Entry #7: So Much to Learn, So Much to Do

So Much to Learn, So Much to Do

               I have learned a lot in the last few weeks, engulfing myself with information from National Geographic videos and other videos, including The End of the Line, and reading articles and the book The Weather Makers.  I'm about half way through this book and have found that we need to majorly reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.  Carbon dioxide is one of the major reasons the earth is heating up and causing bad effect the oceans, melting ice and snow, and causing many different animals to become extinct.  The world is changing for the worse.  Animals and plants are taking the hit for humans' irresponsibilities.  We're fishing too much, putting outrageous amounts of chemicals into the ground and waters around us, littering the earth with harmful, contaminating materials, and putting hefty amounts of gases into the atmosphere.  There has been major research that confirms our earth is warming and our actions are harming plants and animals, yet I noticed in the videos I watched, the narrators repeatedly said the studies are controversial.   Why?  Why are the studies controversial?  Is it because of money, people's businesses, and people's greedy well-being, or because some people don't want to be the blame of hurting the environment?  We have found these problems and know some ways to fix them.  I thought it was amazing to find out there are certain plants that can withstanding and soak up different types of chemicals and poisonous liquids.  For example, ferns can deal with arsenic and mustard plants can handle lead.  The environment has ways of protecting itself, but I think we are making changes too quickly and disturbing the environment too much to let things develop and fix themselves naturally.  For example, as Tim Flannery points out in The Weather Makers, the population of the great white bear is declining fast and marking "the beginning of the collapse of the entire Arctic ecosystem."  Problems similar to this, and other types of environment problems, are happening all over the world.

               I am going to continue to educate myself on these issues and ways I can help.  I hope you do the same.

~Max G.