Revision

My Eyes Are Opening, Slowly

With such a big world surrounding us all, it’s hard to imagine that the actions of one person could make any difference. With the apparent damage that has already been done, how could one person have an effect on a whole culture to stop the harm they are causing the earth. Is one changed mind really going to save humanity? Before this class, I had absolutely no opinion about the environment and was a firm believer that global warming was a hoax. Well, apparently I am naive, and misinformed of the situation our world is facing today. I had no idea that things are as bad as they are, and all it took was for me to watch a few silly youtubes to become aware that maybe everything isn’t really as safe and sound as I had once thought. Although, I, for the first time, have been exposed to the real situation of planet earth, I still have my doubts about what my actions could ever do to help prevent the destruction of mankind. I question how powerful one mind changed really is.
During my middle school and even high school career, not much about the environment was ever discussed. Sure, I heard my teachers talking about how the temperatures were at a record high and some babble about what was causing it. But for me, it was in one ear and out the other. I never thought that it would ever become a burden of mine to carry with me. A burden that would cause me to wonder all the time, what the earth is actually thinking, what it’s feeling, and what is actually being done to it. Even at home, I didn’t hear much about my parents thoughts about the issue either, but for all I know they could have been concerned about it, but never vocalized their opinion to me. I assume because I was too young to understand. I can honestly say I never had a care in my mind about the future of the earth because I always believe it had one. But apparently I have been out of the loop for too long, and it seems like a grim future the earth is headed towards. And that grim future includes us humans as well.
Although my lack of knowledge towards the condition of the biosphere leaves me with a small room of reference, I do appreciate the aesthetics that this place has to offer. There is nothing better than lying on your back and watching the stars twinkle in the night sky. Last quarter I took a course in astronomy and I learned a lot about the atmosphere and that was my first look into what was actually happening to it. But again, nothing that I was told actually made me think, “Oh, what can I do to help prevent this from happening?” The more and more I think about it, there is information about this situation surfacing everyday. I watch television and the commercials about the polar bears and how they are slowing becoming extinct, and especially the different videos on the internet that have a harsh way of showing us the reality of our situation that we are facing. These different forms of advertisement are slowing opening my eyes to the big picture; we may be in a bit of trouble.
A specific video that caught my eye and jolted my conscious was of a green blob playing the guitar. He sang a song that said, “I don’t believe in global warming, come and sing with me.” There is a lot of rambling of words that don’t make sense which was signifying that maybe the other blobs in the video, didn’t really know much or didn’t want to know much about global warming. It is kind of like the feelings that I have had about the subject my whole life. As misinformed as they all start out in the video, by the end of the song, when the green blob starts thinking about how global warming is going to effect his grandchildren, his stance on the position start to change. The blob realizes that the damage that he and his friends are causing to the biosphere will be the burden of his grandchildren, and maybe that might be a bad thing. This also made me think too. I am at the age that these issues may even affect me in my future. I can’t let that happen. But I, again, still feel like little me couldn’t make any difference.
Considering now, that I am going to be 21 in a few weeks and a legal adult, maybe it is time to start thinking about the consequences of my actions today, to prevent a hazardous future for the next generation. Until now, I have never thought about the biosphere or what I myself am doing to help destroy it along with the rest of society. Maybe it is time to really make a change in lifestyle so maybe I could be one less problem adding to the big picture. We all have to think to ourselves, “What do we want for our children?” There is nowhere else for us to go. We must step up and protect the world around us because it’s the only one we are getting. I plan to take more time out to pay attention as to what is actually happening to our biosphere and our environment. I don’t want to be part of the problem; I want to be part of the prevention.