I thought about sharing with everyone my english essay.. So here goes:
Many people talk about the end of the world.. But the way almost all the people behave today is like the world is really coming to an end.
What do I mean by that? Let me tell u a story.. For over two billion years, Mother Earth is quietly and slowly accumulating cookies for its future children. She hopes that one day, some of these cookies can help her children in times of difficulty or times when a push is needed for them to leapfrog to the next stage of evolution. She has been saving all these cookies in a jar for billions of years.
Then comes this spoilt child who dips his hand relentlessly into the jar. The more he eats, the more he grows, the further more he needs to eat.. At this rate, he is going to eat up all the cookies in a short span of perhaps, two hundred years.. He doesn't care if his future siblings has anything left, he just wants it all, even if he becomes obese and unhealthy..
The spoilt child is now hooked to the cookies.. Without them, he won't survive.. He has developed a mega-appetite, he doesn't know how to live like others in the family, like Mother Earth has brought to others daily..
What will happen if the jar is empty? He will die of starvation.. It is clearly not sustainable, but the doesn't care.
What are these cookies? They are the fossil energy from our dead ancestors' bodies, buried deep in the earth since the beginning of life.. They are a huge gift from all our forefathers to their future generations.. But, in a few generations, we are going to consume it ALL.
We are consuming natural resources at an ever-increasing, unprecedented rate.
We are polluting the air as if we don't have to breathe.
We are poisoning our oceans as if we don't need the fishes.
We are over-fishing so that there will be no fish left.
We are over-farming so that the land will be arid.
We are over-logging so that there will be no more trees left to cut.
We are over-burning so that there will be no fossil fuels left.
And we all know these things are happening.
What do we say? We say we have no choice. We just hope that the world will not crash on us in our current generation. We are so selfish, with no regards to future generations.
It is just like the End-of-The-World party, where we have to consume everything until we have nothing left, because there is NO tomorrow.
We leave nothing to our future generations.. What for? All in the name of growth, growth and growth.. Growth for the sake of growth..
The sun is our only source of energy. We are not going to have a single drop of extra energy from the sun. We have to learn to live within our means, within what the sun has brough us daily..
Let's hope we are not the spoilt child that has a cookie syndrome.
Let's hope we can shake away our dependency on the cookies real soon.
Let's hope that we end the "End-of-The-World" party and get back to build a future for our future generations, for our fellow organisms and animals on Earth..
Then, the world has a future, and our future generations have a world to live in..
There is not much time left..
| thiamshui wrote: |
| Let me tell u a story.. |
I truly hope you didn't turn in an essay to English class that used "u" as a pronoun.That's a brilliant metaphor, pretty accurate I'd say. It is very frustrating isn't it? I wish the governments of the world would try to do something, it doesn't seem like there's much hope for individuals to act on their own.
they can't seem to put all thier efforts into it, because the public of the countries don't care, or don't think it's real.
But President Bush did make an effort to lower emmisions, but it's not enough.
GM is researching liquid hydrogen powered vehicles, and have a few prototypes.
the public needs to be educated, and also you can't just take all the 'cookies' away it's an addiction, and like any other you have to gradually slow down, and get off of it.
No doubt we have to do something.. Question is, how are we going to stop this..? I think everyone is aware that petrol, coal and all the other fossil energies may be gone in 40 years if we keep consuming as much as we are now and if we don't find anymore reserves.. We may run out of water by the end of this century if we keep poluting it as much as we are now.. Sooner there will be no trees left if we keep cuting them to make papper or sell the wood, that means no oxygen.. And all this is happening because of money, power and economy.. looks like actual society is willing to sacrifice itself for this useless things, when compared to our subsistance.. how ridiculus, hum?.. All we can do by oursleves is consume only what we need.. that's the only solution i see.. it's about time to stop giving loads of your money to companies that don't care about anything but money.. it's like supporting our death..
I also think that we are evoluting too fast in on some points, while we are leaving the most important things behind.. We need to controle our economy, our lives, our future.. it shouldn't be the oposite.. All this makes me see that maybe we shouldn't have had the industrial revolution yet.. Of course we could just try to act as we were living before that time, in order to correct the mistakes we have done so far.. but would humanity be willing to do that?
