Luke Soule
Nov 6 · 4 min read

I took this beautiful picture last weekend in the Great Smokey Mountains in southern Tennessee. During my drive from Atlanta, I emitted a lot of CO2. It was cold, so I was wearing a jacket made 1000 miles away that was shipped across the ocean. The journey emitted a lot of CO2. I was thirsty and drank from a water bottle made of plastic that will potentially end up in the ocean. I took pictures with my cell phone made from toxic and rare elements that, when it finally dies, will possibly end up in a river in a poor country across the world. I saw colors that would, and did, bring a man to tears. Hundreds before me saw it. Hundreds after me won't, and may never get the chance to.

The future is uncertain for my generation and the one after it. I'm glad my father and mother lived fairly comfortably. My grandmother and grandfather a little less comfortably but still comfortably. I am fortunate to live so comfortably. But this could come to an end soon, very soon. The world population is projected to reach a level of 9.8 billion by 2050, bar a catastrophic disaster or major world war [1]. It is reasonable to say that beautiful sights like the Smokies may not be around, or that there will be no human being's to see them in a century or two. It's a chilling thought that has been lingering in my young, inexperienced brain for years now.

Ok, fine. How, then, do we solve climate change? How do we have infinite clean energy? Clean water or food? Clothes and happiness? How do we get rid of all of the trash and stop making more? These are indisputably tough questions. Mankind's answer has been, well, sub-par. We burned wood, then coal, then oil. Most of the useful heat from the process was lost, and the by-products went into the air. They still do. We invented plastic to make things cheaper and more plentiful. We didn't think of where it all goes after, we just know it worked. We still do. We made societies run on a global scale, without ever considering how very few winners would flourish off the backs of millions of poor, faceless individuals. We still do. But we didn't know any better. We never thought about it. There was no planning or design for far into the future, only shortsighted survival. Well, no one can see into the future, right?

Well, grieving over what has passed might not be the best use of our energies. So, let's solve these problems and save ourselves and our planet. Unfortunately, that might not be as easy as it sounds; each problem has many solutions with no true winner. Journalist Charles C. Mann outlined this problem wonderfully in his Ted talk, speaking of the prophets and the wizards, i.e. those that wish to conserve our way out and those who wish to invent our way out [2]. Each problem can be viewed from several different viewpoints. For example, Mann discusses that wizards wish to use nuclear power to satisfy our clean energy criteria, while prophets wish to use wind and solar in small communities to produce clean energy. At this point, I must admit that, as a scientist, I lean towards the wizard viewpoint, as technology development is my day job. But Mann brings up a great point. A point that encouraged me to stay up late into the night to write this article.

We cannot agree on a single solution to all of the world's imminent crises. But it is apparent now more than ever that we must work together to tackle them. To work to understand each other's viewpoints. To rationally and honestly look at the pro's and con's of each choice. In fact, the one thing we can all agree on is that we need to stop what we're doing and work towards prolonging human civilization without destroying the Earth and it's inhabitants. We need to stop fighting and stop hating each other. To stop viewing life as a story about us, our families, or our country. To stop trying to get rich and stop trying to get famous. To stop wishing for what others have. To stop competing over which nation has the largest GDP. We need to rid the world of climate change, to get equal rights for all individuals, including the right to healthcare, food, water and justice. To feed and power our societies sustainably far into the future. And we need to be realistic about each solution we put forward, but not too realistic.

In short, we need action. We need to think about others and fight for change. Learn from the past, but reinvent the future- fast. Like, really fast. This is not about you anymore. It's not about me anymore. It's not about my career, my parents, my friends, or my cat. It's about the human race. About the fox's running through Georgia Tech's campus. It's about the homeless man sitting by the freeway in a far-away city. About the turtles choking on plastic. About the child yet to be born, in a city we don't know the name of, at a time in the future we can't predict. We must act.

[1] "World Population Forecast". Worldometers. Retrieved 26 June 2016 [2]https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_c_mann_how_will_we_survive_when_the_population_hits_10_billion?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

    Luke Soule

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