Three Broad Trends in Conservation and Sustainability: 2021 Environmental conservation attracts more and more attention every year. Consumers want sustainable products, journalists are focusing on environmental issues, and engineers are working on green technology. People are going to keep striving to protect the environment in the coming year, and there are a few areas that are likely to get a lot of attention.
Expanding Corporate Sustainability Programs Many consumers have shown that they will pick a sustainable product over the alternatives if one is available. Corporations are starting to respond to that demand by adopting green policies. Some are reducing waste by eliminating unnecessary packaging. Others are changing their products to eliminate harsh pollutants or working to source materials from sustainable producers. Even a small change can add up quickly for popular products, so these new policies will be vital for protecting the environment.
A Focus on Marine Ecosystems Water covers the vast majority of the world. The health of the oceans can serve as a rough indicator of the environment's condition as a whole. The precise mixture of chemicals in the oceans are particularly important. For example, agricultural runoff can lead to dangerous algal blooms. The extra nutrients cause a rapid increase in the local algae population, which lowers oxygen levels in the water. That decrease can obliterate the local coral population, kill fish, and cause massive harm to the ecosystem. That hurts both the environment and industries that depend on the ocean, which ensures that people care about the issue.
Individual Contributions Will Grow Governments and large corporations are working to protect the environment, but individuals are also making massive contributions to conservation efforts. Many people contribute by changing their lifestyles to reduce waste, but they can also take a direct approach. Modern technology makes it easy for people to document problems as they occur and publicize them over the Internet. Documenting a problem is the first step on
the path to fixing it, so that sort of publicity can be a key part of the conservation process. It can also help researchers and engineers discover the full extent of the issue so they can figure out how to fix it. That kind of personal contribution is only possible because of modern social media, and it will only become more common as more people learn to put it to good use.