The problem with stopping this trend is that there is not just one person eating all the cookies. There are 6,000,000,000 people 'eating the cookies,' and each and every one of them knows that if they stop, they'll only deprive themselves while the world ends.
Very nice essay. let me just tell you one thing: we can make the same cookies that Mother Earth does. We can make enough of them for us to enjoy and save some for the future kids. It's just a matter of choice. Let us choose the right action and inspire others, with our own example, to do the same.
Making one cookie usually requires that you eat three in order to be able to do it. Planting a tree takes years; one could make petrol, but it would take so much energy and money that it would be useless... etc. We can even nowadays make diamonds. But it's never worth it.
Sadly we can't take the spoilt child and remove his cookie jar, and put him in a reeducation center. It takes more of a shock.
| Soltair wrote: |
Making one cookie usually requires that you eat three in order to be able to do it. Planting a tree takes years; one could make petrol, but it would take so much energy and money that it would be useless... etc. We can even nowadays make diamonds. But it's never worth it.
Sadly we can't take the spoilt child and remove his cookie jar, and put him in a reeducation center. It takes more of a shock. |
actually, there is a company that makes diamonds,
well not actually making it, but putting a small one in a compressor with extra carbon, and the molecules line up to make the diamond bigger.(by about 30% i think maybe more) They are making big money! i saw it on the science channel, it was either on how it's made, or on beyond tommorow.
but yeah, it would take a bunch of energy to make more petrol.Guess it's time to toss our cookies.
More interesting perhaps is a water metaphor.
The human body does just fine when it is fully hydrated, yet only a net loss of 10-15% of the body's water can kill a person.
Now think about the possibility of Peak Oil and the way the american economy works, and you've got an interesting story.
Pretty good idea there, and although there are holes in it (we are making some progress in replacing our cookie dependency with other forms or cookies, a la diet cookies) overall it hits the mark.
Nicely said, I couldnt have worded it any better myself, and I totally agree that as we sit here (Some of us getting madly rich) were slowly eating away at what we have left...so to have...nothing left..But we as americans do nothing about it...
| Quote: |
| What are these cookies? They are the fossil energy |
Cor! I didn't see that one coming, what a bombshell!
LeviticusMky said:
| Quote: |
| the way the american economy works |
and just how does the American economy work?I agree with you very much on this, I have thought about it time and time again..
You also forgot, even with our current resources, The wolrd will soon be over populated.. Thesefor elimating the resources even faster...
*sigh* We are just killing ourselves
from http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/9941/
Science also has shown us that the formation of the Universe was a messy business that left quite a bit of litter behind in the form of giant ice balls and big, nasty rocks; many of which have the unfortunate habit of crashing into our planet uninvited and at highly inconvenient times. A fact the dinosaurs know about only too well... or would have, if there were any still alive... and had brains larger than a throat lozenge... which they're not and they didn't... so, forget I even brought it up. Anyway, the point is, however long our planet has, we as a species might get dusted as early as tomorrow afternoon, somewhere around tea time, should a large enough chunk of space litter choose that moment to come barging rudely into our atmosphere.
On the other hand, there's God's Wrath. In the theory favored by those whose idea of the Universe is a small, cramped space consisting primarily of ghosties and ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, the world ought to be coming to a screeching halt any day now. So imminent is the End, in fact, that you may not even get to finish reading this sentence before being either whisked away to glamorous Paradise or plunged into Eternal Damnation. Assuming you're still with me, let me make clear that the supporters of this concept are all absolutely sure that Armageddon is at hand and that we are living in the very Last Days. The signs are all there, they say, the omens and portents are in place, the numbers are right and all the USDA prime grade prophecies are coming true. No doubt about it, the End is seriously nigh. So, ha-ha to everyone who just had their car washed.
The trouble with this theory is that it's been espoused many, many, many times before. Near-countless times before. Over thousands of years. By millions of people. Ad nauseum. And yet, to state the thuddingly obvious, they've all been wrong. However widespread the belief, however devout the believer, however precise the calculations, however unshakable the certainty, the promise of Doomsday's arrival has remained stubbornly unfulfilled. And yet, here we are in the dim, dun dawn of the 21st century, going at it again like post-modernist Chicken Littles. And if anything, ******-a-doofus-dooming with greater gusto than ever before.
