Nathan Climate Crisis

This is My Opinion on the Energy Crisis and Global Crisis:

When asked to give my opinion on climate change, the energy crisis, and the “pending death of all who inhabit the earth,” I am usually guilty of turning my attention to the other more fuzzy attributes of my life…like, where I am going to eat after work and the bands that are currently getting a lot of rotation on my iPod.  I, like so many other worthy college students, finds himself bombarded by a lot information that either supports “environmental melt-down” or painstakingly proves it to be “false."  I usually find myself pretty consistent with the idea of Aristotle’s Golden Mean concept.  For those of you who have taken an entry level philosophy class understand this concept to mean that there is always a “consistent balance” or a “happy medium” between two very unpleasant extremes.  In all honesty, this is the way that I approach the climate change/energy crisis in my own mind.  To preserve my own sanity, I constantly find that there are always two sides to every story.  This is to say that there is always something to be said for both extremes, and even more so, each opposing viewpoint always has some type of supporting evidence to “stake their claim.”

            I am going to be very honest for the sake of this opinion piece.  After all, it is my opinion, right?  And as an American I should be able to publish (via the Internets, of course) anything that I deem worthy, correct?  I do believe that there is a global energy crisis.  I have no idea how far we have dug ourselves into our own graves, or if we have already done too much damage to recover.  Who the hell knows?  The important thing, in my opinion, is that we have recognized that the ways that we manufacture products, travel, consume, and essentially “live” is incredibly wasteful.  It seems that we definitely live in an incredibly wasteful society and trying to pinpoint the reason for this is both confusing and in so many ways a big waste of time. 

            I am not a big fan of pointing fingers or jumping on the “I hate America because we are all Consumer Whores” bandwagon.  I understand the ease of singling out America as a “waste giant” but I am not convinced that we are the only ones to blame.  Wasting is such a universal concept within itself.  I can’t even explain how much time, money, energy, and opportunities I waste everyday of my life.  And I am hardly going to believe that there isn’t a twenty-something sitting in Japan feeling the exact same way.  Hell, I am writing this opinion piece an hour before it is technically due.  Is this because I wasted time and felt like playing guitar instead of reading a book?  You bet! 

            I think the real problem of “waste” is the selfishness that each of us feel inside.  I know that I am not speaking for everyone, but I do feel that I am speaking for the vast majority.  I know that many people do not care or take the time to even think about the future in any other way other than how it will directly affect them.  I feel that I can only speak for the American society because this is the only one that I have ever belonged to.  Somehow, the American society has been brought up in a fashion that has deemed our natural resources as everlasting because of the abundance of land, water, and air that was available when we “oh so graciously” colonized America. 

            I really do believe that the idea of “wasting” is something that needs to be etched deeper into our collective vocabulary.  For far too long, Americans have been brought up and taught that we are “the best,” “the greatest,” “the world leaders,” and it is up to other countries to worry about the trivial things like “alternative fuel” because we shouldn’t have to.  I do believe that there is a hint of superiority complicating the energy crisis/global change phenomena.  The sad thing is: Americans have so much power to make a change.  We DO have the resources and the man power to make a change, and offer a steady relief to this disaster.  So why has this gone undetected for so long?  Since America is “so far ahead of everyone else,” shouldn’t we have noticed this sooner? 

            Regardless of what you believe to be the issue and the cause of this climate change, it is impossible for one to argue that we as a global society have not been wasteful in the ways of energy and in the other ways that I addressed earlier.  I have no idea if the world is going to self-implode tomorrow or if we are just headed into another ice-age.  However, I do know that every country produces a certain amount of waste every year, and the people of each country are responsible for that waste.  Why would it not be a good idea to at least try to waste less as a society?     

            I always say that one should make an attempt to start somewhere when a problem needs to be confronted.  Instead of wasting time and trying to prove whether or not there actually is an energy crisis or a global warming problem, why don’t we just play it safe and assume that there IS and try to make adjustments today that can the way that the world is tomorrow.  I have never understood the need for advocates of either side of an argument to feel that they have to prove the other side wrong. Is global warming real?  Some say that it is and others say that it isn’t.  If global warming didn’t exist wouldn’t it be great?  BUT WHAT IF IT DOES?!?!?!  If there is even a chance that the earth is warming to unhealthy levels, shouldn’t we at the very least give the scientists the benefit of the doubt and try to make some adjustments to our emissions or the way that our lives are conducted here on earth?

            I still have no idea what I think about the earth’s crisis. What I do know:  There is never something wrong with playing it safe.  If there is a chance that the earth is going to explode in ten years, we might want to work on that.  If it ends up in 2018 to not be true…at least we played it safe.

-Nate