to fix it...

Do you believe that we are responsible for the environment?

Yes, we're responsible. I consider it like brushing teeth: you don't have to do it all of the time, just enough to keep it under control. And that's how I feel. =D

I don't even know anymore. I hear things that support the existence of global warming, and, I hear things that don't. I believe that we do have an effect, but, I'm not sure if it's more or less than what it is already perceived to be. However, I do believe that it goes through cycles of varying degrees and that we are entering a warmer one anyway.

I think we are responsible to maintain the environment.... there are places around the world that are dead zones because of all the pollution that has been dumped into the water. That's disgusting. I think people in general need to cut back on their consumption. There was a time when you mended clothes, fixed machines when they broke, purchased 1 car every 10-15 years and so on.... I think we need to get back to that sort of lifestyle in the "West".

Some people have started trying to be that way... but I think they have wasted their time on the global warming idea rather than trying to reduce REAL pollution. There are things that I would consider 10 times worse that carbon dioxide... cause carbon dioxide is plant food, not pollution.

We are, though I think global warming is a thing that happens like every million years.

I am not going to touch the global warming part of this.

Are we responsible? Yes. Like Geeo said, there are areas of the world that are dead because of us. There are giant piles of garbage and plastic floating in the oceans, the air in China and Mexico City will kill your lungs if you breath it too long because of all of the smog. The mindset that we have been in since the Industrial Age began has been one that has done nothing good for our world and we should take responsibility for that and try to fix it. The Green movement is finally picking up steam, and I am glad for that, but it is a long road ahead before we can seriously have a hope of rehabilitating areas where more serious damage has been done.

Global warming was just a poor choice of words when they really meant "climate change". Sure, the earth has heat cycles and cooling cycles. But that doesn't explain the oil in the gulf. No one else is responsible for the environment, since no one else can impact it like we can. Sure, cows farting creates a lot of pollution. But who forced into creation all those cows? We're constantly assaulting the environment on all fronts, burning and tearing down the forests, polluting the air, emptying the ocean of all life while filling it with pollutants making it harder for what little life is left to survive. Even if we start taking more and more action now, I think it's too late to save the world from ourselves. Unless we all stop eating fish and using boats and dumping garbage and drilling for oil and trawling and diving and everything else we do, the oceans are dead in the next 100 years, I estimate. We're going to overcrowd and over consume what's left of our hospitable land space. I say the human race, and maybe almost all life on earth, is gone within 500 years. Yeah, I'm a pessimist. Better than living in deluded blissful ignorance? Probably not.

definitely! we are the ones living here, controlling what is happening right? so we should take the blame for everything wrong that has happened. we are the ones burning these fuels, throwing garbage into the streets/water/etc., so i do believe we are responsible.

Elara : well, I think the green movement is an extreme reaction to what is going on. I agree that something needs to be done, but if you take the time to read and learn about what some of the leaders of that movement are pushing for it's very nearly the complete reversal of technological advancement.

I think there is a safe middle ground between cleaning up the environment, living cleaner less polluting lives and still having the technology and lifestyle we enjoy now.

I said this somewhere else on the board with regards to a different thread but I feel it applies here even better.... we don't have a population problem, we have a consumption problem. I think we could all cut back on what we use/eat/waste etc. We are a part of the most frivolous and wasteful society that has ever existed (in my personal opinion... I have no numbers to back that up).

And even that could go into another cause. Population. The population of Earth has been continuously rising. It has been doing so much faster in the past than today. Now days I feel population growth is slowing down. As more countries turn developed population control starts appearing. So where there could be more consumption of resources (and poverty) and waste there is less. The population is still growing, but just at a slower pace. This can lead to extra time to solve problems of the environment caused by humans.

Personally, I do not think that Population has much of anything to do with the state of the environment. I say that because 90% of all population growth occurs in countries that consume about 12% of the planet's resources. That means that the U.S. a country that is responsible for less than 10 percent of the earth's population is consuming most of the earth's resources. I agree with geeogree when he said, "We do not have a population problem, we have a consumption problem."