The why, the what, the where, the when, the who and the how is what this site is all about. This peculiar obsession humans have for watching the clock when we should be enjoying the party has been going on for millennia. And despite an utterly abysmal historical record of failure upon failure and reality's willful refusal to call time-out, it's one that never seems to lose its dubious charm or go mercifully away.
The following pages contain the most comprehensive collection of apocalyptic prophecies I could compile. Plus, discussion about the various types of Doomsday warnings and obsessions, quirks of the calendar, predictions of apocalypse from around the world and assorted other related stuff. So, if you think you have time to look them over before the Big One hits, the UV rays fry you, the nuclear winter freezes you, the Rapture captures you, the aliens abduct you, the earth opens up to swallow you, the black helicopters come to get you or the dreaded Satanic computer pixies plant a bar code in your forehead and plunge the world into commie-pinko conspiracy chaos, then, by all means, enjoy! yes Doomsday-0 and earth-alot, that is very true, and also very humorous.
But the real truth is that doomsday WILL happen, but the more closer gas shortage WILL also happen, so we DO have to do something about it!
Doomsday is a far time off, even if the gas is gone we will survive, with other sources or if we dont act soon enough we all are post-industrial age again, but still not doomsday so you have a point 
I disagree.
Doomsayers have existed ever since the written word has developed. Malthus wrote that we would never be able to sustain our populations because food growth is arthmetic, while reproduction is geometric. Back in 1899 everyone thought the world would end when its 1900. Back in the early 1990s it was predicted that America would become a violent place to be in (read through some articles you'll remember), back in the mid 90s they said a asteriod is going to hit the earth and wipe us out. When it was 1999 everyone thought the world would end.
Basically humans have the advantage of fore-knowledge, us knowing and intelligentlly predicting where events will lead have helped us survive as a species. The fact is that everyone knows these things, that there OVER consumption. However you can already see that companies and research is heading towards sustainable means of production. Furthermore, if you looked at population rates for developed nations they are actually in decline, an example is Russia, Japan and most European nations. With that there is also a drive to mordernize and save the enviroment in most developed nations (not the USA that much though). Once 3rd would countries get past the process of pre and post industrilization they will also join the declination.
I do not think there is anything to really worry about as long as research and development continues in the direction of sustainable development.
It's like being in a car and seeing a cliff drop ahead, you know it's there, you know you are speeding towards it, but you start to turn the wheel and end up avoiding it.
| Farhad wrote: |
| ....It's like being in a car and seeing a cliff drop ahead, you know it's there, you know you are speeding towards it, but you start to turn the wheel and end up avoiding it. |
very well put, us humans have that ability, and like I said
doomsday-0 vs. humans-alot, meaning humans have avoided doomsdays, like Y2K, and also a nuclear war
we will most likely stop using gasoline when it's almost gone, and will use hydrogen, etc. because of today's research companies- YAY for them!!yeah me being under 18 (12 TRUE!) this is qiete worring for me
and most of this damage was over only four generations 
| Quote: |
We are consuming natural resources at an ever-increasing, unprecedented rate.
We are polluting the air as if we don't have to breathe.
We are poisoning our oceans as if we don't need the fishes.
We are over-fishing so that there will be no fish left.
We are over-farming so that the land will be arid.
We are over-logging so that there will be no more trees left to cut.
We are over-burning so that there will be no fossil fuels left.
And we all know these things are happening. |
While there is certainly cause for concern, your alarmist post is somewhat exaggerated. You might have heard about Bjorn Lomborg and the book "the sceptical environmentalist" where some myths about the environment is dispelled. Things are serious, yes, but not so serious as some doom-and-gloom types would have us believe. Looking at solid facts and numbers from official enetities like various UN bodies and other institutions the picture of an imminent amargeddon begins to fade. Some of the areas you mention are actually improving.
But don't take my word for it. Go check out the book I'm talking about:
http://www.lomborg.com/books.htm
But don't stop there. Go look at the figures and make up your own mind. In the age of public internet there is no shortage of information. Just remember to be discriminate when picking your source.
