In
today’s world there is more CO2 floating around in the world than
there ever was in the past 650,000 years. The author says that
we’ve basically become a volcano that hasn’t stopped erupting
since the 1700s. Which is true, in today’s society 90% of our
energy comes from the burning of fossil fuels which increases the
amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. It’s pathetic how the U.S.
is home to 5% of the world's population, yet consumes 26% of the
world's energy. Even after we leave this world it would take
approximately 100,000 years or longer for the world to return back to
its normal CO2 levels.
Although the CO2 levels would possibly revert back to normal levels,
many other things would begin to fall apart without us. This was seen
in Cyprus, Turkey. Allan Cavinder checked out the abandoned hotels
after the war had happened. Animals took over and plants were
beginning to grow over in the sand that was blown in by the nearby
beach. Everything that humans built on the island was getting
demolished by nature. Without us even the beautiful Hagia Sofia in
Istanbul would collapse. Although great structures like the Hagia
Sofia seem everlasting, they would perish because we wouldn't be
there to repair it. Our buildings today are being made with cheaper
material which would get destroyed even easier. Even if we reverted
back to Roman technology of concrete and began building our buildings
with concrete, it wouldn't be able to withstand an earthquake because
we would want to build more stories such as hotels, while Roman
concrete was only meant to hold one story. In the chapter “Polymers
Are Forever” I was shocked to read that exfoliants that are used
for facial and body products have mostly gone to plastic. These
exfoliant beads that are used then go down the drain, into the water
supply right to little sea creatures that swallow these beads.
Although I have heard that sea otters and other creatures could be
choked by the plastic rings from beer six packs, I would never think
something small as exfoliant beads could be killing other creatures
in the ocean. This makes me rethink about the products I use now and
how using them could be harming other things in the world while it is
benefiting me. I think everyone should see how the use of plastics
instead of biodegradable items are affecting other food chains and we
need to stop being self centered and worrying about how things
benefit us. We need to benefit the earth in any way we can and we
have to find other nature friendly resources to use.
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6 comments:
Wow, it's shocking to me that a small material like the exfoliant beads that you talk about can cause such harm to sea creatures. I'm always the person to tell people to recycle things because I know that they can end up harming so many creatures. But I didn't know I was the one to be hurting animals by using a product that I use on a daily basis. It scares me to think that a lot of people on this planet don't care about the world around them, they don't really care what's going to happen to the world in two hundred years because they won't be here. But I agree with Dalila, we need to stop focusing on ourselves all the time so that we can help our planet. So what if we're not all here in two hundred years? We will have family living then, and if we care about our planet let's help it to survive for as long as possible. I believe that if we all made smart but small changes today, our world would be healthier.
About the part with the buildings, I think that is a part of reverting back to the way it used to be. When I hear revert back to 'normal' levels and the original state the world was in, the buildings are included. Because of the fact that the buildings are built by humans, they need to be gone before the world is back to 'normal'. So with todays materials it may tkae less time for them to degrade but there are still some materials that are very hard to degrade with nature, thus possibly making the time the world needs to revert longer. Also the part about the exfoliants surprise me. I always wondered what the beads were made of but I never really cared to look it up. I am a fairly energy and eco friendly person mainly because I wouldnt want to pay more (bills, recycling) and it makes me think to be cautious of what kind of things I'm throwing away now.
When stating truthful and disconcerting facts bluntly like this, it sounds so obvious that what we're doing is wrong. It opens up our eyes for a little while, but when people go back to their daily routines again, do you think this will be the first thought in their heads? It's sad, but unless something exceptionally major happens in the world (like in due time when global warming is 10x worse), the environment is not everyone's first priority. We're unaware of most of the damage we do; I would have never thought that exfoliating beads could actually cause harm to other living things. For now, when times seem good and normal, there will continue to be mounting negative effects on the environment from humans. You can only change so many people's mindset about their actions without having them actually experience how the environment is changing as a result of them.
I am such a horrible person! i had no idea that i was potentially killing little sea creatures everytime i washed my face. this made me rethink my effect on the environment. could you imagine all the other simple things that we are possible doing to harm our environmet? imagine were we will be in 20 years? are we as humans capable of destroying something so innocent?, i think there should be a drastic change in humans behavior in order to preserve other organisms, we are to self oriented.
I agree that there's something wrong with the fact that the U.S is home to such a small amount of the population yet consumes the most energy. You'd think the most populated countries such as China would consume the most energy but thats not the case. You mentioned that the exfoliants in face wash are plastic and kill sea creatures. I didn't know that. I googled my face wash and it contains polyethylene, a plastic. Guess I've been killing sea organisms indirectly without even knowing. I agree with Ashley that even though people hear these horrible things they'll unfortunately go back to doing what they were previously doing.
So, I have been killing sea creatures and no one mentioned this to me until now... My face wash contains a lot of the exfoliant beads. They call it a "morning burst" Its scary to think about how many sea organisms our dying for our benefit. Im thinking about how many girls wash their face once, or twice, or three times a day in the world and how that will effect the sea organisms. I never thought of something so minuscule like exfoliant could have a larger effect of something else.
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