Friday, September 30, 2005

Where Do We Go From Here?


Pollution, disease, famine, drought, energy, and war; These are the main general concerns of the human race today and most likely, in the foreseeable future. We spend billions of dollars, conduct rallies and protests, create new laws and regulations, yet none of these problems are going away, in fact, they are getting worse. I have two reasons for this.

1. Population growth: It just can't be ignored that humans are continually taking up more and more space on planet Earth. We crowd out and defy nature and nature, in its own way, fights back and will ultimately win. Where humans are concentrated in densely populated cities, diseases thrive, resources dwindle and air, water and soil get polluted. Unless some kind of world-wide population control is done (don't count on it), we are going to get more of this. Also, conditions like this lead to large-scale discontentment, which leads to warfare.

2. Industrialization: America and Europe went through their industrialization periods in the last two centuries. Seemingly, the rest of the world is going through that now. So we are de-foresting and re-routing waterways to accommodate industry in Asia, South America, and Africa. Wetlands are nature's water filters and forests are nature's air filters and industrialization is destroying them.

We know the problems. What do we do? As I previously mentioned, we have thrown money at the problems and it seems that most people and governments rationalize that the problems still exist because we haven't thrown enough money at the problems, so we keep spending on better drugs, education, and scientific studies. Also, as I mentioned, we create new laws and regulations to curb emissions, save fuel, test our food better, and conserve water to name some. Is all this money and regulating solving anything? I don't think so.

So, to anybody who reads this, what is the solution in your opinion? I'll post mine next week.

4 comments:

Erik said...

while I agree with you that too much mone is being spent on studies and not enough on solutions part of the problem is we have a president,congress,senate, and supreme court right now that is favorable to business and their views so what's in it for them to change?

Erik said...

too much money I mean

Erik said...

Perhaps here is the following idea: With the current administration(you know how I feel toward them but this might work) offer incentives in terms of tax breaks to make more fuel efficiant cars HOWEVER if they fail to do so make them pay more in terms of taxes. I hate to say it but it might be time to drill in the Alaskan Wildlife Preserve I really don't want to but we might.

Robert E Wilson said...

We could and perhaps, should implement such a tax incentive plan. Realistically though, its a drop in the bucket. So is drilling in the Arctic refuge, which I am completely against. History is bound to repeat itself. Americans will get used to paying 3 to 4 for dollars a gallon of gasoline in a few years and go back to worrying about bragging rights of size over fuel economy.

My post is about the entire world-wide issues of overpopulation and dwindling resources. Small, seemingly cost-friendly solutions are not going to address the problems of a planet of 20 billion people competing for water, food, and energy.