The Sustainability Revolution of the Twenty-First Century :: Politics Political Essays

The Sustainability conversion of the Twenty-First Century The direction the world is heading now is unsustainable. We adjudgeexplored the many facets of this unsustainability end-to-end our seminar.It is real. And the essence of unsustainability, of course, is that we cannot handle it up. There leave alone be change, and as a society, we cannot live indenial of this fact. We must hurry up and figure out how to take control ofthis change sooner the change happens to us.What would happen if we let our society continue on its currentpath without rethinking our value? It is very hard to conceive of ourpowerful nation and fast-paced, coruscant way of life ending. I am surethat few Americans really can telecasting what would happen. It is easiest toassume that we could remain indefinitely in this state of to a greater extent or lesscomfortable obliviousness. As long as we have a mellifluous supply of newproducts around us, the instantaneous, superficial pleasures can keep usdistra cted. To try to break through this lazy mindset, I consideredlooking at standardized situations over a larger time scale. There have beenmany boom civilizations throughout human history that thought they were thepinnacle of existence and could never be defeated. But they all ended,sooner or later. The Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish, the British, etc.etc. etc. (there are plenty from pre-history as well - the more we learn,the more travel civilizations we find). They are either taken over by rough other group, are ruined by disease, or because of their inability tochange they use up or degrade the resource base that sustained them. Tolook from a larger scale than just humans, the archaeological record showsthe rise and fall of many groups or species in a similar way. Earth wasonce govern by microscopic organisms, later by dinosaurs, then bymegafaunal mammals, and now by us (forgive the major jumps in evolution-Im just trying to make a point). Current trends towards globalization a ndthus worldwide spread of materialism and consumption mean that we no longercan consider our fate as an single(a) civilization. We now mustrealize that whatever fate befalls us, befalls humans worldwide. Luckily, more and more mass are figuring this out and gettingworried. I volunteer that there go away be a cultural backlash against themodern consumptive society, and that the trends pass on begin to reverse.Just as each generation rebels to some extent against the previous one (andeach decade is appalled by the fashion disposition of the one before), the nextgeneration or so will be disgusted with the overconsumption and excess ofThe Sustainability Revolution of the Twenty-First Century Politics Political EssaysThe Sustainability Revolution of the Twenty-First Century The direction the world is heading now is unsustainable. We haveexplored the many facets of this unsustainability throughout our seminar.It is real. And the essence of unsustainability, of course, is that we cannot keep it up. There will be change, and as a society, we cannot live indenial of this fact. We must hurry up and figure out how to take control ofthis change before the change happens to us.What would happen if we let our society continue on its currentpath without rethinking our values? It is very hard to conceive of ourpowerful nation and fast-paced, glittery way of life ending. I am surethat few Americans really can picture what would happen. It is easiest toassume that we could remain indefinitely in this state of more or lesscomfortable obliviousness. As long as we have a fresh supply of newproducts around us, the instantaneous, superficial pleasures can keep usdistracted. To try to break through this lazy mindset, I consideredlooking at similar situations over a larger time scale. There have beenmany boom civilizations throughout human history that thought they were thepinnacle of existence and could never be defeated. But they all ended,sooner or later. The Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish, the British, etc.etc. etc. (there are plenty from pre-history as well - the more we learn,the more fallen civilizations we find). They are either taken over byanother group, are ruined by disease, or because of their inability tochange they use up or degrade the resource base that sustained them. Tolook from a larger scale than just humans, the archaeological record showsthe rise and fall of many groups or species in a similar way. Earth wasonce ruled by microscopic organisms, later by dinosaurs, then bymegafaunal mammals, and now by us (forgive the major jumps in evolution-Im just trying to make a point). Current trends towards globalization andthus worldwide spread of materialism and consumption mean that we no longercan consider our fate as an individual civilization. We now mustrealize that whatever fate befalls us, befalls humans worldwide. Luckily, more and more people are figuring this out and gettingworried. I propose that there will be a cultural backla sh against themodern consumptive society, and that the trends will begin to reverse.Just as each generation rebels to some extent against the previous one (andeach decade is appalled by the fashion sense of the one before), the nextgeneration or so will be disgusted with the overconsumption and excess of