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It is a fact that people nowadays do not seem to care that much about the environment and how to get rid of all the pollution in the world. It seems as if it is more important for people to have a materialistically good life, with a car, or in many families several, all possible household machines, including a dishwasher and of course a microwave oven. They would not dispense from their car for anything in the world, just for the sake of the environment. As I see it there are two possible approaches to make people live like "borrowers" rather than "consumers". The first one is the information approach. Explain in different medias how our way of living affects the coming generations. What consequences our actions have for the world in the long perspective. Try to convince people that we have to let go of some of our possessions in order to lower the energy usage in society. Here I think it is important to try and get companies in industrialised countries to switch their focus from only economy to environment. Try to convince them that it is more profitable to use low-polluting materials, even though they might be more expensive at the moment. In the long run they will profit from using them, since the world will go under if they do not start using them. Explain to people that our children and grandchildren will use the same water and breath the same air as we do. I do not think that people really want their children to grow up in a world where you can not drink the water from a stream in the mountains, or breath the air in the cities without a gas-mask. The problem is that we are in a period where people have not yet experienced what pollution can do to the world. Scientists speak about holes in the ozon layer and abnormal fluctuations in the weather, but it is not often that people encounter environmental destruction themselves. The problem for the world then, is that it is the actions of the people living now that will decide the future for the earth. Therefore, we have to make people realize that we have to change now. The second approach then, would be to set up concrete regulations and laws to come to terms with the pollution. For instance, you could create a law which said that only one car per family was permitted. Also, you could make the regulations for how much toxic companies may expose the air to much harder. Put even harder taxes on petrol and give subventions to development of alternative ways of transportation. Finally, you could try to appeal to people's moral side, because I am convinced that they have one. What right do we have to treat the world like we want, when millions of people are going to use it for, hopefully, thousands of years to come. Who are we to decide if the world should survive or not .
