An Inconvenient Truth: Environmental Issues, Again (By Al Gore)

During my trip to Colorado this break, I was certainly struck by how awesome the world around us was. We went to Beaver Creek, an area surrounded by other mountains. The scenery is picturesque and the views are amazing.

And you won't hear about Colorado without mention of the 'mountain air.' It does seem to be true-- there's something better about being in the mountains. The ironic thing was that, throughout this trip, I noticed a large number of things that conflicted with Colorado's natural beauty.

First of all, I realized that while snowboarding is fun, we're only able to do it because someone came along and wrecked a bunch of trees in order to form trails. Also, the mountain's maintenance each year requires deforestation and surely the pushing away of animals.

Also, the amount of smokers and people who litter on the mountain is ridiculous. If the mountain air is so brilliant, why smoke out chemicals and carcinogens into it? And the litter is terrible at times; I've gone down runs filled with Candy bar wrappers, old ski equipment and other garbage. It's disturbing how some people thing the world is one big trash can.

To top off the environmental issues going around in my head, I woke up one day in the middle of the week and went out to the hotel room door. There, on the cover of a complimentary New York Times, was a headline stating that Obama had cleared close to 130 million acres around Alaska for oil drilling.

I haven't been to Alaska but most of my family has, and from what I've heard, it is one of the most amazing places on the planet. I understand from the article that Mr. Obama is being careful in choosing exactly where the drilling occurs, but this still angers me greatly. We've reached the point that our use of resources is truly out of hand. Now we must turn to tearing apart natural habitats in order to satisfy oil needs.

This is the center of the issue, in an Ishmael-like fashion: humans tend to think that their lives are more important than those of any other species. It's a want for instant gratification, I think. I may go through my whole life trashing the planet, but that's okay, because I won't be around to deal with it.

I dare you to carry this attitude into an episode of Discovery's new Life, essentially Planet Earth part two. Both series are, in my opinion, some of the most amazing things ever to hit television. Ignore Oprah's (annoying) narration and witness the animals around us; you won't believe some of the things that they're capable of.

Clearly I'm on the side of the nature activists here, but that doesn't mean I'm perfect. I have littered, I have destroyed nature, surely. I can see that side of it as well: we do need oil, we need resources, and we are always wanting more. With a stance strictly based on progression of humanity, deforestation and trashing of the planet are perfectly fine. That is, until we reach the point that we've destroyed ourselves.

This is an issue that I won't solve, and it doesn't look like Mr. Obama will either. It's going to exist for a very long time, as future people struggle to find the balance between animal and human. What we need to realize first, though, is that there isn't a huge difference between the two.