Go Green or Get Out | Teen Ink

Go Green or Get Out

June 20, 2014
By JasonG SILVER, Lambertville, Michigan
JasonG SILVER, Lambertville, Michigan
8 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"It's not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln


Humanity is the best thing that has ever happened to Earth and Earth is the best thing that has ever happened to humanity, but somewhere along the way I think we must have forgotten our responsibility as Earth’s inhabitants ; We need to take care of our planet. As time goes on we lose sight of what we are really doing to our precious home. Our constant wars, our infatuation with fossil fuels, deforestation, industrialization, etc. are really starting to hurt our planet. We are becoming more interested in “going green” sure, yet sometimes I feel that this obsession with “green” isn’t about improving and saving our environment, but about making money. Money, Power, and More Money is all people have their minds on. But in these coming years, we are going to have to lose our love of money to help find a real solution to our pollution and destruction problems or else we are in for one hell of a ride (and not a fun one). Take fossil fuels for example; Probably the most destructive compounds and substances on earth, not from a military standpoint but from an environmental one. Burning these fossil fuels releases an enormous amount of carbon, which damages our atmosphere. But since we have been using these compounds for almost everything since they have been discovered, all governments in every corner of the world depend on them for their economy. So much in fact, that we fight wars over them, use them as a main source of tax revenue, spend tons of money on how to use these compounds in new ways, and destroy our environment just to drill for and refine these compounds in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. While revolutionary “GREEN” technologies are already in existence that could eliminate our need of these harmful, (and if I might add) NONrenewable compounds, we lack the financial ability to put these technologies into effect. Not because we don’t have enough money to buy them, but because if we do buy them, our whole globe’s economic infrastructure will have to be rebuilt and that will cost a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort. But ladies and gentlemen, politicians of the future, we need to save our planet, not only from destruction but from corruption as well. Our generation is going to have to face this problem that the previous generations have ignored and pushed aside. We need to clean up their mess… Literally.


The author's comments:
This piece outlines my opinion on our environmental state. We have a lot of work to do and this article states my battle cry for a clean earth.

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