Environmental ResponsibilityBy: Virgil

Each and every one of us enjoys traveling from time to time, especially in the Western side of Europe or other well developed countries around the world. Primarily, we travel to visit, but also to observe the habits of different cultures. After we return, we feel we have to share the experience with our friends. However, all the positive conversations about the view, sights, landscape and clean environment end when we come back to Romania. Once back home, endless complaints start: “You can’t even compare Romania to Western Europe!". Whenever a conversation comes to this point, I pause for a minute and I ask myself: “What is it that Romania is missing? Don’t we also have beautiful views, sights and landscapes?” Actually we do, but they lack proper conservation and are mostly populated by litter.

This makes me wonder: what is the secret of the other more developed countries? Why they are clean and why are those citizens more responsible? I have compiled a list of examples that will hopefully give you a clue about how other governments managed to change people’s habits concerning the environment.

In Germany, the fines are so high that grandparents warn their grandchildren they may face "great consequences at home" if they litter the streets. The same happens in Greece - a highly polluted country until the 60’s - 70’s - when the fine for littering was as high as a salary. Parents were telling their children before going to school to be careful not to throw garbage in the street: “If I have to pay my whole salary to the police, you’d better not come home at all!” An overseas example is Singapore. Until the 60’s this country was facing serious problems regarding the environment pollution, but the prime minister of that time imposed very strict regulations and mobilized the

people for change. Henceforth, Singapore is known as one of the most developed countries, with the most civilized people, but also one of the nations boasting some of the harshest and very strict laws. And this is a great example of how an entire nation was mobilized to change their habits regarding the environment and reshape the landscape.

Now let's have a look at what our environmental habits are. We have insufficient knowledge about selective disposal of garbage: how many of us know exactly what types of plastic can be recycled? We ignore the way we use paper, especially at the workplace and we avoid taking some responsibilities which would reduce individual usage. Moreover, many of us show apathy towards environmental activities. I'm hoping that we could take as examples the citizens of Greece and Singapore and really make a positive shift in our attitude towards the environment. It seems to me that in Romania there is a big opportunity for social and environmental campaigns which would transform our bad habits and negative attitudes. Most of the NGOs are in pursuit of “changing” us and large-scale actions are implemented to achieve this: from tree planting and ecological projects to awareness campaigns. Hopefully, in 50-60 years, all these actions will become an example for other countries.

Considering all these facts, I wonder if this is the right way to solve this problem. Are any of these actions able to really make a difference? Shouldn’t we follow another path - for example that of law empowerment? I tend to think that the second option of law abiding is more efficient than any social campaign, even though it would be unfriendly for many of us. People are unwilling to pay a fine as high as half of their

salary for throwing garbage on the street. I believe that maybe we should be also implementing harsh laws and ensuring they are upheld.

In my opinion, this is the root of the problem and without the fear of law all actions might be futile and won’t lead to any change. Until people actually pay fines for throwing garbage out their windows, and for polluting the environment with all types of garbage, no change is possible. The undesirable actions of “mobilizing people by force” are still applicable, even if we try to replace them with social and environmental campaigns. I will end with a question that has been troubling me for a while: "What is the best option for Romania: stricter regulations and laws or social campaigns?

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