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To whom it may concern,
hum…to whom it may concern. Such an interesting start to such a paper. So many times I have written letters to an editor or a favorite teacher with their name or “to whom it may concern” and it has never dawned on me that it could have such a strong meaning for a paper written to describe views on our generation’s responsibilities to the future generations. If youre not concerned with this outstanding topic, stop…right here, dont continue reading, if you are interested, please continue, critique, and by all mean take a minute to gather your thoughts on this subject whenever you fell the need. This paper will use the wording “the people” or “our people” to refer to today’s society of persons involved in the daily routine consumption and regeneration of the world, its localities and animals it houses.
This paper is written to examine the subject on how this generation of people might or should have an obligation to the future generations. The populations are expanding, the consumption is rising, and everyone is trying to buy whatever they can to fill up their homes with whatever useless materials they can get their hands on. What responsibilities does our generation have to future generations? It is a very dynamic type of question. The responsibilities are almost endless.
The population of the world is growing at a substantial rate. About every 12-15 years the population of the world goes up by roughly one billion. At this rate our planet could have more people than it can hold by the year 2050. That would be nearly 9-10 billion people in the entire world. With the population in such an out-of-control rise, consumption is going to become out of hand, or people with start to go hungry. This is where the question starts to get drawn. How does the planet prepare for such events that the world has over crowding and not enough supplies to feed everyone? Right now the world should be considering two main planes of thought, consumption and population. What is going to happen when the system breaks? Do the populations of people have to rely on something more different than what they already have, or will our people have backup plans set in place for such a break down event in resources.
First off, lets consider that “the system breaks” and the world runs out of essential resources, say, Oil. Without this resource our world starts to become a sort of junk yard with no way of using most of the devices that are in it. All of today’s cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, heavy machinery, trains, and power plants…just to name a few, all run on some byproduct of Oil. Oil is a resource that is being consumed faster than it is used, well it is burned but I will get to that later. This resource is mostly in the eastern hemisphere and it does run out. As a geology major, Ill tell you it seems to this student that the people can not find enough oil resources on the planet fast enough to keep our barrels per day numbers where they need to be to sustain descent efficiency. The problem is not widespread, in the Middle East oil is everywhere and in the oceans oil is abundant, but the oil is not made at the rate at which it is consumed. Got that? I hope so. How about some new ways to run the machines that the oil runs on. The technology for rechargeable batteries is getting better and every day people are riding bikes, something to consider….. Whose oil is all the oil, anyway? Can the people really think for very much longer that all this oil is theirs for the taking? People should know that carpools and taking the bus is consumption. Walking to work and riding your bike are great ways to not even use any type of fossil foil at all, get this…your body runs on air! Our second most abundant resource on the planet. What is the most abundant resource on the planet you ask? I think its water, or there is a toss up between the two, and both water and air completement the work your body does. What if 15 people on a bus-bike could really work? Everyone could actually ride bikes, wouldnt that be a rip-roaring better time than a thousand people lined up on the interstate cause some idiot was going 102mph and slammed his car into a wall? All Im saying is I think today’s people do really have an obligation to the the future generations to do what it takes to slow the consumption of oil. Consumption of oil and the fossil fuels is not just the only concern; another mentioned by David Henderson is the water tables.
The water tables in the planet are not in danger of being consumed faster than replenished; the water is in danger of becoming polluted and undrinkable. The water tables in the earth are where most of the drinking water in the US comes from. Even in California water is pumped in from other states for their outrageous populations. When people start putting in landfills, the seapage from the landfills do actually reach water sources. Memphis, TN is an example of such a place. The Shelby farms landfill has been there for years, covered by soil, and make into a park. Bellow the surface is where the trouble is, where near the bottom of the landfill seepage is taking place. Right below the Shelby farms landfill is the Tennessee and Arkansas aquifers. The water in these aquifers is replaced every year, considering normal wet season, near Nashville and dips under the Mississippi river. The Shelby farms landfill’s seepage is moving thousands of meters a year toward the aquifers, creating a big problem for our future generations. This example shows one reason for planning for the future generations. Polluting the soils and water ways can damage these precious water supplies and render them useless in the future. Can people recycle, the answer is yes. Research has been done in that people are physically able to recycle their goods (i.e. aluminum cans, glassware, band aids, Styrofoam) so that people of tomorrow dont have to worry about their nasty soils and ruined water tables and focus on treating each other with respect and destroying war between “the people”. Even our toddlers and middle schoolers are showing this recycle attitude, instead of just throwing their gum on the useful soil or in the water, they put it under the desk at their schools; preventing the pollution of our soils and water tables. If the system does break and the aquifers of the US, or even the world, start to become polluted, what then? Our generations should be on top of this matter in that they are planning on backup plans of changing salt-water to drinking water by the thousands of gallons or finding new waters to reproduce water or recycle water to drinking standards. Without ways to go without the aquifers, millions and millions of people could be relying on unfit drinking water or shortages and droughts on water. ‘People of today are already finding new ways to recycle their water. From my notes…My teacher, We are typically willing to hold people responsible for actions that could cause harm at later times”. With landfills and nuclear power plants around, their is a wonder if any of these localities will one day go bad and destroy the surrounding area. Both localities being dangerous either it being the nuclear power plant to pollute the surrounding areas with fallout, or the landfill to bust or something and pollute the surrounding soils and water tables. A good questions asked, what bout your obligation to your future self, also from my notes. I see this as in yourself or your future family (kids, brother’s kids, your kid’s kids), whom must live in the world in the future. You future self must maintain healthy living conditions to stay alive for many years. You might even have that obligation to produce savings in bank accounts or property where your family down the line will have something to rely on such that they wont have to scratch for resources, or just die off. Giant water treatment plants work around the clock to reproduce water that run through your toilets and sinks. Is this enough? I say its not. If everybody did something to help recycle, reduce, and reuse products, then I believe the consumption of products would slow down and the pollution in direct connection would also drop.
