The fugitives of environmental crime are usually human beings. As much of a traitor as I may be by pointing the finger at my own race, human beings have a history of destroying the environment through their direct and indirect actions. Don’t you realize how much other life used to flourish on this planet? Isn’t it a little suspicious that as human beings continue to fill the planet and experiment with new technology that the environment suffers? The planet is much different that it used to be, and the human race is much larger and more widespread than ever before. These two statistics cannot be coincidental, which is why human beings are environmental fugitives.
Poachers, people who illegally hunt exotic animals for their furs, skins, horns, tusks, or meat, are number one on the environmental fugitives list. They are dangerous and direct killers of other animals on this planet. Of course, poachers are always humans; humans have guns, spears, and boats. Poachers hunt everything from African elephants to blue whales. One of the reasons why these hunters are such horrible criminals is that they tend to prey on endangered species; endangered species are more rare and exotic, after all, and fetch more of a profit.
Everyday, ordinary people who don’t recycle anything that can be recycled can be considered environmental fugitives. Sure, it is inevitable that the landfills will be stuffed with garbage at some point, but we can slow that down by recycling what we can. Paper, aluminum, plastics, and glass should all be recycled. It is environmentally unfriendly to simply throw everything into the trash bin and send it off to a landfill. However, this is an indirect environmental crime, for the person is committing an environmental crime by NOT recycling rather than directly killing an animal, so this is a crime that people aren’t trying to benefit from; it’s just unfortunate.
People who litter are environmental criminals. If you just toss your trash into the street, leave it on a park bench, or throw it into the ocean, then you are committing an environmental crime. Trash accumulates and becomes disgusting, not to mention the fact that other creatures may come along and eat it; however, they probably cannot digest plastic and foil wrappers, so this is deadly for the creatures that we share the environment with. Seriously, though, this is one of the easiest crimes to avoid. If you can’t find a place to throw your trash away, then just hold onto it until you can. Be patient! Patience does wonders to help in many aspects of life, so why can’t it work for the environment?
Wasteful people can also be considered environmental fugitives. By wasteful, I mean people who use up more resources than they need to use. For example, the people who insist on driving huge, gas-guzzling automobiles are sucking up our resources, which is an environmental crime. Excess and the desire for everything to be bigger and better can drive people to be more environmentally unsafe. Unfortunately, this is just a bad habit of people in the modern world.
Now, are all human beings horrible? Definitely not. If you leave a candy wrapper in the dining room by mistake, is there any reason to freak out? Definitely not. You don’t need to punish yourself for any environmental crimes you’ve committed (unless you’re a poacher, of course), but just be conscious of the impact you may be having on the environment, and try to turn it around. While all environmental fugitives are humans, not all humans are environmental fugitives.
