I don't want to be a future eater!

I once had a science teacher that belonged to the baby boomer generation. But more specifically she apologized to her class of bright eyed, optimistic, young, mostly freshmen students for all of the irreversible damage that her generation had blown to the environment. She sincerely told us that they had created quite a bad situation for us to remedy. Using the words of former Italian prime minister Amato Giuliano, “[there exists] a general situation in which the older generations have eaten the future of the younger ones." This was originally stated in reference to job malaise among young people in Europe, but I feel as if it is something that echoes throughout every aspect of modern day human society. We’re all about progress but rarely do we take the time to assess what impacts we might have on one another and the planet as a whole as well as our future. Why do we not share a common goal of sustainability, and why do we no longer aspire for longevity? Wouldn't it be better for progress if we made sure to conserve resources and cultures to share with future generations?

It is clear with medical advances that we all want to cling onto life just a little longer, but then why do we disregard life in the name of economic gain? It is a contradiction I will never understand. I suppose some people just take life other than there own for granted. We do not care about our impacts on ecosystems or other countries or even the next borough over. Without humans, there is a balance in this planet; a balance we seem to turn on its head. I was watching a special on the Science Channel the other day about the Plains in Brazil. The giant ant eater (which is quite freaken giant) goes around eating ants and termites. Such a large creature consumes such a small creature yet they never take more than they need. According to the documentary, they never spend more than three minutes at any given ant or termite mound. This ensures that there will be plenty of food for tomorrow and ultimately the next generation. Why do we as humans feel we are so privileged to over consume, over use, and over stay our welcome?

The majority of what we do and how we do it does nothing to fit in with how mother nature runs. Actually it would seem we go out of our way to be harmful. For example, I bought a vacuum about one and a half years ago. My apartment is a one bedroom. I have only two rooms to vacuum--the bedroom (which I rarely vacuum...shhh) and the living room which I vacuum about every three days because my dog is tiny but is as hairy as chubaca. The other day the vacuum broke. Rather than just toss it like most people in my neighborhood would probably do, I brought it to the repair man in hopes of saving it. He told me is was quite over used (which those of you who know me most likely will scoff at the idea of me overusing a vacuum), and the cost to repair it would exceed the cost of the vacuum. Despite my efforts my poor vacuum nevertheless wound up in the trash and is probably on its way to a land fill in Pennsylvania or Virgina or something. The problem is that companies don't make anything built to last anymore, and we are the fools who keep buying this shoddy merchandise without demanding anything different (although believe me, the Eureka company will be getting a letter from me). Most of our cutting edge technology is built to be replaced within a year or two when the next generation of computers, cell phones, or i-pods come out. Our government doesn't enforce any regulations that might change this, but still mostly we the consumers, the voters are to blame. If companies want to decrease the life of its merchandise in order to have us buy more and more therefore increasing there profits, it is only fair that they should flip the bill for recycling...not trashing because that would be wasteful. Or they could allow us to send in last generation's items for an upgrade or send in items to be used for parts and applied towards credit for a new purchase. It seems fairly logical and simple, and it would even seem that all parties would benefit from such practices! The truth is trashing these items actually costs our city money. So why don't we use our dough towards more constructive efforts such as prolonging product life and recycling. As consumers we need to demand it! For Heaven sakes the majority of consumers don't even care enough to use toilet paper made from recycled materials! Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Yay!

As seen with the housing dilemma that plagues the country not even mortgages were built to last. Our roads are not built to last. Our water system is not designed to reuse anything therefore we are wastefully using up our now plentiful resource of fresh water. As I touched upon by using Giuliano's quotation, our economy has not been shaped to last--a realization we are recently embarking on with this whole social security/pension situation. The majority of my elders have such luxuries, but my generation is being thrown into a cold hard world with very few jobs and very few promises. We don't have job security and are certainly not promised social security or a pension. Why? Because the system was not designed to last. There wasn't any thought put into the fact that maybe in generations to follow families will not be having 4 or more children that will eventually enter the job force. Or if we thought about it, certainly no action was taken to curb this sure fire problem. We need to demand that these issues be feasibly and legitimately addressed.

According to many apocalyptic prophecies, the end is near. While this all may be mumbo jumbo (or maybe not), we can't hide from the fact that the end will eventually come whether now or in a thousand years. It would be terrible to be remembered (or not remembered if we're gone) as the era of those who don't care. I saw a documentary in which the scientist had something quite interesting to say. His gist was that the end may indeed be near, but as humans we can define what that end means. Will it be the end of life on earth? or will it be the end of our old belief system and old way of doing things? That's powerful! The end (or degraded state of life...maybe we'll end up like they do in Soylent Green!!), I don't feel is directly linked to whether we use recycled toilet paper or not but rather the ideology and intention behind it.

In all aspects, I feel my future being eaten. It may or may not be too late for my generation, but for the next generation to be free, drastic changes need to be made. I don't want to be a future eater. The best thing we can do is put our little feeties down, and say no more. While changes will be difficult I have faith in people, and I know our planet will bounce back with or without us (preferably with us). I hope we can teach the next generation to consider and change what past generations could not. I hope we still have time, but changes must not be saved for tomorrow. They must be instilled today!