Thinking about the future, that can indeed be a scary thought. I remember the years of my childhood, my teens, my 20's and 30's and that all seems so very long ago. During those years, there was no mention of global warming, no thought of pandemics or killer virus, no dread of starvation or depletion of fresh drinking water. We, of course had the threat of nuclear bombs, but we still have that threat and at this point in time, this is a bigger threat now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Now, we have more terrorist countries that have the capability of creating a nuclear bomb and carrying the destruction of mankind to its ultimate end.
As I ponder all of the advances that mankind has created, I also ponder the cost of these same advances. How many species has mankind driven to extinction due to his never ending quest for more, more, more? Are we truly leaving a better world for our children, our grandchildren and their children? To me the scariest thought of all is the ignorance in which our society lives. We as a species, take it for granted that our beautiful planet will always provide us with food, fresh air and fresh water. We have taken no precautions to preserve the natural resources that has been provided to us by our planet, rather we take, take and then take some more. WE even expect it to be there forever! WE see the depletion of our rivers that provide fresh water for drinking, we see the depletion of our top soil that allows for crops to grow, we can look back at history and see the results of mankind's constant ill use of the natural resources and still we continue to take. Do we actually believe these things will be ours for the taking forever? Do we actually believe that one day, we will terra firm the planet Mars or the Moon so that once our Earth can no longer sustain our population, we'll just ship everyone to live in bubbles on Mars or the Moon?
We continue to populate our planet, take no measures to conserve or to engineer new methods to deter the amount of pollution we create in our air, water and earth. Consider if you will for just a moment, the volume of trash alone that is dumped into landfills, oceans and other waterways. Consider the amount of trash that we generate that will forever be buried deep within our soil. Just for one moment, think about the depletion of soil and water as we constantly destroy our forest, rivers and lakes, only to build more houses, stores, malls, and on and on. During the gas crunch when the average price of a gallon of gasoline had risen to above $4.00 a gallon, how many actually tried to conserve? How many were encouraged to car pool, ride a bike, ride the transit? Now, we are hearing, on (alternate energy sources,) to create alternative energy sources will unnecessarily cause a financial burden to those "poor" people who are already having a difficult time meeting high energy costs. I actually heard a Congressman say this and my question is: If we don't create new and efficient energy sources, what are going to do when our planet is plunged into another ice age or scorched beyond recognition due to solar radiation that reaches the planets surface due to the depletion of our atmosphere? It is a scientific fact that our sun produces more and more solar flares as it ages and these flares create stronger levels of solar radiation that reach our planet and with the steady depletion of our atmosphere, solar radiation will be allowed to reach Earth's surface at a more dangerous level.
Do we really want to continue to fool ourselves into thinking this is not going to happen? Are we so willing to wear blinders that we fail to see what lies before us? The Artic and Anartica ice sheets are melting at a phenominal rate, glaciers that have been on our Earth's surface for millions of years have melted to the point that they don't even appear on satellite any longer. Ocean levels are rising, droughts, wildfires, floods, tornados, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, are all occuring more and more throughout our planet, and they are becoming more severe. Can we afford to continue to think these are not a direct result of mankind's constant depletion of the atmosphere, through deforestation, over population and soil depletion.
At what point do we as humans, stand together and say, "Enough is enough, we must take measures to save our planet, to save our existence and the existence of the plant, animal, bird, and insect species that inhabit this Earth with us?" Once it's gone, it's gone and we are unable to recreate what was here. No matter how many science fiction movies or books there are that would have us believe we can survive, once we have caused the extinction of our planet, we will no longer exist.
WE must as a species take action now, to preserve our beautiful planet Earth, we must work together, not just as a nation, but as a whole, the entire world population must make the same effort or we will lose.Every country, every government, every man, woman and child must make the effort. Make no mistake, we cannot control Mother Nature and she will win in the end. Can we afford to let our ignorance, our hate for other cultures and way of life deter us from this a common goal? Open your eyes, open your minds, we must find a way to work together if we don't..... we will all lose.