England-2011-emily

Emily's Journal

The three biggest challenges that society is facing today are overpopulation, climate change, and a lack of natural resources.

First, climate change can be lessened with a few differences in the way that we live everyday. Of course, we have all heard many times what we are supposed to do to fix this. We should walk instead of drive and try and produce less waste, and lots of other things that are easier said than done, but still entirely possible. Technology can help out a lot in this regard, because we can develop more efficient public transportation that does not use chemicals and things that are harmful to the environment. Science can look to all of the causes of climate change, besides the elements in the air.

Another problem that faces society is lack of natural resources, this includes oil and water, among others. A way that science could help in this regard is by trying to identify other resources that could be used instead of oil and put those into use. And a way to use the ocean's water as drinking water would also be a big step in helping to solve these problems. Ways to bring water from areas that are have an abundance to areas that are lacking would also be a good development.

Overpopulation is really at the center of all of society’s problems. If there were not so many of us, we would not be lacking in natural resources, and we wouldn't be slowly destroying everything around us. One option to solve this problem is to do what China did, because that certainly helped the populations problems, but I feel that there were far more issues with that solution than there were benefits. Technology has already been developing contraceptives for a long time. But more can be done.

In reality, most of these things that science can do to solve all of these problems have already been discovered. Japan has the bullet train that makes transportation easy, packaging has been reduced in order to eliminate so much waste product. We know about electric cars and not to waste water. We have contraceptives that can prevent people from having dozens and dozens of children. Of course more can be done, I think that we will always be discovering ways to make our lives better and be less harsh on the environment.

But people don't want to do any of these things. People will not walk to work or take the train or the bus. It is not convenient People do not want to use contraceptives, for many reasons, one being religious beliefs. Los Angeles is sending a huge percentage of their fresh water into the oceans because people will not accept the idea of drinking recycled water, even though it is entirely possible to clean this water to drinkable standards. It's not so much what science and technology can do to solve these problems, it is what will it take to make people realize that what they are doing is not helping the world and that they need to stop. Perceptions need to change, a refusal to change the way we are living is the biggest problem that society is facing. I certainly am not advocating living in tents with no electricity or heat, boiling my own water to drink but I think that with what is already out there we can, as a first step, improve the way we are living and be on our way to eliminating these issues.

Second question.

• Second response.