Ask Blair!

Ask Blair is an advice column run by a GPHS student under the alias of Blair. Its purpose is to provide advice to students in search of it. Keep in mind that your responses will most likely be in the next issue of The Scroll.

To our Scroll Readers

This year, we launched the advice column Ask Blair! Everything is 100% anonymous, including my own identity. Though I go by Blair for the purpose of the column, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you know me outside of The Scroll. I’m a student at GPHS, just like all of you. My goal for the column is to reach out to you guys and do what I can to help you during your times of trouble. Don’t be afraid to send in questions for next month’s issue, and I look forward to writing for you guys in the months to come. Scroll to the bottom to enter your own questions for Blair.

*Editor's Note: The Scroll's Ask Blair! Column is to solely provide advice, care, and support to students in need. We want to hear from you, and we understand that some of the topics that will be discussed will be emotional and sometimes distressing, but this advice column is not meant to be used as an alternative to any sort of professional therapy or counseling.

Thank you ❤

Ask Blair! - June Issue & Advice Responses

Would you consider the human race to be an invasive species?

I’ve gotta say, if I can only have one question this month, I couldn’t have picked a better thing to be asked. I love how random this is and it gave me something to really look into, since there’s a lack of responses this month, so thank you.

Now, as far as answering the question goes, I’ve gotta say, I’m no scientist, so don’t put too much faith in me. According to the US Department of Agriculture (https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/what-are-invasive-species), an invasive species, by definition, is something that may cause economic or environmental harm to human health. At first, I thought this meant we can’t be an invasive species, but then I thought about it some more and changed my mind.

As humans, we need the earth to be in good shape to sustain us, but humans have released toxic greenhouse gasses that sped up climate change and have damaged the environment through deforestation and the harvesting of natural resources. Because of this, the earth is in worse shape than when we got here, and sooner or later, we’ll run out of resources, or the earth will get too hot, and humans will be in danger. We are harming ourselves, which means, yes, we are an invasive species, because most of the problems putting the human race in danger are caused by ourselves. We could also argue that, even though Homo sapiens are technically native to the natural environment, all we have done is modernize and build cities and buildings that humans need to survive. Most humans today could never survive without society, which means we have lost touch with our roots in nature and, arguably, are no longer native to it, since we are constantly destroying it and replacing it with modernization.

I apologize if my rambling makes no sense, as I’ve never been faced with such a complex question before on Ask Blair, so my thoughts are kind of all over the place, but thank you for your question! It’s fun to answer questions outside of the box like this, and it gave me something to really thoroughly invest my time and effort in. I hope my answer helped you with whatever it was you needed it for.

A Note From Blair:

That’s all for Ask Blair this school year, but keep submitting your questions, and I’ll be answering questions over the summer, too! Just check into this issue over the summer to see if there's been an addition to the article. Thank you to everyone who has submitted a question this year, and I hope to hear from you all again when the Scroll returns. Until next time!

Note: The views and opinions expressed in The Scroll reflect those of individual students, and not the views of GPHS or Grants Pass School District 7 as a whole.

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