Compared to the 4.5 billion years the Earth has been around, modern day humans have only evolved within the past 200,000 years, which is a small sliver of time that we have used to almost completely dominate the planet we live on. Though it is a great accomplishment, our actions that we have taken to rule the world are actually ruining it at the same time. Some of the threats we have created ourselves are the fact that we may be growing faster than the environmental can keep up with and obtain, environmental problems we continue to build upon, and the unwillingness of ourselves to change. If we do not take action to better our current ways of living, the environment will no longer be able to sustain us and we will meet an end by our own hands.
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Due to the lack of awareness we have towards the environment, “we are consuming renewable resources faster than they can regenerate,” and many habitats are shrinking as an effect (Entering a New World 3). An example of a society that did not take proper care of the environment on their homeland are the individuals of Easter Island. This civilization used the trees native to the island to build canoes, but they never thought to plant more trees in order to keep up with the demand of them (Entering a New World 13). Eventually, the trees used to build the canoes were no longer available, meaning that they now had no access to dolphins and had a shrinking supply of food (Entering a New World 13). Because of the low supply of food they could now retrieve, they had to resort to cannibalism in order to fulfill the …show more content…
The next step that should be taken by everyone is to identify and acknowledge the problems so that we will be able to begin changing for the better. Some issues may not be as easy to see with the naked eye, but using special devices, we can detect salinization in soil and prove that global climate change is a real phenomenon (Diamond 18). Within Plan B: Building a New Future, it is said that we need to begin improving by restoring the economy’s natural support systems first, “we have the technologies, economic instruments, and financial resources to do this. The United States, the wealthiest society that has ever existed, has the resources to lead this effort.” Unfortunately, some are not up to giving in to their old ways because of what’s called, “rational behavior on the part of a group - that’s to say clashes of interest,” but this should be no excuse due to the fact that miniscule changes will still benefit us as a whole. Beginning with using renewable resources and shifting into a recyclable economy, we can drift away from the collapse of our environmental support systems (Entering a New World 4). We can move closer to an economy that can support a quickly growing population and its demands with each wind farm, rooftop solar panel, paper recycling facility, bicycle path, and reforestation program. Preventions such as those will guarantee a
Due to the lack of awareness we have towards the environment, “we are consuming renewable resources faster than they can regenerate,” and many habitats are shrinking as an effect (Entering a New World 3). An example of a society that did not take proper care of the environment on their homeland are the individuals of Easter Island. This civilization used the trees native to the island to build canoes, but they never thought to plant more trees in order to keep up with the demand of them (Entering a New World 13). Eventually, the trees used to build the canoes were no longer available, meaning that they now had no access to dolphins and had a shrinking supply of food (Entering a New World 13). Because of the low supply of food they could now retrieve, they had to resort to cannibalism in order to fulfill the …show more content…
The next step that should be taken by everyone is to identify and acknowledge the problems so that we will be able to begin changing for the better. Some issues may not be as easy to see with the naked eye, but using special devices, we can detect salinization in soil and prove that global climate change is a real phenomenon (Diamond 18). Within Plan B: Building a New Future, it is said that we need to begin improving by restoring the economy’s natural support systems first, “we have the technologies, economic instruments, and financial resources to do this. The United States, the wealthiest society that has ever existed, has the resources to lead this effort.” Unfortunately, some are not up to giving in to their old ways because of what’s called, “rational behavior on the part of a group - that’s to say clashes of interest,” but this should be no excuse due to the fact that miniscule changes will still benefit us as a whole. Beginning with using renewable resources and shifting into a recyclable economy, we can drift away from the collapse of our environmental support systems (Entering a New World 4). We can move closer to an economy that can support a quickly growing population and its demands with each wind farm, rooftop solar panel, paper recycling facility, bicycle path, and reforestation program. Preventions such as those will guarantee a