Tracey Thomas Kylie Langlois Camille Kuebler Kayla Nocket Period 1 Modern Innovations: Ideas For the Future of Human Beings At El Segundo High School, there is a course offered called AP Environmental Science. This class teaches sixteen and seventeen year olds about the problems of the world. These problems range from fish dying in the ocean because of over-fishing, to global warming, to population related problems. Recently, it was called to our attention that there is a grave water problem in the world. There is plenty of water to go around for everyone, but therein lies the problem. This bountiful amount of water is not going around. It is being stored up in developed countries while people in developing countries die of insufficient clean water. Also, we have learned that structures to hold water such as dams are displacing millions of people and then killing thousands of people when they break. We have come up with a modest proposal to solve the water distribution problem, the population problem, and the problem of the dams in one fell swoop. In the current economy, governments across the globe cannot afford to pay to fix or disassemble their dams. At the same time, all people need water to survive. Therefore the best proposal to cost effectively fix the issue is to let the dams naturally fall apart. This would be approved by both economists, due to fiscal reasons, and environmentalists, due to the environmental degradation caused by dams. This would be an unprecedented event as environmentalists and economists rarely get along. When the dams break down, war can be prevented. “In the near future, water-short countries in the Middle East are likely to engage in conflicts over access to water resources” (Miller 305). Therefore we can prevent war by doing nothing. However if we spend millions to build or fix dams, it will lead to war. Obviously, the correct choice would be to do nothing. However, one of the best attributes of war is to decrease the human population. Without war, how can we decrease the current population problem? Today more than ever, the global population is a huge problem. The global population of, “6.6 billion is expected to grow to more than 9 billion by 2050. And with each new person added to the total population, the competition for finite resources such as food and water increases, the lack of those resources in many parts of the world becomes more deadly, and problems such as global warming become more difficult to solve” (West). Therefore we need another way, besides war, to resolve this problem. When the dams break, flooding is inevitable, and will kill millions of people. This can greatly help reduce the population problem that we currently face. Another solution to our current water accessibility, storage, and population problems is to resort to cannibalism. While there are billions of people in the worlds and scientists constantly complain of issues due to overpopulation, why not just eat them? As it is common knowledge "the human species... appropriates more and more of the planet’s resources for their own use” (Duve 14) as it continues to grow, this would be the perfect solution. We could kill the weaker members of our species, helping the population problem and drink their blood as a source of water. This would allow us to have a constant source of water to drink and not have to worry about the storage problem because it would be readily accessible as they were killed. Cannibalism would be an appropriate solution to our water shortage and population problems as it give a source of water accessible at any time while keeping down population size simultaneously. In the past humans have always resorted to solutions to our problems that require time and work. What we are proposing is that by doing nothing and letting the dams deteriorate, water shortage problems and population crowding problems will solve themselves without the need for large government expenditures. In the meantime, while we wait for this deterioration to occur naturally, killing millions from floods, we could simply practice cannibalism. Currently there are so many humans on the planet that human flesh would be a virtually unlimited resource and could stimulate the economy as a new and exciting business venture. Resourceful thinking has helped humans with countless problems in the past, and these innovative ideas are no exception and should be implemented into our society promptly. Works Cited Duve, de Christian. “What’s Ahead: “Figures don’t lie”. The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today. Ed. Mike Wallace. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008. 14. Miller, Tyler G. Living in the Environment: Principle, Connections, and Solutions, 14th edition. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning, 2005. 305. West, Larry. "How Global Population Growth is Creating Serious Environmental Problems." About.10 January, 2009. 27 January, 2009. http://environment.about.com/b/2008/01/10 /global-population-growth-creating-serious-environmental-problems.htm |