What is wrong with our planet?

Being America, it’s easy to do what we do best: (no, not eating fast food, although we do that too) import stuff from other countries. We import everything from food to dinky little party favors to food. A good question to ask is what happens when there is a worldwide famine, and we can’t import food anymore? What happens if our agriculture industry goes down the drain? Then what?

This is something we may be facing soon, as global warming is drying up major rivers around the globe that help water crops. What then? What if climate change happens and rainfall doesn’t fall on farmland? What if instead it floods deserts? In the future, I don’t exactly want to see cacti floating by in a lake.

“Melting Glaciers Will Trigger Flood Shortage”, an article from newscientist.com states that the main problems we have to worry about is irrigation patterns being offset. When you think about it, farms have a very precarious system. One degree of change, or a slight shift in rivers will hike up prices and make the problems of our world worse.

So, in short, we have a lot of work to do on our unstable planet. We better get started!

Now what?

The world is changing, countries finally acting on the problems that global warming is creating. But what can you do, as a person, to stop this impeding disaster?

This is the basic, simple list on what you can do:

• Turn off the lights and save electricity wherever you can. (Helps your bills and the world!)
• Drive a more fuel-efficient car (Get rid of your Hummer!)
• Read the newspaper online, and print out only the articles you want to read, in lieu of receiving the newspaper every day.
• Stop smoking
• Get a fuel efficient car
• Don’t use the plastic bags in the grocery store, bring your own reusable grocery bags. (Can be bought at some stores, like Sprouts, or online.) Not only is this good for the environment, but these bags (most of them) stand upright in the trunk of your car instead of slumping over like plastic bags.
• Need a pool heater? Get a solar powered one
• Did I already mention getting a fuel efficient car?

Just by doing this, you are already helping the world. Some of the items on the basic list are common sense, such as not smoking, and getting a fuel efficient car. Remember, every little step helps!

-Rika