Do not forget the world that carries us
Campus Times
October 10, 2003
Our planet is the most important resource we have. It provides us with
all that we need to survive, as well as so many other species.
In its billions of years, the earth has developed a delicate yet adaptable
ecosystem with literally trillions of different plants, animals and microbes,
all forming important relationships with one another ultimately facilitating
the survival of a "living" planet.
Yet with the development of human beings, especially over the last couple
of centuries, the earth's environment has had to react to all sorts of pollution
and destruction of its resources.
While there are many advocates who want to maintain the ecosystem, there
are also many people who feel that the earth is here for our use. There
are, of course, good and bad aspects to both arguments, but, in any case,
there are many social, cultural and political ideas and institutions that
need to change to maintain the overall health of the planet.
In its pure form, the earth has the ability to provide everything we
need to survive: air, food, water, shelter.
Yet human beings pollute the environment with no regard for the species
that are dying or are almost extinct.
After all, human beings read and hear every day about how our incursion
upon natural habitats kills millions of species a year, but do nothing to
save the earth.
We see oil tankers spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the
ocean killing marine life. We also see human beings cutting away forests,
thus eliminating species that we aren't even aware of. We even pollute our
own lakes, rivers and oceans.
We wipe out species because they don't have the same ability to use
tools to adapt to hazardous situations as we do.
The social, cultural and political realities prevent many of the changes
that should be made because these institutions tend to defend the current
state of things.
Take the western ideas of our environment, for example.
We tend to see this wide-open land as something made especially for
us. Americans believe that we were put on this planet to shape it to our
whims with little regard for other species or our own futures.
We arrogantly think the most important time is now and we have little
concern about the long-term effects of our ideology. Hey, we can always
deal with it later, when it becomes more important.
Politically it seems like everything else matters more than the environment.
During the Cold War we were threatened with nuclear annihilation because
the Soviets were different from us.
Recently we have had our oil troubles with the Middle East, but instead
of working to develop new fuel sources we went to war.
There can't be any major political change unless a major portion of
the population desires it.
The only way a politician would even consider doing anything for the
environment is if a special interest group suddenly decided to take an interest
in the environment.
What we are looking at, as a species, is probably another 50-100 years
of relative stability before the environment starts to try to adapt to us
in a major way.
Personally, I would rather live in a place with clear skies than one
with a bleak horizon that requires me to wear a gas mask.
Adam Omernik, a sophomore journalism major, is photography editor
of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at niteyet@yahoo.com.
