Ben Wiehl - Outside Reading #2

"The world arrived in the mail. It was marked "Fragile" - from Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan.

This quote made me think of the Earth, and how fragile of a global system we have. Since we have been living on this planet, it seems that we have been rapidly causing more and more damage while making it a point to blatantly ignore, for the most part, what detrimental effects our treatment of the planet is having. If indeed we were to mail our world to our descendants 100 years from now, if we continue on the same path, that fragile package would meet its destination with the obvious tinker of broken glass inside. It seems now more then ever that our actions will have direct and visible consequences. In order to preserve the style of life that we wish to live in, necessary measures must be taken to educate the multitudes on our general state, because I feel that the majority of the population remains uninformed about the damage their neglect is causing as well as the steps they could take to alter the course we are on. In order to do so, I think that people need to become more appreciative of the world around them. It should be mandatory that each person spend some time reflecting on this situation -- time best spent out and about in nature getting a real feel for the world. If every person was more appreciative of the world we have inherited, it would surely benefit the nation and the global community as a whole.