Plan B by Lester R. Brown is defiantly one of most in
depth environmental books I have ever read. Myself having an engineering
background, most of the material in the book is things I have seen over and
over again. This book is just another opinion about it.
“The earth’s temperature is rising. It has gone up 0.6
degrees Celsius since 1970, and it is projected to rise up to 6 degrees by the
end the end of the century” (Brown pg.55).
These words have been beat into my head over and over.
Although it’s a strong opinion how much fact is behind it? I have heard from people who went to school
in the 70s that the strong belief at that time is we were heading into an Ice
age. Could this be political motivated
or a natural earth progression? We have evidence that the earth has heated and
cooled in the past. I think there is two contrasting opinions, and it’s kind of
a muddy point.
“Extraditing poverty is not only the key to population
stabilization, political stabilization, and a better life, it also provides
hope (Brown pg.242).
This is something I kind of disagree with. I think
part of our problem is the fact we battle with human life vs. the environment. Though
I kind of think war, disease, and sadly enough poverty and hunger are a necessity
to control population. It sounds awful, but you ever think maybe medicine, and
trying to prevent anything bad from happening to people could be an issue. More people, less resources, more fossil
fuels, less trees. Nobody ever talks
about it, but maybe we should put resource and environment before human life.
“Beyond the rather healthy beneficial lifestyle
changes, we can also think about sacrifice “(Brown p268).
This is in reference to the mind set up today’s
people. I agree with it, but how do we
change the culture of inherently selfish, self-absorbed people. It reminded me of something Gen David
Petraeus said about today’s troops and Americans. I think it a very good reflection of how we
as Americans have changed. This is what he had to say
I remember the day I
found out I got into West Point.
My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.
That same day two of my teachers took I aside and essentially told me the following: "David, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead."
I could easily write a tome defending West Pont and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics.
Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You.
You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand. And you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine — like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one — not them. When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the "macro" issues they gathered from books with your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more.
But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 — YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.
You are the 0.45%.
General David Petraeus West Point Class 1974
My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.
That same day two of my teachers took I aside and essentially told me the following: "David, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead."
I could easily write a tome defending West Pont and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics.
Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You.
You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand. And you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine — like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one — not them. When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the "macro" issues they gathered from books with your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more.
But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 — YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.
You are the 0.45%.
General David Petraeus West Point Class 1974
Let me close saying I believe most of what
Plan B stands for. Even though we are not completely sure what is going on. I
believe in conservation, restoration, and green innovation when it comes to are
planet. I believe we need to come up with ways to reduce pollutants and reuse
resources. We need to reduce are reliability on fossil fuels, and deal with
food issues. In my job, I love anytime it involves any of these things. One day
I would love to get into renewable energy design. Right now there just isn’t
much of a job market in the area for it. Although hopefully that changes, in
the next decade or so.
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