The Future of Our World

by Kristen Pinsent, SUNY Cortland, June 20, 2007

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As a college student of the 21st century, I have been introduced to a lot of new events that have been both interesting and some that have been shockingly scary. I have found that I am passionate about certain things, that when I was a student in high school, these events mattered to me but were not as important as like: what I was doing on the upcoming Friday night. I have found that I am a feminist; this does not mean that I hate the male race and speak badly towards the male species- but that I believe in the female race as an extremely strong sex and want the same equality and respect that men are given in every aspect of life. My views on the female race and how much I respect strong minded and willed women, can be seen in my article of the Dixie Chicks.

Growing up, I have always been the more consciousness member of my group of friends with such things as throwing garbage out. I would always be the one recycling and throwing trash in the garbage. I would tell my friends to not throw their garbage out of the car (and still do) and tell them that I will throw their trash out because they were too lazy to wait till we got back to school to take the trash from the car to the schools trash cans. I grew up on Long Island and spent my first year of college on the Island before transferring to SUNY Cortland. One thing that I have noticed with the difference between the two places (besides all the land and space not occupied by shops and parking lots) is how aware people are of recycling.

Maybe it has to do with the way we are raised or has to do with the encounters we come across. My trip to Santa Barbara, California this past summer taught me and showed me how aware people are of recycling and keeping our Earth clean. My very first article that I wrote for Neo-Vox was about global warming and an upcoming concert, 7-7-07, which is to help raise awareness on Global Warming by holding a concert on every continent, this will be Antarctica’s first concert. With Earth Day just passing and with a new and amazing book I have been introduced to, I wanted to write about my experiences and hopes for the world in the future and to help with raising awareness for people to chip in and help in any way to help save our planet.

A book called “The Future of Life” by Edward O. Wilson is a book that I borrowed. I was interested in learning about how to help save our planet and understand what is actually happening to our planet. The author of the book does not bring us all down citing that the world is going to end because people are not doing enough to help the environment. He is uplifting and hopeful, telling us specifically a plan to save our planet while there is still time to do so. He is a great source in that he has won the Pulitzer Price twice and is stated to be “One of the world’s most important scientists”.

Wilson’s book is somewhat hard to read if a person does not have some sort of environmentalist background because he is talking about bacteria’s that most people do not know about- that have hard to pronounce, foreign sounding names. The second chapter of the book however, is easier to read and gets into the important information about our planet Earth. For instance, the 20th century was the point in history where our environment started to drastically change. Because of all of the wars occurring during the 20th century, people began to be less aware of our natural environment and more concerned with the industrial world. Also with the baby boomers occurring in the 50’s, it raised the number of people in the world and is a reason as to why the world is so overpopulated today. The global population is passed 6 billion and is on its way to 8 billion or more by the mid century. This means that soon to be, fresh water and arable land are resources that “experts agree are at risk” and “food, housing, transportation, energy and waste absorption” are sources and needs that many people will not be capable of having. Studies show that we would need the equivalent of four more planet Earths to accommodate.

Wilson speaks of the economists view and the ecologists/environmentalist view on the world and its future. The economist is a person who wants production and consumption and is heard more because he is on corporate boards, makes trips to Washington D.C and is on television. Meanwhile, ecologists are worried about the natural world surrounding us that most people do not appreciate anymore-like the economist. Ecologist’s views are rarely heard in the “high government and corporate circles.” The ecologist uses: “a nonprofit foundation board, writes for Scientific American, and is sometimes called to Washington. The planet, he insists, is exhausted and in trouble”.

What I thought was interesting about that segment of the economists and the ecologist in the book, was when I was in the gym, I was reading the Vanity Fair- 2nd Annual Green Issue, and started to read an article entitled: A Convenient Untruth, where global warming skeptic, Myron Ebell, argues why carbon dioxide is good. Ebell is a policy analyst and oil-industry mouthpiece. Ebell works at a think tank called the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) which dismisses climate-change warnings as scare tactics not based on sound science. “The fact is, most of these products sold as 'green' cost more than the alternative. You're already pricing people at the lower end out."states Ebell. “Green products” such as compact fluorescent lightbulbs (which when swapping three incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent lightbulbs you save 60 percent of energy and spare the planet 300 pounds of carbon dioxide per year) may cost more but last six times longer than regular lightbulbs.