A utilitarian belief is in maximum happiness, or trying to keep from unhappy results. A look at history and it has not been perfectly constant…..
Some guys over there want my beautiful piece of land, on the beach, temp is always 77 degrees and partly cloudy. So what do they do, they are forced to try to conquer my land for their better welfare and future out comings. All my people fight against their people; I just think its stupid. Thats some of history; the rest seems to be in the meantime of such events of war.
Maximum happiness is a difficult objective to accomplish for 50 percent of the world, making it in my book as a goal for the world, establishing average happiness and tying to force widespread happiness. Widespread happiness, what is that? Could the world obtain such a maximum that it isnt the best it has ever been, but moreover a happiness that can produce an outcome at the world-wide level. In the words of Biggie Smalls “If everybody could just get along”, there would be a better place for everyone. Everybody getting along could mean everyone pitching in to recycle and no war causing distress over resources. Even at average happiness a question of whether someone should be born could be raised. Should the world’s poor reproduce? Economically, that would be just more poor folk that are hungry and looking for food or taking up space.
These trends and practices that the people of the world go through every day may be heading toward some type of future unforeseen harm. I agree that the people seem responsible for the harm, but can one really put responsibility on today’s people for a preparation for a future people that do not exist yet? Its interesting how people can care so much for them and yet have no idea that a future people will care the same for themselves. Would this cause a default condition for today’s people to be made to consider the future? Simple ways of thinking like recycling and reusing plays big roles in these areas. Literature is an example of such an event of conserving or reusing. Literature is a resource that must be maintained as our sources for knowledge and understanding. Taking care of newspaper articles, books, and magazines is the way to reduce timber consumption and to just keep the text knowledge for the future generations. The education that is in our society’s schools, colleges, and libraries is vital in technological growth, safety and economics, and even general welfare. If little care is taken in the preserve of such resources, the future will be without alot of information that we take for granted. What can people do to preserve knowledge? Continue educating each other while preserving libraries and school in the public. Not just is the health of the future people at sake, so it the ability to learn and worship. The ability for a people to stay healthy through clean drinking water, better food from clean soils, and clean air yields the ability of the people to be exercised and alert for better health, education, and day to day living; maybe even promoting longer lifestyles and lifetimes.
Think about it…The less oil you use, the less carbon monoxide is produced in our breathing air. The more a person can recycle the less trash is created. The less a person uses per week or month, the more of that resource we can spend over time at a steady amount rather very quickly in mass units.
Then again, what if there is really is no need to worry about anything because our geologist have no idea what they are talking about, the scientist of the air dont know what they are doing, and the environmentalists are just crazy? Imagine an entire earth filled with everything that we need to live for another 400,000 years but just dont have the technology to drill or consume those resources yet. Today’s people have no idea that the future people will be like. The future people could discover all new types of combustion for cars and trains and new resources for food and breathing. Today’s generations could be just not smart enough yet to realize the speed rate of technology and the types of technologies that have no been invented yet. The new technologies could be the new revolutionizing of resources, from atom splitting to planetary research, even center of the earth discoveries. These ideas must sounds crazy but it is just thought on the reality of the terms exploited in this paper.
Does the planet consume too much? Frederick Kaufman’s book Environmental Ethics tends to teach this way. The author displays the idea that the west is consuming much faster its resources than to be reserved and the rest of the world could be starving or 5 times our maximum consumption levels, as in the east. The margins expressed from Kaufman are enormous, not gradual either mister! No, the world is actually doubling its consumption and trash every year. Again, population and consumption. The world doesnt care though. Most of the people of today do not know where to start with this idea, or what is needed. (Kaufman)
Whatver the outcome is after 20 years from now, 100 years, 400 years……will be the times when people start to wake up to realizing that their kids could be in danger. Our kids could fall short of maximum happiness and that is the problem. Our kids, their kids, their kids, their kids and further and further will reap what we sow now. With continue effort and integrity in research and recycling, the world could move towards a brighter future. Does the world today have an obligation to the future peoples? I think so…..just dont let the recycling or looking out for the future hinder YOUR maximum happiness.
The world is falling apart and no one seems to care.
