Individuals can do nothing to improve the environment; only governments and large companies can do_agree or disagree

Question (Recent tests, Vol 6, test 1, task 2):

Individuals can do nothing to improve the environment; only governments and large companies can make a difference.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Answer:

A group of people claim that individuals cannot improve the environment; just the governments and large companies are able to do that. While another group hold a belief that all these three parties can contribute to that improvement. I am more in favor of the latter opinion.

Individuals could do a variety of actions to improve the environment. They can save the energy consumption by turning off all electronic devices which are not used. The process of producing energy such as electricity, heat and so on releases tons of emissions and waste. Therefore, the higher energy consumption saving, the better environment. Besides, people could change the habit of throwing rubbish on roads to putting it at a particular place with classification at source. This leads to the reduction of air pollution from domestic waste and the limitation of toxic waste to be released again to the environment without strict processing procedure. In addition, each person can minimize the usage of metal and plastic packaging such as steal coke cans, nylon bags. The process of decomposing or recycling such materials costs much money and time. Unless they are well decomposed or recycled, they will pose a threat to the environment.

In some contexts, it is likely that only governments and large companies instead of individuals can make improvements to the environment. They are nuclear plants, for instance, which release much waste from producing nuclear. Voice of individuals is not strong enough to change the situation. Hence, some legislation have to be issued by governments and implemented to limit the waste. Besides, air pollution brings much headache to all countries over the world. This problem is just tackled by the cooperation of all these countries. With financial support from large companies belonging to such countries, governments are able to run campaigns to raise awareness of people about air pollution and penalty for them if they break laws.

In conclusion, two or all three parties including individuals, governments and large companies have chance to contribute to the improvements of environment in a given context.