The Kings

            Pollution and hunting has been a major problem over the last few decades. Garbage is multiplying as human population grows, chemicals disposal is not being regulated in so many regions throughout the world, and poaching/hunting is running rampant. Animals are suffering big time from their habitats and sources of food being depleted, hunted, and polluted by us.

            Big and majestic predators around the world are taking the largest punch from us. Without predators keeping populations at a healthy level, ecosystems could collapse easily, read more here. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/science/when-predators-vanish-so-does-the-ecosystem.html). High-level predators are not monsters, as the wise Mufasa from Lion King says, “Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.”

            We cannot treat high-level predators as dangerous and scary animals that must be destroyed. They may be able to rip a humans face off, but they are beautiful, majestic, and important to nature. Humans have that mentality that “just because something is dangerous means it should be killed”. This might have helped ten thousand years ago when we were trying not to get killed daily by wild beasts. But today, we killed off so many species and creatures that we don’t need to be worried about being eaten alive. With this wrong attitude towards dangerous predators causes hunting of them “just for the thrills” and poaching for their rare and “exotic” hides and resources. These animals aren’t prizes to show off to your friends and they are not signs that you are tougher than nature.  They are magnificent creatures that should not be killed by humans, especially if their population is endangered.

            Pollution also hurts the big predators of the world. Biological magnification (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomagnification) is one way major predators are in a decline. Sharks, tuna, and bald eagles are examples of creatures that have taken hits from this phenomenon. We need to stop chemical pollution because even small amounts of bad chemicals can turn into serious problems for top-tiered carnivores due to Bio-magnification.

            Carnivores who are king of the land are the ones we make movies for, not the boring herbivores that roam the valley. Without these types of animals, our ecosystems will crash out of control and our children’s movies will become so boring.

Deep Dark

Our oceans are gigantic with 70% of the world being covered in water. There are so many species, ecosystems, and fish living out in the big blue.

            Although it takes up most of earth, we barely know anything about the vast, open oceans. The reefs close to home and land are being destroyed, and the vast open ocean is a mystery to us. As humans, we are losing our water-life, reefs are dying off at massive rates due to tourist, pollution, etc. and these reefs are home to the most amazing and colorful organisms in the world.

            We know more about the moon than we do about most areas of our oceans. Once you get far, far way from land, the ocean becomes like a desolate wasteland of nothing but seawater for 20,000 feet. No animals, no plants, just ocean, it sounds like a nightmare to me. A few years ago, I went snorkeling in the ocean off the coast of Belize (a small Central American country on the gulf side) and the reefs and fish were beautiful. It was amazing that everywhere you looked, a different colored fish, or piece of coral would appear. Sometimes fish would just surround you.  They were interested and curious about you.  One thing that always intrigued me about that trip was that although you were basically in paradise, a little ways out beyond the reef was the Drop Off. The Drop Off is not like what you see in Finding Nemo.  Its not just a few feet drop into the club where all the dangerous and less attractive fish live.  It is an abyss. The heaven turns into blackness; there is no life, no light, nothing. It just drops straight off into miles and miles of nothingness. It’s really creepy and off-putting.  Plus once you get low enough you run into these (http://list25.com/25-most-terrifying-deep-sea-creatures/) guardians of hell, like the one from Finding Nemo.

            I am glad we don’t explore the open ocean that much. It seems like more of a waste of time to explore that much space, when there really isn’t much their but a few squids. It’s creepy, desolate, and sounds like the last place I want to be. I really don’t want to know what is going on out there in the deep and mysterious land of blue. The moon or Mars sounds like a much cooler place to explore. Hopefully, there aren’t any demons roaming mars like there are roaming the deep waters, miles below our world.

Save the Polar Bears?

            Everyone’s heard of the crisis that is occurring to our albino bears.  Humans are causing the earth to warm up due to greenhouse gases and damaging the ozone layer. Read more about here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_layer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming ). So much attention has been raised about stopping this environmental crisis. Millions of people have rallied and protested oil companies, government spending, and other things that could really destroy our environment. Problems really are starting to arise because of global warming. Ice caps are at an all time low and our overall average temperature is rising slowly. It could be us humans or it could just be earth going through cycles of hot and cold. No matter what the cause of these events is, slowing down the use of fossil fuels will save humans a lot of hassle in the long run.

The world is starting to now respond to this threat against our earth. The use of fossil fuels is starting to decline.  Electrical cars and reusable energy are reasons to look forward to a future where we no longer hurt our planet and its inhabitants. Our Coca-Cola bears might have hope yet with advancing technology and raised awareness of our environment.

            Understanding all of this I still believe we should not as a country, rush to go green. Fossil fuels are still extremely efficient and have low cost (for now). We cannot rush into green energy or we will use up too much of our time and resources to the green project and not see the big picture. Technology and innovation for better and more efficient clean energy should be funded and researched which we see our world doing. Tesla, an electrical car company, is creating efficient, clean, and cheap cars that could soon leave dirty gas powered cars in the dust.

            Wind energy for example here in Iowa is making huge gains. By filling cornfields with endless amounts of wind turbines, clean energy is produced and polar bears are not losing their little ice homes. Solar energy is filling the desert.  Slowly but surely, it’s becoming a more and more efficient method to create clean energy. Extremely efficient ways of using our energy will also help the cause of creating a world without harmful energy sources.

            The polar bears should be smiling; within the next decade we could see fossil fuels becoming the past and new clean energy methods taking their place. Hopefully, if we can stop damaging our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, our planet then should drop back down to a normal average temperature. The ice caps will multiply and the artic ocean will freeze, leaving the bears to party again with a glass of Coke and a home full of ice.