Week 1 Hum111

For Warmer or For Poorer, Immorality or Misconception?

Today, the planet is hotter than it has been in millions of years. What is significant about that? There are unexplainable with natural occurrences. In addition, scientists cannot determine the exact cause of the global warming. Nevertheless, many scientists believe that humans are at the root of the cause. One major factor of global warming is the burning of coal instead of using new technology to produce the world’s energy.

Immorality has become a staple of modern life, but does this carry over to the issue of global warming? Not necessarily. Could it be possible that the failing economic condition of the United States places such strain on the people, that on a large-scale Americans are afraid to shut down the already existing cheap forms of energy? I think that this could be the case, and morals play only a small part in these decisions. Morals are the basis for which each individual makes decisions that affect their lives. Moreover, our own individual morals can contribute to individual contributions such as recycling or carpooling, but on a large topic like converting our coal burning energy sources to solar power, morals probably take a back seat to reality. While the reality for some may be to convert to solar energy, I think that is a concept hard to grasp for most middle class hard working Americans. According to “Greenpeace USA” (2012) “Investing in renewables could jumpstart our flagging economy, creating millions of jobs that can’t be shipped overseas. It could put the US back at the forefront of the 21st century economy, in front of China, which in 2009 became the largest global investor in renewables” (The Solutions) Really? Try to tell this to the already skittish Americans who placed their hard-earned life savings in 401K accounts that lost much of their value in the early 2000s. I think that this decision comes from necessity rather than morals.

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