Aidin Ujkaj History
December 7, 2006 Snyder

Is it too late to change the way humans are living their lives?


It all began when I was brought into this world. At that age I probably didn’t know much but as a kid I knew every thing was great. Getting pushed around in a stroller all day, to being fed, to being put to bed at nighttime with dozens of stuffed animals around you, what else do you want? Life as a kid was great, I didn’t have any problems to worry about, and everything was done for me. Unfortunately that just last so long and all I came to realize is that growing up in this big world is not getting easier.
I believe it is too late to change human’s fate but we still have just enough time to change the way we live to better our society. As stated in Richard Heinberg's book "Power Down" our peak is around 2015, which isn't very far from now. Oil is what we use the most for everything, and we are running out of it. Unless we magically find a source of energy after the peak we are doomed. But this is a lose lose situation because if we found a source of energy we would still be doomed from global warming. So if it isn't one thing it’s sure to be the other.
In Richard Heinberg's "Power Down", he reports our peak oil, meaning when our oil will just dramatically start to drop. This would be horrible for our economy and energy supplies. This is one of the reasons why humans in today's society won’t live for a much longer period of time. If we do not run out of oil or we find another source of energy we still won’t be safe.
Another cause to human extinction is global warming. As stated earlier even if we do not run out of energy (oil) or we do find another source we still have to worry about global warming. Because we have already damaged the earth so much and the atmosphere got so thick from all the pollution. Since the atmosphere is so thick it will let rays from the sun in but it will not let them escape outside, so that heat travels around earth and it affects us.
Global warming is the earth's average ground temperatures. The main cause of
global warming is the burning of fossil fuels. These fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere. Also other substances known as greenhouse gases are released into the earth's atmosphere. The earth becomes a better insulator, as these gases become more affluent preserving more heat provided by the sun. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane help trap heat to warm the planet. These gases are known as the greenhouse gases (An Inconvenient Truth).
Many things contribute to global warming. Such things are industries, transportation, electricity used, waste produced, and agriculture. Industrialized nations contribute the most to the release of carbon dioxide. These industrialized nations create greater pollution than any other nations. Also construction, and offshore oil and gas production, and manufacturing dependent on water, and tourism and recreation, and industry that is located on coastal zones and permafrost regions. Theses all contribute to global warming. All agro-industries (food and drink, forestry-related activity, and textiles also contribute. Paper industries also contribute. And steel industries contribute also to this. So many things contribute to global warming. So many gases are released into the earth's atmosphere. These gases cause so much pollution. Sooner or later the earth will not be able to handle this pollution and eventually will decrease in everything it has gained since its creation.
One of the reasons I believe these causes will end our human society is because, we as a class went to watch "An Inconvenient Truth" and it stated when our peak oil period is going to be. It also showed how global warming works and what it does to our community. Our population was also mentioned in that film, it dramatically shot up over a short period of time, and then as estimated by a lot of scientists and researchers around the year 2015 through 2020 they believe it will start to decrease.

Kirby, Alex, Sci/Tech World population still growing, BBC News, 1999.

The picture above is a graph of the population until now and predictions about what it will be in a couple of years. I located it in a BBC article about the world population increasing in a dramatic matter. This graph is a couple of years old but it is still quite accurate. Also The United Nations Populations Fund (UNPFA) clearly stated that the population has doubled since 1960 which is clear in the graph above.
I believe is the United States was to have a peak oil which we will most likely it would be hard to survive. We have overpopulated this country with people from all over the world. Different races, religions and ethnicities are what have made the U.S. what it is today but we might have to stop that soon enough. An example of overpopulation is New York City one of the best known cities in the world (The city that never sleeps) has 8 million people on an island which is 12 miles by 6 miles. We have stuffed 8 million people into a 72 mile area. But the 8 million population is only people that are citizens; I believe there are a couple more hundred thousands or millions of unregistered people living in New York City.

1Brown, Lester, Plan B 2.0, New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. p. 109
The picture above shows within how many years we will lose some of our most important properties on earth. Without these our human society isn’t going to survive for a long time.
With the lose of Soviet oil in 1990, Cuba was forced to undergo a peak oil. The Soviet Union was a huge help for Cuba during their raise to power. Cuba would receive free oil from them which they would sell and use for themselves. After their fall they had to support themselves and what better way by growing your own food. I mean that was possibly their only hope, they were way below poverty. Cuba went through some extremes; many went from eating meat twice a day to eating meat twice a week. Urban gardens produce fifty to eighty percent of vegetable in cities. A lot of people moved from Havana to the country, also Farmers wagers were raised they were very well paid. This peak oil also had a positive effect on Cuba. It is a country known for very little obesity due to the fall of the Soviet. Cubans lost twenty pounds in a very short amount of time during the peak oil (Murphy, Pat, Low-Energy Lifestyle: Lessons from Cuba, Yellow Springs OH: Community Solutions, 6, Feb 2005).
In conclusion while writing this paper I realized that there is a small possibility that people can survive a peak oil. It will be hard for the United States to get through it because of such a big population that we have, and the damage we have already done to it. To fix everything up there will need to be dramatic changes moving little by little and it cant just be one tenth of the world doing this because the changes have to do with everyone. Transportation is a huge issue, in Cuba as told by Pat Murphy since there are so many hitchhikers in some cases it is illegal to not pick them up, sometimes they pay a little something sometimes they don’t have to. They also have what is called “The Camel” which is a truck with some attached piece in the back that holds three hundred people inside of it (Murphy, Pat, Low-Energy Lifestyle: Lessons from Cuba, Yellow Springs OH: Community Solutions, 6, Feb 2005).
Murphy, Pat, Low-Energy Lifestyle: Lessons from Cuba, Yellow Springs OH: Community Solutions, 6, Feb 2005