What are our Obstacles?: Lack of Understanding

Lack of Understanding:

     

        We have considered main reasons why our world is not becoming sustainable. These are the government, the economies affecting sustainability and the will of the people.  However, the most important roadblock to a sustainable future may be the people’s lack of understanding of the problems the world faces. It is true that we don’t know everything. This has become alarmingly obvious in current times, as we see increasing levels of heat and CO2 raising the temperature of our planet.  We feel that we are powerless to stop these emissions and change the situation.  Currently the world depends on fossil fuels, and like it or not our societies run on oil. 

        Without oil our culture would collapse, and this lack of fuel would cause an economic disaster. So why do we continue to burn these fuels?  Because we must!! Why must we do this? We don’t know enough; we lack the knowledge to act differently. There are alternative energy sources and we interact with them every day. Options include energy from the sun, wind, water, geothermal sources, and nuclear power plants. Science has not developed sufficiently to make these products cheap enough or in some cases efficient enough to be able to meet our ever-increasing energy needs.

 

        The world we live in is changing rapidly. More efficient ways of producing electricity will eventually be implemented. But are we going fast enough? Some environmentalists believe that there aren’t enough people working on this problem to  solve these issues. Many scientists are working to discover more efficient solar panels, better hybrid cars, and nuclear power plants that will not cause an ecological disaster like Chernobyl.  Even so, this technology takes a long time to produce.

 

        What if we, as a society, are starting to lose the momentum that we once had? What if we begin to lose interest in gaining more knowledge about our environment? Many great men and women have dedicated their lives to the study of the environment. We are the next generation. We are the future, and the future is ours. It’s ours to choose, and it’s ours to change. We can sit by and watch our environment crumble around us, or we can act to save this land we hold so dear. Let’s work to encourage our friends and everyone else in our world to learn more about the environment, because it is with this information that we could save the earth.              

 

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Sources:

 

“An Inconvenient Truth”. Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim, 31 August 2006.
Gingrich, Newt and Terry Maple. A Contract with the Earth.  Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 2007. Accessed 8 Feb 2008.

 

"Pavilion Study: Drivers Lack Basic Understanding of Biofuel." Environmental Leader. 23, Jan 2007. Environmental Leader. Accessed 8 Feb 2008. <http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/01/23/pavilion-study-drivers-lack-basic-understanding-of-biofuel/>

 

Viederman, Stephen. " Knowledge for Sustainable Development: What do we Need to Know." Inter Environment. 1995. InterEnvironment. Accessed 8 Feb 2008. <http://www.interenvironment.org/cipa/viederman.htm>.

 

Photograph:

thomasbrandt. “Solar Panel”. Flickr.com. 21 August 2005.  Accessed 8 February 2008. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/70267096@N00/36085360/>

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