Can We Change?

I've realised that I cannot begin writing a post and then come back to it. I never do. Instead of deleting the post I began many months ago, I've decided to just share with you what I had written before I stopped. Maybe I will pick it up at another time, possible from a different angle? Feel free to leave a comment or two. The post has not been proof read either.

I began writing one post and realised that I rant quite often instead of writing a piece that can be a diving board for discussion on the particular topic that is making me disgruntled. Hence, I am attempting to create such said diving board. Let me know how I did lol.

Quite often I wonder, can we change? We have been hearing about climate change and loss in biodiversity; we have seen the effects of our actions not only in recent times but essentially from colonial times, if not before, of our negative relationship with the environment. Yet still, after all this time, we cannot live in harmony, or at least diminish the negative effects we have on the environment. I was on Twitter and a friend tweeted about Troy Davis. He had tweeted about this before but today I decided to check out who was Troy Davis and what his story was. I got very perturbed by what I read and decided, after I too tweeted about how stupid it was, to find something else to read about to help me calm down. My Environmental Law prof usually asks at the beginning of class what's going on in the world in terms of Environmental Law, so I decided to check out the environmental news. I came across an article in The Guardian (a British newspaper) about fossil fuel subsidies being cut and monies being given to developing nations to help combat climate change. I thought maybe I would share my two cents of thought on the matter with you.

What do I think needs to be done to combat climate change?I don't think there is any one thing that can be done, neither do I think that any one thing is more important. My opinion is that a combination of efforts need to be executed for there to be sufficient change.
For sure our attitudes need to change. The saying "Without The Earth humans will die, but without humans The Earth will live" is so true! I was born and raised a Christian, so my teachings have said God entrusted The Earth to humans. The mentality that humans have of we can do what we want, how we want with The Earth is ridiculous. Yes, matter and energy are neither made nor created but merely transformed from one form to other is true, however, one thing we clearly forget to take into account is the factor of time. Time from the perspective of a human is instantaneous, very short in comparison to time from the perspective of The Earth. Geologists and other professions in the physical Geography field will tell you that it takes millions of years for the things we see before our eyes to be formed by The Earth. How does it not make sense that the rate at which we are using it up is not sustainable?
This brings me to my next point: We need to reduce our rate of consumption. We live in a very materialistic world, where how much you posses determines you worth and your importance. Hence we crave items, we crave physical demonstrations of how much we have. We purchase and acquire items that we do not need. We obtain them in the name of technology, comfort and standard of living. We waste and get new things for the fun of it and for our own personal enjoyment. At this point I would like to pause and just point out that not once have I said you, or y'all or not included myself in this. I am a part of the problem. I admit. I am not perfect. I am not sitting on a high horse saying this is what you need to do, no. This is what we need to do. But yes, I digressed, as usual. Back to my point. I think I have spoken about this on the blog, or maybe it was the other blog I started and stopped, but did you ever wonder why Reduce was the first R in the 3 Rs? It's because it's the most important of the three! If we reduce the amount of food we eat, the amount of water we waste, the number of shoes we buy, the number of bags we use, if we reduce the amount of resources we consume the effects will be extremely beneficial. How so? you ask. It's simple really - you reduce the rate of consumption. As I said in the first point, the rate at which The Earth replenished itself is a lot slower than that at which we consume it's resources. By reducing the rate of consumption, we help to keep some resources for the future.