HOT, FLAT, & CROWDED

 

After reading Hot, Flat, & Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman, I was left thinking about how large the issues of over population, an even global economic playing field, and global warming are at a point that if we don’t act now, then we’ve acted too late.  One thing that I guess I really haven’t thought about is that the projected population is expected to be more than 9 billion people by 2053. If we don’t start getting involved and educating people right now, by 2050 we will be in a lot of trouble.  More and more countries are growing and advancing much like we did as Americans.  With all this growth there has to be some form of world-wide unity to correct the mistakes of our past.  If not, our over-crowded planet will be fighting for whatever remaining resources are available.

 All of this fighting and misuse of resources will surely doom the human race.  We have a chance right now to avoid all of that, but it seems like not too many are concerned.  Friedman also writes about how the internet has created an even global economic playing field.  People from all over the world can use the internet to create work and money from their own homes.  He also tells about how this has allowed many poor people to rise out of poverty and better their lives.  However, the more and more people we have on the planet using up more of the advanced resources we are currently using as Americans, is actually hurting our planet.  The fact is we are going to continue to grow as a population. It’s what we do with our resources, and how we renew these resources that is what is going to matter into the future.  A third and very important topic covered in the reading by Friedman, was how global warming is affecting and will affect the planet into the future.  It’s kind of sad, but many people think that global warming isn’t real, or that it’s something the government makes up.  That kind of thinking is what helped get us all to this point and is something that must be changed right now.  Deforestation, agriculture, and industrialization is vastly increasing the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, yet most of us turn our heads and act like these issues don’t matter.  If scientific data isn’t enough to get everyday people and governments to take charge of this issue, then I don’t know what will be good enough.  I do know this though, we better starting caring, we better start acting, and we better start coming together as a planet and stop trying to outdo one another.  Because if we don’t, there is only one thing that we will have done as a human race on our planet it. DESTROY IT!