Idea of progress

IDEA OF PROGRESS

I’m going to deal with the notion “idea of progress”. This notion underlines urban developments and scientific techniques which improves the world by reducing our impact on the planet. But it also underlines the political and social progress in our society like during the Civil Rights Era. I think that, even though the Civil Rights Era’s history is truly important, it is more relevant today to talk about the ecological aspect of the progress. I may wonder if it is possible to reduce our negative impact on the planet by transforming our cities and our ways of consuming.

To illustrate this notion I will focus on the text titled “the zero waste family” written by Starre Vartan in 2013. This text is about a family that produces only one liter of trash a year. I’ll also talk about the photograph showing a roof garden maintained by culinary chefs in New York and the report on the tiny house movement.

On one hand the text entitled: zero waste family highlights the facts that some people take initiatives to consume less which contrasts with our consumer society. That’s why Bea Johnson, a mother of a zero-waste family decides to buy very few clothes. Indeed the textile industry is extremely polluting.  The goal is to reduce at the maximum the waste in order to prevent events like a continent made of plastic or straws in turtle’s nose.

On the other hand, the roof garden photograph also shows that we can change the way we consume, in particular by eating more locally. Indeed, we can see that it is possible to picking up vegetables in town and more particularly on the roofs. This new type of cultivation limits the trucks journey of vegetables and fruits between the producer and the consumer and therefore less air pollution.

Contrary to the first and the second document the report doesn’t show a new way of consuming but a change of habits by living in a small house. The benefits of living in a tiny house are numerous. You are actively thinking about arrange the small number of furniture that you need, you save money because it is more economic to heat and supply your house with water and electricity. Also you are more mindful of your holdings because with less space it is easier to mess up your house.

From my opinion, these three documents are proof that we can all reduce our impact on the environment, whether we are urban planners by creating pedestrian zones, farmers by developing roof gardens or even all of us.

Each document has shown us that everyone has a possibility to help the planet.

Indeed, Bea Johnson took drastic measures for her own family. She use only reusable bags and now makes her own bulk bags from old sheets. She also brings her own jars to the supermarket for wet items.

In the third document, the report inform us that a mansion-sized house is a waste of materials, money and energy to build and live in.

The picture shows that everyone can promote a more virtuous lifestyle as the two chefs who were photographed on the roof garden.

To conclude, we have seen that it is possible to have a better impact on our planet by changing our habits and by implementing small actions such as limiting our waste. The quarantine induced by the coronavirus results to the cessation of human activity. It leads to an amelioration of the environment and is a live demonstration of the impact of our way of life on the Earth. The water of Venise is again clean enough for fishes and swans to live in, the air is way much purer and the sea wildlife is regaining its territory. We need our planet to be in a good condition if we want to live on it. We need the Earth but the Earth doesn’t need us.

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