Thread: Why are issues surrounding enviormental harm more important now?

It seems that everything I read about green criminology begins with something along the lines of 'issues with enviromental harm are becoming increasingly more important' - I understand how population growth, globalisation etc. are the reasons why climate change and issues surrounding enviromental harm are more important but im trying to understand, why now? why is it emerging to becoming more important now? Is it advances in technology that allows us to gain a better understanding of what is actually going on and what can happen if we continue as we are thats making it more important? Or are there other reasons as to why we are finding it more important to discuss enviromental harm.

Therefore,

Why is it emerging to be more important?

Basically, our ability to impact our environment in serious ways is greatly multiplied by our technological advances. For example, when we had to use hand axes to chop down forests, our impact was lesser than today where we can clear entire swathes with machinery.

It's more important now than ever before because the scope and scale of our impact on the environment has never been greater.

-Technical advances which have allowed us to strip natural resources with increasing impacts over larger areas.
-Population increases of the developed world which are the biggest consumers and require those resources in often incredibly wasteful ways.
-Global media and social awareness that's allowed better communication of scientistic issues as well as local impacts in people for the human story.

Just look at the difference with individuals using lines to catch tuna, taking hours and days to get in a few dozen tons of fish.

Then see the difference with fishing boats trailing lines of hooks for miles and killing turtles, sharks and seabirds indiscriminately and taking hundreds of tonnes of fish.

Some modern trawlers literally scour the sea floor as clean as a kitchen floor and take everything away. Not just the fish they want. Everything. They leave no seaweed or sea grasses to act as nurseries or cover for smaller fish and/or the foods they eat and they can destroy whole local ecologies in particular areas in just one pass.