GRE ISSUE写作论证论据素材 环保类

　　1 环保论的概念

　　Environmentalism is a concern for the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment, such as the conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, and certain land use actions. It often supports the struggles of indigenous peoples against the spread of globalization to their way of life, which is seen as less harmful to the environment. The study of practical environmentalism is split into two positions: the mainstream “anthropocentric” or hierarchic, and the more radical “ecocentric” or egalitarian.

　　2 技术对环境的影响既明显又细微

　　The effects of technology on the environment are both obvious and subtle. The more obvious effects include the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources (such as petroleum, coal, ores, and the added pollution of air, water, and land. The more subtle effects include debates over long-term effects (e.g., global warming, deforestation, natural habitat destruction and coastal wetland loss.

　　Each wave of technology creates a set of waste previously unknown by humans: toxic waste, radioactive waste, electronic waste.

　　One of the main problems is the lack of an effective way to remove these pollutants on a large scale expediently. In nature, organisms “recycle” the wastes of other organisms, for example, plants produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, oxygen-breathing organisms use oxygen to metabolize food, producing carbon dioxide as a by-product, which plants use in a process to make sugar, with oxygen as a waste in the first place. No such mechanism exists for the removal of technological wastes.

　　Humanity at the moment may be compared to a colony of bacteria in a Petri dish with a constant food supply: with no way to remove the wastes of their metabolism, the bacteria eventually poison themselves.

　　3 经济对环境的影响

　　Nearly all of the postwar technologies which have caused large-scale pollution were developed and put into use in the capitalist countries first; then, driven by profit maximization and market domination, these same technologies were sold to socialist countries. Intrinsic greed of the capitalism system is really then more of a threat to the environment than other political systems.

　　Economic growth and a cleaner environment are not mutually exclusive. The question of how to improve the environment while still enabling balanced or sustained economic growth remains. This balance is possible, if we carefully plan ways to use available technology to spur economic growth and solve ecological problems at the same time. The current method of controlling emissions of toxic substances antagonizes incorrect beliefs that ecology and economy are mutually exclusive elements. The main reason for an increase in pollution is due to postwar changes in the technology of production. For example, our refuse piles have dramatically increased due to an increase in disposable goods; synthetic products are used in place of natural, decomposable ones; and the amount of energy and fuel has increased dramatically to produce goods. A shift towards decomposable goods would continue economic growth, decrease garbage growth.