Do our actions influence the future? In this world, every action we do uses one type of resource: it is not minerals and it is not sunlight but natural resources. Over the course of the development of life, the actions we have done have changed and transformed, and unfortunately, that transformation has led to a significant increase in the use of natural resources. Just imagine, you wake up, go to brush your teeth, and then suddenly there is no liquid flowing down the taps in a luxurious pour. For thousands of years, society has believed that all of the resources that we use on a daily basis (water, wood, natural gas, etc.) are unlimited. However, that conjecture is incorrect as the fact is that the number of natural resources we have is dwindling. “Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem that we face today” - Jacques Yves Cousteau a French traveler who studied the sea once said. Nevertheless, as the usage of these resources increases as a result of the growth in the human population and the need for luxury, we will not have these resources for much longer. As a 6th grader studying in the Singapore American School, I am very proud to present this writing piece to you. This project used several skills that I really enjoyed such as reflecting, planning, and executing research. We need to find an efficient solution to reduce the usage of natural resources since natural resources will soon not be replenishable and increased use of natural resources also causes environmental damage.
I am first going to define natural resources as certain substances that exist without any influence on mankind. Primarily, natural resources are replenishable. A very common example of the way natural resources are replenished is the water cycle. We all know that water is evaporated, condensed, and precipitated so that the water naturally keeps coming back to us. Nonetheless, this process has a particular pace. Imagine a world where you use water at a speed faster than the water cycle brings the water back to us. Unfortunately, according to a professor who teaches sustainable living at the University of Pennsylvania, the scenario aforementioned will occur by 2035. Hence, if we do not make lifestyle changes today, we will very soon not have water to use on a daily basis.
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However, water is not the only natural resource that will exhaust in a very short time period. Another major natural resource that is reducing very quickly is wood. Wood is naturally replenished through trees, but we are cutting a gargantuan number of trees. According to Sadhguru, a guru a lot of people look up to, “Trees keep our lives going just like the outer parts of our lungs.” Hence, if we don’t have trees in our world, there will be several regressive effects. The primary regressive effect is that there will be less oxygen and a significant increase in carbon dioxide. According to NASA, if this exact situation occurs, there will be a 1.73 Celsius increase in the global temperature. Although that may not sound like a very high number, such an increase in temperature will result in the melting of ⅛ of Antarctica. That is equivalent to approximately 2,500 Singapore-sized ice glaciers melting! Therefore, we will be living in a world we would never want to live in just due to the overconsumption of wood and water.
You now might think that this issue has been going on for a very long time and there hasn’t been a drastic decline in the usage of natural resources. According to a senior reporter at the Huffington Post, our usage of natural resources (per year) has increased significantly over the last few decades. Even though this is potentially a very damaging problem, most people are not aware of the magnitude of the problem. To confirm this point, I conducted a survey where I quizzed forty 6th-grade students about the overconsumption of natural resources. However, only 5% of the students who took the quiz got more than 80% correct. This tells us that people are not aware of the seriousness of the problem.
Furthermore, natural resources such as natural gas are not environmentally friendly. When you burn natural gas, a lot of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases get emitted into the atmosphere. Also, according to the WWF, using more natural resources means that there is more environmental damage when extracting it. Hence, using natural resources doesn’t only significantly negatively impact the environment, but it also negatively impacts the environment while being extracted.
You might think that that natural resources are not a very large contributor to why air pollution is such a prevalent problem. However, according to the Huffington Post, 30% of air pollution is caused because of the overconsumption of natural resources. Also, many people might believe that even if we don’t have one or two natural resources we could live normally with the other natural resources. However, if we keep using natural resources at such a rampant pace, according to AMNH.org, water will run out by 2035. If you don’t have water, you could pass away in 7 days. Therefore, it is very important that we change our everyday lifestyle to ensure that this problem will not get out of hand.
I am going to mention a personal anecdote to illustrate what we can do to address the problem. Recently, we got our kitchen renovated and installed a new stovetop. However, while using our stovetop, we noticed that it was taking a significantly longer time to heat up the pan as compared to our previous stovetop due to a design fault that wasted a lot of gas through the sides. After one month, when we looked at our gas bill, unsurprisingly, we saw a significant increase in the amount of gas used. We bought a new stovetop since the company refused to take back the one that we had purchased one month ago. Our gas consumption is now back to normal. This was very eye-opening to me in terms of the small steps that we can take every day that will result in an elephantine impact on the environment.
Penultimately, now that we have talked about the problem and its significance, I am now going to elaborate on the solution that I am designing to help solve this crisis. I am going to create an app that measures the number of natural resources the particular person is using on a daily basis. The person will be informed about the usage of natural resources and be on the leaderboard. The top two percent of people on the leaderboard (for using the least amount of natural resources) will get a certain reward (cash, etc). You might be thinking that people won’t be bothered by the fact that it is competitive. However, according to psychologytoday.com, competition motivates people to work as hard as they can. Based on that, we know that people will naturally have the urge to try harder as human nature has to do with competition. In addition, psychologytoday.com also states that a reward further motivates a person. So it is likely that everybody will try to get in the top two percent. This will help increase awareness of the problem and also reduce the usage of natural resources.
In conclusion, the significant increase in the use of natural resources is something that people are often ignorant about and people typically do not know the major effects of this issue. Natural resources can soon change from being a pleasure to being sorrowful. Unfortunately, the entire reason why this problem is escalating at a rampant pace is because of one species. Not lions. Not cacti. But humans. Humans are using natural resources faster than the earth can replenish them. Try to limit your own usage of natural resources and install the app when it is published in 2020. Kalle Lasn once said, “Overconsumption is the mother of all problems.” Soon, water, wood, and all of the other natural resources will soon dissipate right in front of our eyes.” If we are going to prevent that scenario, we all have to work together.
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