The world is heating up and we are running out of resources. Why wait for technology to save us? There is a solution. It doesn’t cost any money and that scares people.
Earth is heating up. So is Mars. Did we cause Mars’ warming? Not likely, baring some quantum explanation. Did we cause Earth’s climate change? Not likely. Are we contributing to it? Yes - by spending money.
You go to a store to indulge in a craving. You buy a pack of gum for a dollar. With that dollar, you have just contributed to everything associated to that gum and more. You have just paid for the processing, the advertising, the delivery, and the packaging. You also have hidden costs such as gasoline consumption and you pay people to haul your trash. All this creates heat. Plain and simple. You created heat when you drove to the store; not only in the combustion process of the engine, but in friction, sounds and breaking. This heat has to go somewhere and that is called the average global temperature. The heat has a hard time leaving our planet because of the greenhouse effect of CO2 gas. Now imagine that every human lived like you, all 6.7 billion of them. Scary, right?
It only cost a dollar. Now the store merchant has the dollar and they will repeat the process by spending it. Money is called currency, and it represents energy. Electricity has current and is also energy. When electricity flows it heats up the medium that carries it and so does money. Every time that dollar changes hands, the temperature of the world goes up just a little bit.
Now lets jump briefly to the obvious. The environmental factors are bad as well. Think of all the chemicals that were sprayed on the trees the gum base came from. The electricity consumed at the plant may not be green. The delivery method is certainly not green. This wastes resources. We do not have unlimited resources. But we have gum! Digest this one point - we are an Easter Island. Every dollar spent is inversely proportional to the amount of resources we have and need, as a species, to survive.
So why wait for technology to save you when you have had the power all along? You don’t really need your things. Happiness is just now being studying on scientific terms. It has been shown that you are no happier than someone who gets their daily calories requirements, is not suffering from disease, and has a roof over their head. Buddhist monks have been tested and are apparently the happiness of all.
There you have it. We are growing too fast as a population and we need to accept this. Our problems are only going to grow exponentially if we do not change our values. When a crisis comes, the overreaction will be deadly. Make small steps to reduce spending and don’t worry about how much money you make. You are a survivor!
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