Propaganda is any organized, coordinated effort used to manipulate or influence the opinion of groups to support a particular idea, belief, attitude, viewpoint, cause or belief. Over the centuries, propaganda has taken the form of artwork, films, speeches, and music, though it’s not limited to these forms of communication.
Though its use is not exclusively negative, propaganda very often involves a heavy emphasis on the benefits and virtues of one idea or group, while simultaneously distorting the truth or suppressing the counter-argument.
The environmental issues in today’s world are growing more serious by the day. As a result, it is increasingly important for the schools and colleges to teach good environmental habits. Have you ever seen a student or teacher take a sip of water and then throw the plastic bottle away? This is not a good habit. I think we must start taking action to lessen our impacts on the environment. One way is to stop making plastic cups available to the students.
One main reason is that using plastic bottles is bad for the environment. Firstly, making the cups creates dangerous green houses gases. For each bottle, energy is required to both create the bottle and transport the bottle from the factory to the students. The use of electricity to make the bottles and the gasoline to move it all come from oil which is the number one contributor to green house gasses. Green house gases cause global warming. Secondly, as we can see, the bottles the bottles are often not placed properly in the bin and they end up blown into the ocean. This is a serious problem because as the plastic slowly breaks down into small particles, it makes its way into the fish. If the fish have too much plastic in them, the will surely die
It is also clear that getting rid of the plastic bottles will be good for the colleges and universities. Firstly, as stated earlier, the bottles are not thrown in the bins properly and thus creates a negative impression for people who visit the schools. For example, if you look in the empty classrooms in the late afternoon, the bottles are scattered around the schools—on the floors, desks and hallways. This does not give the college a good image with the public, who often come to the college in the evening for classes. Secondly, not having plastic bottles available will save money for the college. Simply put, the college will not have to buy the thousands of plastic bottles used each semester, this money can be used to buy books for the library or other educational expenses.
Many may argue that it is unfair to get rid of the plastic bottles. After all, people need to drink water, right? I understand this point of view. However, instead of using the plastic bottles, the students can bring in their own water bottles and water. The inconvenience of the plastic water bottles far outweighs the negative effects on the environment. Others may argue that getting rid of the plastic bottles might have a negative impact on the economy. I can see that this is a concern for everybody needs a job. We must, however, as a country, look towards a sustainable job creation. This means that we need to always seek ways to create jobs that are eco-friendly, like making solar panels or the materials to use wind energy. Certainly, if we invest in earth-friendly jobs, we will all be better off in the future.
Finally, it is clear the cups must go at our colleges and universities. The use to the plastic bottles is an old concept that may have been acceptable in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s but not anymore. We must change our ways, and starting with the plastic bottles here at the colleges is most certainly a reasonable start.
