Antroposentrisme and The Way Nature Looks at Humans

“Anthropocentrism can be interpreted as an understanding that emphasizes a human-centric perspective, that humans are the center of the universe, so that nature is seen as an object to fulfill human interests that must be conquered and an object that is free to exploit so that it metamorphoses into a dictatorial ruler of nature.”

In today's era we are not only faced with war, territorial conquest and tension in Asia Pacific, but also faced with very complex challenges, be it the issue of survival, or the issue of the health of the earth which is included in the bases of life, however, it needs to be underlined, the tough challenge is not merely the act of nature, but there are factors such as; competitive, selfish from the subjects who are in this nature, serious problems for the world today, both from health, forest fires, floods and droughts which have become an anxiety for the world to this day. The world's anxiety that needs to be considered is the environmental problem which is a benefit for humanity, which is now contrary to the idealism designed for goodness and welfare. This anxiety is not present in recent consciousness, but rather this anxiety has been going on since the cold war so that it constructs In 1993 in Rio Janeiro, Brazil, only then did the nation state conduct environmental diplomacy and discuss these environmental issues at the UN, although this movement already existed in 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden. However, it could not produce satisfactory results. Because air pollution and global warming are increasingly unstabilized, countries are competing to build legitimacy axes such as military, nuclear and potentially damaging nature.

This environmental and natural issue has also been constructed to the fullest like the Kyoto protocol movement, where the Kyoto protocol seeks to address global warming by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 38 industrialized countries by 5.2% between 2008 and 2012. For the first time, legally binding targets and commitments were set and major economic players such as Japan, the United States, and the European Union pledged to reduce their emissions by 7%, 8%, and 9% respectively. If you look at the commitment, it is a historical entity that is the mastermind as the largest emitter in 1997, however, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) excludes developing countries from committing to the law, in 2006 a new country, China, surpassed America and India almost the same as the EU. Seeing this, of course the US does not want to be left behind in development, if it ratifies the Kyoto protocol which has not been able to equate emission reductions with firmness, then it will have implications for its economy and the perception will grow that the US will potentially leave the arena of world economic hegemony, and that also becomes a precedent for Japan and Canada. So that the Kyoto protocol has failed in dealing with the problem of global warming, because there is no significant reduction in gas emissions, as evidenced by a year after the first commitment, namely 2012, as much as 44% increased from 1997, many of these contributors are from developing countries that do not have firmness from the UNFCC. However, the construction of Kyoto was not completely a failure, because the experience inspired world countries to create the Paris Agreement where world countries are legally bound and nationally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by trying to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius or not exceeding 2 degrees Celsius, such as the EU targeting 95% by 2040 and America 50%-52% by 2030 and China reducing carbon emissions per unit of GDP by more than 65% as a construction due to climate change problems against the insensitivity of nation states in the past, that global warming can cause very worrying regeneration.

In the end, global warming has reached its climax agenda, where nation states are committed to continuing to be present in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because the climax has become a serious problem, namely Global Warming transforming into Global Boiling. Global Boiling is a phenomenon where the earth's atmosphere and climate are boiling or it can be said that the earth's temperature is the highest in an unprecedented period. This term was first stated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, at the UN Headquarters, New York in July 2023 ago. According to The National News page, as of July 6, 2023, it was the hottest day on earth since the global average temperature was first calculated, which has reached 17.18 degrees Celsius. The data was released by the US Centers for Environmental Prediction. In another study, the Climate Change Institute provides an overview of the increasing year-to-year period, the increase in the Earth's temperature has occurred quite significantly. The average global temperature in the 1979-2000 period was 16.25 degrees Celsius, and in 2023 it had increased to 17.18 degrees Celsius. This condition is the result of our insincerity in dealing with the increasingly uncontrolled reality of nature.

Looking at the implications of this reality, it is not just the word environment, but the impacts caused by our insincerity, namely the melting of the Arctic ice, food insecurity due to rising temperatures and changes in rainfall can make it difficult for farmers to plant crops and maintain livestock life and rising sea levels due to hot temperatures that can disrupt infrastructure and communities living in coastal areas and even increase the frequency of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and forest fires, which can cause the death of living things as has happened recently in Indonesia and the world. as the UN Secretary General said "For most of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, this (global boiling) has become a cruel summer. For the entire planet, this is a disaster. And for scientists, this is clearly due to human actions” (António Guterres, UN Secretary General).

(Human actions) can be underlined by the author as other behaviors and not people who are anthropocentric and that the movement is not only emphasized on State Centrics anymore, but all individual actors who live on earth must act collectively in these environmental struggles.

The author can analogize this reality with the disease "Diabetes" High blood sugar can damage blood vessels. So, if blood vessels are damaged, blood circulation throughout the body, including the heart, will be disrupted, so that it can cause other diseases to appear, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and nerve damage in the legs. The author can conclude that, if our attitude is indifferent to this problem, it can cause symptoms of other diseases that can erode the earth with its difficulty to treat again.

The competition that continues to be built results in going beyond the existing construction and even the one that has been built, affirmed from the evidence, data, analogies and realities above, that our awareness goes beyond wisdom in measuring needs. Often we understand, however, it is always ignored to fulfill the lust that still does not feel sufficient with the pretext of fear of being left behind.

Competitiveness that is built to stimulate us to develop to continue to advance and compete to be equal to it or even superior, but often see competition that is built far from being based on ethics, when ethics becomes the main point it should be the rule of the game and must be concretized, but the reality is often ignored.

Competitiveness gives birth to anxiety of moral universalism, the word moral universalism here can be interpreted as meta-ethics, universalists have a firmness in ideas and see things universally without recognizing countries, cultures, races, tribes or even religions, one of its concrete ideas is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Human Rights here can be contextualized with nature, because nature is part of human life, and a place where humans are able to fulfill their life needs in continuing life, when something we can call an individual, group or international society or even an international institution does and disrupts environmental stability, then it can be called injuring the idea of ​​universalism (Human Rights). Seeing this, will we view nature as an object of human interest that must be conquered? Many countries have committed to improving their perspective on the environment. Where they have switched to renewable energy as a response to the climate crisis and created Green Product Innovation to create a circular economy, seeing this phenomenon of course we do not touch on the conclusion of 'I' and 'we' so as to create egoism, but life must be interpreted to the word 'we', therefore, nature must be seen as a friend, not an enemy that must be conquered! because nature can also be manifested in the form of resistance.

Robbi Herfandi, Environmental Activist and International Relations Student, Andalas University

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