The Future: Promising or Foreboding

English 102-

The Future: Promising or Foreboding

30496557740

102-03

Thesis statement: Although the reasons put forward by pessimists for their view of the future in terms of sustainability and global climate seem quite reasonable, scientific data provide evidence for optimism, and solutions using technological innovations as well as other means give high hopes for life in the future.

Introduction: 1¼ ½ pages

Sustainability 1 page

Population Growth 1 pages

Food Production/Distribution 1 page

Fuel—Peak oil/Alternatives 1 page

Global Warming 1½ pages

Refuting: anthropogenic causes

Conclusion

(Alternative solutions that can be used

to overcome these problems and possible

use of new technology) 1 pages

Despite Everything, The Future Is Still Promising

The great issue concerning the future of humans’ on Earth during the last four decades of the 20th century was whether it would be weapons of mass destruction that would annihilate the majority of those alive. In the 21st century, the issue has become whether we will populate, consume and pollute the planet to such an extent that we would endanger our own as well as other species’ existence. Most statistics, research, and future extrapolations seem to support these worries strongly. Evidently, humans have taken advantage of technology and consumed the world’s resources relentlessly with no respect for either other humans or for plant and animal species. If population increase rates do not change, it is expected that human numbers will have swelled to 8.5 billion by 2030. By the mid 21st century, they will have reached 10.5 billion, quadrupling within the space of a single person's lifetime. All that growth will occur in the world’s underdeveloped nations. The stress on already depleted resources of land, water, food, tropical forests and energy will be inconceivable. In addition, there is the global warming...