The Plight of our Planet

The young boy looks back from the loading ramp of the giant metal alloy ship, his breath billowing clouds of steam in the bitter air made cold by the now almost completely diminished ozone. He stares in disbelief at the endless pile of automobiles parked haphazardly to and fro like a child’s worn jenga blocks fallen from a poorly made tower in the vehicles owner’s frantic rush to get their families to the evacuation ships in time. How did it come to this¬¬? The forlorn boy wonders. When did it all go wrong in mankind’s endless quest to be bigger, faster, and more powerful than all the rest? As the nearly city-sized ship reaches the smoky horizon bound for humanity’s new home named Kepler-22b, he gazes one last time at the vast oceans, blazing a filthy orange fire as far as the eye could see from the final disaster that had sealed humanity’s fate on earth. If only they had stopped drilling in the oceans—the boy thinks. And as the distance grows and the bright fires fade, he tearfully waves goodbye to the now dying planet his race had called home for a millennia and slowly turns to go find his parents.

Who is this distraught boy’s parents? Is it you? Or perhaps it is your children’s children that are living through this arguably inevitable reality. While the scenario presented is sensationally far-fetched, it is entirely possible. Perhaps not a mass exodus to a new found planet capable of sustaining life, and even if we were lucky enough to find such a planet it would likely not be accessible, nor needed in this generation’s lifetime. But the simple truth remains that earths sustainability is quickly diminishing due to a plethora of causes. Some of which are our societies numerous recent technological advances in the last century,...

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... leaders of tomorrow.

References

Carbone, N. (2011, December 5). NASA finds planet in ‘Habitable Zone’ that could sustain life. Time Newsfeed. Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/05/nasa-finds-planet-in-habitable-zone-that-could-sustain-life/

Fornos, Werner. "No vacancy." The Humanist July-Aug. 1998: 15+. Academic OneFile. Web. 12 May 2012.

Global Energy Use: Status and Trends. (2004). In Encyclopedia of Energy Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/estenergy/global_energy_use_status_and_trends

Stoll, R. (2012). Green energy looks to hydrogen fuel. Retrieved from http://www.2facts.com/article/s2000033

Williams, C. (2011, July 28). Off-the-grid communities: 5 places carving a sustainable path. Retrieved from http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/off-the-grid-communities-5-places-carving-a-sustainable-path