I get all of my statistics from a class that I am currently taking in college. I needed another core class, so I decided to take BIO 106- Environmental Life Science. I took this class thinking that it would be an easy A, but it is really opening my eyes about the state of the world in which we live. We are completely responsible for the environment. I know that this is not the "Christian" board, but I feel that I need to state the fact that I am one before I say my next statement. I believe that God gave us this planet to take care of and we are doing an incredibly shoddy job of it. It puts me in mind of a teenager who's given a shiny new car for his birthday by his parents. He can use it carefully and follow a set of rules in order to make it sustain him for a while, or he can use it recklessly, not getting the oil changed, not rotating his tires, and driving like a bat out of hell every time he goes anywhere. We as humans are the reckless drivers. We've been given something beautiful and we are doing our dead-level best to destroy it.

What we as humans need to do is to at least try to work towards being a sustainable society. This calls for sacrifice. The sacrifice of that new car every 2 years, the sacrifice of a new wardrobe every season, the sacrifice and hard work of growing your own food and consuming less meat. If we want this planet to last we must put forth a group effort. One small section of the country cannot do this on their own.

In class we had to calculate our "Ecological Footprint" on this website. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

Mine was a 4.1. That means that it would take 4.1 planets to sustain this world if everyone lived like me. I was definitely surprised. Some of the people in the class had a score as high as 8. And I do not live in a highly industrial town nor is my town that large. I can only imagine the ecological footprint of some of the celebrities that we aspire to be.

If people don't get serious about the environment soon, there won't be one left.

I do realize that we as a human race are responsible for the environment, and that most of the worlds resorces are being sucked dry by the U.S. and countries like Canada and China, but the fact of the matter is that everybody knows that we have made a negative impact on the planet, and it's gonna have to take something really big to change our perspective on things, and by the time that everybody faces facts and accepts that something has to be done, it may very well be too late for us to make a large impact anymore.

I do believe that we are responsible for the environment. I don't think that just throwing a candy wrapper on the ground will make a huge difference but if you dump oil or paint in the ocean then yes it will make a significant difference.

Just like our great community it will mass up and destroy us( last part isnt us). We cant prevent but we need to figure out wat to do from here

I think that we and the animals are responsible for the environment. We use nonrenewable energy that is polluting the air and certain animals produce gas expulsions(a.k.a farts), but it is mostly us humans responsible for the environment.

I think we are very responsible for the environment. For us actually taking that responsibility, I think we haven't done that great of a job overall, although recently we have made several strides against pollution and the like.

Yes I do believe we are responsible for our environment. I believe it is our duty to keep it nice, clean and beautiful. After all...we live in it and nobody likes to live in a pigsty. RENEW, REUSE, RECYCLE! DON'T BE A LITTERBUG!

I believe that we should at least try to keep the planet that has been made for us clean. We make such a mess and people and animals have to pay for it, the animals can't clean it up so we should.

I too think that we are responsible for the environment. I think that we don't have to do some big thing to change that, though. If we all do little things, like recycling paper or plastic, or get solar panels, then we will be able to help it. I always get annoyed when I see someone throw away a recyclable thing, because that tells me that person doesn't care for the environment. I hope people get the message and stop dumping things in the lake. We have enough land and power already! All destroying trees is doing is reducing the human races time on earth. Thankfully, people ARE trying to help the environment, and if everyone acts like them, then there might still be hope for this planet. People used to make fun of hippies and told them the world would always survive, but look at us now. Maybe they had a point. Maybe, if we all do little things to help the environment, it will go a long way.

We are the only animals on Earth that pollute it. All the others are part of some sort of cycle in which they play their part. If it's our fault the Earth is warming up and we have the technology and possibility to change something about this we should. If the Earth warms up more than 2°C (sorry i'm european ) the planet will continue to warm itself up and we won't be able to reverse this, so yes we should do something about it and yes it's our responsibility.

Kisses,
Kitty