Captured Thought: My generation's future

                Since listening to all of the TED presentations in class these last few weeks, I have started thinking about how my future, and my whole generation’s future, is going to be so different from those of previous generations.  While each generation has had their own unique challenges, it seems that my generation and those of the future will deal with the results of humankind’s tendency to ignore developing problems until it is too late.

               One problem that becoming more and more obvious is that the rate at which humans use the Earth’s natural resources is completely unsustainable. There are starting to be shortages many natural resources including: clean water, oil, minerals, and even food. Because there has not been a problem accessing these resources in the past, people got used to using too much and wasting, and are not willing to change their lifestyles.  But now, if we don’t stop wasting and overusing our natural resources they really will completely disappear in the future. I think a lot of more people need to realize this is a real problem that needs to be solved.  With these devastating consequences awaiting us, this generation is responsible for coming up with many new ideas and solutions to save the Earth from ourselves.  

                This idea does not only apply to natural resources, there are many other Earth related issues that are starting to really take a toll.  There are so many problems to be concerned about that it’s pretty overwhelming. The overuse of cars and fossil fuels has caused trouble for the Earth through global warming and even desertification, something I had never heard of before listening to a TED presentation about it. I learned that if the climate continues to get warmer and dryer, and land continues to be overused the way that it is now, there may not be enough land to plant our food crops on in the future.  Another land problem we face is where our garbage goes after we throw it out. Garbage takes up a lot of Earth’s space, and with a rapidly rising population, we don’t have any room to waste. Constant updates in technology have added on to the garbage problem; electronic waste (E-waste) is becoming a huge issue as well.

                While all of this might sound really negative, I’m really not pessimistic about my generation’s future. Sure, we are going to face many challenges as these issues play out in the coming years, but it also gives us the chance to be creative, change our lifestyles for the better, and even join together in order to solve these problems. Thankfully for this generation, there are many great minds already working to find solutions, and these people have TED talks. This generation needs to listen up, do what these people suggest, and be just as inspired as them to help save our planet. And of course, there are many other people with great ideas who are not on TED, and these people’s work should be noted as well. If everyone does their part to change the path that the Earth is currently heading, then we could save our planet before it’s too late.