Ebell contiunes on saying such intelligent remarks as: “I think that's made up.I understand that the oceans are primarily heated by direct solar radiation. I do not understand how—beyond just the surface—they are heated by the warming up of the atmosphere. It seems to me that the atmosphere would have to warm up significantly above the previous level before that radiation could actually heat up the ocean." This was Ebell’s remark to the statement that “mainstream scientists say that, along with a warming atmosphere, our oceans are heating up, too." Tom Wigley, who is a Senior scientist at NCAR (Natural Center for Atmospheric Research) and co-author of a new study on ocean warming, states: “That is the most preposterous bullshit I’ve ever heard” after hearing Ebell’s statement on the oceans heating up. He goes on to talk about how that would be the case if the oceans were not moving like they do which mixes all the heat down to lower depths of the ocean.

Ebell is not a reliable source to be giving skepticsms on global warming and our enviroment. When on an interview with BBS radio, Ebell claimed that Sir David King, who is the U.K’s chief scientific advisor, had made a “ridiculous claim” on global warming. However, Ebell then stated how he knew “nothing about climate science.” “I'm not claiming to be a climate authority—the way Jim Hansen is, or Robert Corell. Every interview I do, when I'm asked about scientific issues, I say I'm not a climate scientist. I'm just giving you the informed layman's perspective.” Perhaps if you are not a scitentiest and do not deal with the natural world on a daily basis for long periods of time- you should not try to preach what you do not know about.1286*

On the front cover of the Vanity Fair-Green Issue, there is a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio with a polar bear. DiCaprio is known as an Oscar-nominated international superstar but is also known for being an outspoken activist on global warming. The article speaks of DiCaprio’s website on global warming and his upcoming documantary called, The 11th Hour, which speaks about our planet in crisis. The Cannes Film Festival has chosen The 11th Hour as an official selection for its 60th anniversary which will go from May 16th to the 27th of 2007. The documentary includes 50 interviews with scientists, leading thinkers and experts on state of global warming. As being seen again, the film wants to show people that it is not too late to stop global warming and that one person can help drastically.

Wilson’s book states how people of the 21st century are starting to grasp the idea of global warming and are starting to take actions against it. He is optimistic and is stating his hopes of our population decreasing because now more and more women are freed socially and economically which results in fewer children. Also, birth control is helping in reducing pregnancies. However, Wilson does speak of how in developing countries, that the great majority of the population is children. Birth control is not used in these countries because many women do not have rights and their husbands want to keep them barefoot and pregnant.

I, myself have been seeing how the media has been changing and how more information has been attainable about learning about global warming and our environment. Three magazines, two that I read regularly, have had articles on global warming and how to help save our Earth. Shape and Cosmopolitan, are the magazines I read every month and Elle and Vanity Fair have been releasing annual “green issues” in which the magazines have a twenty paged spread on global warming, our environment and how to help. Cosmopolitan’s May issue had a two page article on how we as a society, are responsible for global warming. The article states 14 maneuvers that we can do to help reduce the amount of energy we use and to help cut a large portion of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere. Some maneuvers are as easy as turning your television set off when leaving the room.

With Earth Day passing, there are still flyers in Cortland’s hallways stating 60 ways to help save our planet. Little things, like turning your lights off when leaving a room, keeping your I-Pod and cell phone off their chargers when they do not need to be charged and recycling help in a big way. As a community and as people who live on this planet, we need to help and keep the planet alive, just like it keeps us alive. I hear many people say: “Well I wont be alive then, so it wont matter”. If we all thought like this, there is a good chance that we would not be here today nor would we (for those of us who are fortuante enough to live in a good area of the world) be living such comfortable lifestyles. It may not be you who is still alive, but your childeren or your childerens, childeren will be dealing with global warming on a much more serious level. It is important to be good to our planet and learn ways to help save it. To learn more on global warming or how to help, please check out these websites and my first article titled Global Warming, an “Inconvient Truth” Indeed:
www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator.
www.vanityfair.com/politics/green/
www.stopglobalwarming.org
www.environmentaldefense.org
www.leonardodicaprio.com

*IMAGES*
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/images/thumb/4/40/Vanity_Fair_Green_Issue.jpg/416px-Vanity_Fair_Green_Issue.jpg

http://www.earthdayenergyfast.org/IMAGES/earth.jpg

http://images.contactmusic.com/images/artist/leonardodicaprioap.jpg

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