Our Duty to the Environment

I hear a lot of people telling us that we have to protect the environment. We hear sayings like, "It's our duty since it's our home," and, "Our children will suffer the consequences of the actions we make today." I agree that humans are the central cause of pollution in the world but we have almost eight billion people on this earth and this number is still growing. One of the obstacles we have to overcome is that we all have the same goal in life. We want to survive in the most comfortable way we can. How do we live comfortably and not hurt the environment? Almost all of the things that allow us to live comfortably hurt the environment. We understand that the environment is a concern and we're constantly trying to find a remedy for this problem. One option is to consume less and reuse as much as we can to reduce our carbon footprint. With our world population continuing to grow how effective is this option? One of the more drastic measures currently being explored is colonization of foreign planets such as Mars. I wonder if it's even something that is possible? If that doesn't work, there is a simple solution that I'm sure will be the most unpopular of the three and that would be to let nature run its course. Stop prolonging human life and let diseases and human evolution do their thing. What if it wipes all of us out? There are a lot of unknowns with this one but you can see why this is the least popular idea.

The most popular solution nowadays is to reduce our carbon footprint by consuming less and reusing what we already have. I think this solution is actually viable but only if our world population remains consistent. There is a huge influx of new human beings every year. No matter how much we reduce today, we will eventually consume more in the future. I do believe it is a step in the right direction because it delays the inevitable. That extra time that we get from reducing our carbon footprint will hopefully give us time to figure out a proper solution.

One of the top solutions that's been around for a while is colonizing foreign planets. We generally need to get this done if we want our species to continue to exist, especially if our population continues to increase. It would alleviate our resources while possibly help us find additional resources that we didn't think possible. On the downside we don't really know much about living on another planet. All of the stuff we know is theoretical. What are the repercussions for moving out to another planet? Will we still need to export resources from earth to colonizers of the new planet? Is all of this even feasible considering the technology we have today. I certainly hope we'll be able to go this direction.

The last option is definitely something I'd be against pursuing but it is an option. It's an inhumane option to let nature run its course. Humans obviously have expiration dates yet we've found ways of prolonging our lives with medical advances. Aren't diseases natures way of protecting itself? With this option those that recieve horrible illnesses such as cancer or HIV would not be able to accept treatment. It would be a radical Darwinian method to reduce our population. It would also mean an end to artificial insemination for those looking to have a child. It makes me think that it's actually not far from Eugenics. I hope that this never becomes an option. On a positive note, everyone would also have to accept homosexuality since it would be perceived as nature's way of preventing procreation.

There are no great solutions out there. We can only do so much. I think the major issue we need to tackle is overpopulation. There's got to be a humane way of dealing with this issue. China had attempted the one child policy to help with their problem. It had its pros and cons. I guess mostly cons as they ultimately lifted the ban. I'm not sure the entire world is willing to go the same route as Japan either. They have a diminishing population but may soon have a problem with their society because of their low birth rates and aging population. It's an interesting topic and I wonder what is in store for us in the future.