A reasonable life

After reading a Reasonable life by Ferenc Mate and hearing Al Gore's inspiring speech in class on Monday, I have spent some time processing everything that the author and the speaker have to say to us. It really boils down to a simple question- Can we live a reasonable life and still have enough to eat, live with, and enjoy life? I believe that the answer is, to borrow the cliche "Yes we can!"

Can people be happy even though they have less- less cars, less time on the internet, less plane travel, less "stuff"? Yes we can. Can people live without eating meat, without eating genetically modified food, and ridiculous junk food? Yes We can. Can we drive less, stop living in suburbs, and live in higher density cities where transit is more sustainable? Yes we can. (Farm lifestyle is also acceptable). Can we "save the planet" if we all together do these things and combine this change in lifestyle with an advance in new technologies (nanotech, renewables)? Yes, I believe that we can.

The two factors needed here are education and willingness. People are slowly getting more educated about the realities of the problems that we are facing- through people like Al Gore, Ferenc Mate, and many other like them. But as Al Gore pointed out, even though we are aware of the problem many of us do not put it on the top of our list of priorities. The environment and climate change was second to the bottom in a list of 20 priorities during the 2008 presidential election, starkly pointing out that our priorities are misarranged. We need to have the willingness to change and make changes in order to confront problems of this magnitude. And we solidarity, cooperation, trust, and efficiency to accomplish that.

Not to mention scientists. I sometimes regret not going for a BS, knowing that we lack math and science majors. (I'm lazy and let my brother do the hard work). Obama is correct that we need more indigenously-produced math and science-studying people. These are theones who will be the future's scientists and engineers who will hopefully look for new ways to solve these problems.

Peak Oil is real, and will affect our lives faster than we can imagine. Are our current biofuel and renewable energy efforts enough? Why are major organizations like OPEC still denying the figures? The issue of energy will be equally as critical as the heating of the earth's atmosphere inthe upcoming fifty years. Will the planting of biofuels to save the enviroment be a burden for the many who will lose food because of the lost farmland? How will we grow enough food to support a population of 8 billion by 2040? Will we construct urban gardens and "farmscrapers" in cities to cope with the need for agricultural production combined with the lack of build space? We have to start looking for solutions now- because good solutions always require decades to take effect.

Ultimately, if we as a species decide that we can change lifestyles and our civilization as a whole in response to the crisis confronting us in the 21st century, we will. The challenges confronting us and merely a matter of human will.
Yes We can.