In this day of age, distractions in our lives prevent us from contemplating about major problems that our world faces. Have you ever given thought that almost all that is done in our daily lives have some relationship with the environment? In recent decades, we as a nation have neglected the idea of keeping of environment green friendly and have focused on other media attention issues. In 2008, our next presidential election will take place. The candidates are faced with tough problems that will be discussed such as the War in Iraq, immigration, health care, education reforms and more. Funding these major areas is certainly expensive and important, but we should vote for a president that will spend more of our tax dollars saving the environment more so than other issues such as the War in Iraq. If we do not follow through, global implications will be inevitable, the effects of degrading our environment will be evident and future generations will blame our generation for poor management of Planet Earth.

Overwhelming amounts of evidence supports that through human activities, global implications are certain to occur within the next 25 to 50 years. Government scientists and researchers have accepted this as a general consensus. Natural disasters are projected to be stronger, warmer climates are to persist and changes in the human population such as migration shifts are expected. We face each year, in the United States, with a great number of weather related disasters. Unnecessary tax dollars would not be wasted if these disasters were not to happen. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the worst disaster in history struck the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. Over 61 billion dollars were spent on aid alone. Imagine using 61 billion dollars on another use.

The effects of our environment degrading will hurt our nation. On a geographically standpoint, with the Artic ice cap melting and sea levels rising, the maps of the United States will likely have to be redrawn. It would literally reshape the nation. Coastal communities are extremely vulnerable and if the projections are to verify, a significant drop in tourism would occur. Beaches would be completely eroded and homes and businesses would be under water. Like a snowball effect, small problems escalate to larger problems. This case would be no different. The economy of our nation would respond dramatically, most likely for the worse and other major problems would arise. Are we as a nation going to let this happen to our ‘land of the free and home of the brave’?


Future generations will look back at our generation and bicker at us for damaging the environment. They will find that in this current decade, the United States did not have a major agenda in cleaning the environment. We are the culprit to global warming and physiologically, people will become less concerned about our planet. Idealistically, we should be guided in the opposite direction and make head way in making sure that we secure the future of our home.

We are rapidly approaching a point of no return. Ten, twenty, fifty years down the road, the path that we paved the planet to be will be destined to arrive. Yes, homeland security, health care, education, urban development is important to our nation but to what extent should we ignore our Planet Earth? Our next president has to have major initiatives to support pro-environmentalism, which may mean spending more money on this cause. If we do not take proper action as a nation, we as a global community will suffer its consequences. Simply put, our world may never be the same.