What touched me about this lecture's discussion and stories was that one of the biggest issues around why no action is taken around things like water conservation and purification, crucial infrastructure collapse (panama canal example) and working to remedy problems in regions of huge environmental value (for provisions, support etc.) centers around weak and poor government that 1. Does not care about the collapse of these areas because they do not profit from them, 2. Because they are poorly organized/corrupted to look the other way, and/or 3. Lack the financial ability to invest in technologies or, more generally, any long-term remedy to the solution if the solution is very expensive. This is a place where I feel very underqualified, very disheartened and hopeless as an individual. I do not know much about policy or policy-makers, I do not know much about different governments, but it brews heavy emotion in me, because it bothers me that we must rely on the most wealthy (not our government) to take action when our natural resources and humans (as well as other animal lives) are suffering (such as from lack of clean water). We as individuals many times do not care about the events in other countries (even when they may indirectly affect us). We do not always care about the value of our renewable natural resources, the value of clean, potable water for example. However, there are larger corporations that have to care, that must care for their profits. I feel very strongly that governments should care more about their natural resources and value them more highly than the larger corporations do.
In this case, I would ask or bring to the table the idea that more stable governments first consider options of conservation and protection of land under government acts so that the care and stability of these critical regions lies in the hand of the government (which individuals have more power to reach and discuss with) rather than allowing for the wealthy to buy the land with the assumption that “it’s theirs, they can do whatever they want with it and that they will likely care for it adequately”. This should also go together with investing in water purification technology so everyone may have access to the basic need that is clean, safe water. My next ask would be that stable governments whose economies rely on certain resources from other countries that have weaker governments, converse with the weaker ones in a way that may sway them to think along similar lines of conservation, allotting a budget for the conservation (more so maintenance for continued use) of their valuable resources such that stable governments can continue to profit (as much as I hate the idea that everything needs to revolve around profit, my fear is that there are few other terms to discuss in that will be as persuasive as money). Ideally, we would reform these weaker governments entirely, force them to see the value of their natural resources and invest in technologies such as for water purification for the safety of their people. I know this is a large task, but as I learn more about different governments and how government relationships and conversations work, my hope is that my ideas will become more clear and precise. This is only a start.
This is very true! We accept that the government simply does not do enough when we should be concerned that THEY are not concerned with the action of large corporations.