Social / Problems / Attitude Problems / Delayed Feedback Mechanism

This mouthful of a title essentially deals with one simple thing. That any destruction or improvement made to the environment is not immediately visible, it takes time. Humans tend to look and concentrate on the now, not the future, especially when there are other pressing concerns. This explains why the environment isn't high on the list of priorities.

If you burn down a forest today, it doesn't become a desert overnight. Fishes aren't going to go extinct overnight due to a fishing trip or two. Its hard to relate spraying CFCs to the wreckage of the ozone layer and global warming.

This also explains why the environmentalists are being slighted – people believe what they see. If the full impact of the devastation they are causing isn't spelt out in their faces, they are simply going to assume that environmentalists are kicking up a big fuss over nothing and grossly exaggerating matters. Thus, with the mentality that they aren't causing "that much" environmental damage, they continue and environmental degradation increases exponentially.

At the end of the day, all that matters is this catchphrase: all goes round comes around.