Everyone Has A Carbon Footprint.

I thought Michael Specter's article "Big Foot" was very interesting. He took a very popular and frequently discussed topic - environmental protection and global warming - and examined it from a different angle. I never thought about all the miles that went into transporting food from where it is grown to the grocery store. Most of the time, whenever I hear references to global warming, I automatically think of huge, gas-guzzling cars and trucks and people turning on their air conditioners in the springtime before they really need them.

Including Elkington's claim into his article was an interesting move for Specter. By doing so, he is agreeing that "we are in an era of creative destruction." This phrase helps highlight Specter's claim that countries today - particularly developed countries - are damaging the world in new ways that were never previously imaginable. We are using new technologies more frequently and these products are damaging the world's atmosphere. Instead of developing products that benefit humans AND the environment, we have been selfishly ignoring the harmful results of these items. We are becoming, in a sense, more "creative" in our destruction; instead of just driving environmentally unfriendly cars, we are rapidly destroying forests and popularizing damaging methods of transportation of food items. What was a little bit frightening was that a solution for these problems is difficult to achieve. We still have a long way to go before we can fully understand how to universally solve these risks.

Everyone is responsible at least somewhat for global warming. We all use cars or take buses that use gas, we all use electricity, we all buy goods that had to be manufactured and shipped. These are things that are necessary for daily life. We are all guilty of occasionally over-using these commodities, and that is what we have to change. Instead of turning on the air conditioner when it's only mildly hot out, open up a window and let the breeze in. Walk to the store if it's close enough. In my mind, the most important thing we can do to work on slowing down global warming is to recognize the fact that like it or not, we all contribute to it.