Environment

 I want to start by saying that the video we saw in class scared the shit out of me. I don't want to feel helpless in the grand scheme of things, but seeing the way we've destroyed our world is heartbreaking. As humans, we are supposed to be these intelligent beings that use our intelligence to be stewards of the planet. Instead, we've destroyed our planet. We demolished natural habitats and have induced a mass extinction of species. The video "Ice on Fire" showed us the aftermath of our actions. I know at the time of the industrial revolution, no one could have known long-term impacts of burning fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources. We were just focused on advancing civilization. The technology that emerged from the industrial revolution was life-changing..... beneficially for us, while not so much for other creatures on earth. I can not call these innovators of the industrial revolution evil, because they did not know that they started the chain reaction of the world's demise. Those I do conceive as evil are the people who knew about the horrific effects of climate change and chose to ignore them. I am mortified by the people who exploited this issue and lined their pockets off of climate change. We have exponentially increased the amount of greenhouse gas emissions to the point that we now have to go into a deficit in order to stop the world from collapsing. We have wasted so many resources. We have done so much harm. Scientists have been spreading the word about climate change since the 60's. They tried to fix the issue before it became detrimental. No one wanted to listen. But as someone in class had said, humans wait until the very last moment to take action. Politicians and world leaders have pushed this problem off for so long, that now we are unsure if we can come back from it. Some stewards of the world we are. There is a surplus of plausible ways we can attempt to mend this issue. But before we can put them into action, we need to have everyone on board. People need to work collectively toward this goal in order to stop climate change. This means that we need to make sacrifices on a smaller scale. I'm not sure if we can ban together enough of humanity to be successful. Right now, I do feel hopeless. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing the right thing, but sometimes the thought crosses my mind as to what I'm even doing the right thing for. Will it even matter? On that note, we also need to think about population and resources. We've grown exponentially in human population, while resources such as accessible drinking water have not. One day, we're going to run out. NASA already predicts that we will run out of water. We've messed with the water cycle so heavily, that we cannot accurately predict when and where water will fall. This means we won't be able to predict when and where to grow food. It's serious. With the polar ice melting, we now have a disruption of the polar currents. Instead of streamlining in its normal current, cold fronts and cold streams are now being carried randomly down and around the world. Cold fronts mixing with heat fronts make tropical storms on the ocean. Cold fronts hitting temped locations can kill crops. All the while, the atmosphere above us is slowly turning earth into an oven. I know this post is super depressing, but this is the severity we are facing. We should be upset. We may have ruined the world.