While filling out the application to Stanford University, I was faced with a question. What do you think is the biggest problem society faces today. I guess I didn't really think about it and just wrote down a commonplace issue: over-reliance on technology. But I found that I was probably wrong and I may seem shallow and cliche now to the admissions board. Oops.
What is the answer that I should've put? Waste. We waste everything. From food to natural resources. I see trash cans filled with perfectly good food and houses with 75 degrees heating. We are expediting raw material and wasting them unnecessarily. Why wear a t-shirt in 75 degrees heating when you can turn it down and simply wear a bit more clothes. If you don't want to eat something, don't pack it, or just pack less. Why must we waste these? At the rate of consumption, we will eventually run low on supplies. Then what? No trees or forests, no coal. Must we wait till that happens to realize how we're abusing the present and what we have now?
What do we do then? Well first, conserve. I sound like a hippie tree hugger now but we have to! We are ruining our world. Pollution is caused by waste and over-mining of resources. We destroy the very thing that gives us life. Do people pay attention to the ruination of nature? Of species going extinct, coral reefs dying, water levels rising, heck, global warming? It's not a myth anymore!!! It's real and we are living it.
Watch this trailer to an incredible picture that shows this : http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/
We have to start fixing our mess....now! This includes smarter environmental engineering, biochemical engineering, conservation, efficient utilization of available resources...etc.
So start taking shorter showers, recycling bottles, and turning down the heat.
Some of these things not only save money, but they might even save our future.
What is the answer that I should've put? Waste. We waste everything. From food to natural resources. I see trash cans filled with perfectly good food and houses with 75 degrees heating. We are expediting raw material and wasting them unnecessarily. Why wear a t-shirt in 75 degrees heating when you can turn it down and simply wear a bit more clothes. If you don't want to eat something, don't pack it, or just pack less. Why must we waste these? At the rate of consumption, we will eventually run low on supplies. Then what? No trees or forests, no coal. Must we wait till that happens to realize how we're abusing the present and what we have now?
What do we do then? Well first, conserve. I sound like a hippie tree hugger now but we have to! We are ruining our world. Pollution is caused by waste and over-mining of resources. We destroy the very thing that gives us life. Do people pay attention to the ruination of nature? Of species going extinct, coral reefs dying, water levels rising, heck, global warming? It's not a myth anymore!!! It's real and we are living it.
Watch this trailer to an incredible picture that shows this : http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/
We have to start fixing our mess....now! This includes smarter environmental engineering, biochemical engineering, conservation, efficient utilization of available resources...etc.
So start taking shorter showers, recycling bottles, and turning down the heat.
Some of these things not only save money, but they might even save our future.