Red, Red, Red...GREEN!

In my 32 years of life I cannot remember a time when things looked so bleak. The world economy is crumbling. Stocks continue to plummet. The polar ice caps and glaciers of the world are melting at an alarming rate. Weather patterns are shifting with serious ramifications. Global Warming is rearing its head like a particularly determined immune response set on destroying the virulent disease that threatens continued life on Earth: namely us. And for all the dramatic and terrifying treads that surround us people just seem to be carrying on their daily business as though everything is unchanged (or unchangeable)... almost. Most of the people that I talk to, whether it be friends and family, or the students in my English classes do seem to have a growing awareness of the confluence of problems are getting so serious that they will challenge the way we live life, but they just don't have any ideas about what it to be done.

I'm by no means an expert, but I do see some possible solutions. To me it seems clear that the time has come for humanity to take a new tack. What we are doing now is not sustainable and if we continue unaltered I am 100% positive that it will result in the demise of our civilization. Perhaps not today, perhaps not even in my lifetime; but our children and our children's children will have hard time not cursing our names if we don't stand up now and at least try to right the direction of the ship. As I see it three Reds equal Green.

Let me explain. First the Global economy is in the red. As we have seen over the last several months the destabilization of the American economy has trickled down into various subsidiary markets around the globe, including Korea (where I currently reside). Stocks have lost their value and generally people are feeling scared and have lost their confidence in our current economic system. Red number one.

Second, over the past several months our dependence of fossil fuels, such as oil, as a primary source of energy to power the glut of human consumption has been made flagrantly obvious. I would say that oil resources are in the red, but by this I mean something a little different; oil money is blood money, red money. If anyone wishes to argue take a look at Iraq. We must break the hold of this substance over us. It is like a species wide drug addiction and it is not healthy, not for us and not for the planet. As the trends over the last year show oil prices are manipulated based not necessarily by pure supply and demand but more by what the oil barons think they can charge for it. Prices soar until people feel that it can not be borne and then when they start looking for alternative sources of energy, suddenly, magically, the prices drop again. Frankly, I find it amazing that people in general stand for it. Very risky business that (the oil barons should read a little more history, specifically the pre-French revolution period might interest them a little; but humans have a penchant for repeating mistakes). Red oil: Red number two.

Finally, and most importantly, the Earth, as a system, is running dangerously close to redlining. I am talking about the sensitive balance of the global ecosystem. Around the world temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting, rain fall patterns are shifting, desertification is spreading (trust me, research the growth of the Gobi, or come to Korea in March and April to see the "Yellow Winds" that blow hear all the way from the Gobi desert hundreds of kilometers away), deforestation and massive forest fires are causing large scale soil erosion and releasing untold amounts of carbon dioxide into the already over burdened atmosphere, wetlands and reefs are bleaching and dying and thousands of species of wildlife are going extinct even as you read this. It is time for us to wake up! Let's be real we need to shift our concerns from our stock portfolios to the continuation of our family lines. If we don't start to make a change now then it will be too late.

However, hope is not lost (if you don't know me I'm actually a glass is half full kind of guy). There are solutions to these salient issues. In fact, I see a common thread in all three of the Reds that I have pointed out above. Namely, if we make a bold move to switch our focus to Green energy it can, I think, address the stunning multiplicity of problems we are facing (personally I moved the focus of my own personal investments into green and sustainable energy this past summer and I am going to keep investing in the vital sector, because I think that if enough people make this move it will force industry to respond. Small fingers turn the wheels while the mighty look elsewhere). In particular, I would love to see Korea become a world leader in the area of Green technology development. I think that off all the industrialized nations if anyone can do it Korea can (Canada I would love to see you prove me wrong on this one: step up and make it happen!). Look at the baffling progress that Koreans have made in the past fifty years, going from being one of the poorest countries in the world to being one of the most industrially developed and economically powerful. It is truly one of the Tigers of the Asian market. In addition, Korea has some of the leading scientists in the areas of engineering, computer technology and nuclear energy. Surely if it is possible to excel in this advanced areas of science then green tech should be a snap.

On an individual level we should be investing our capital in solar power, wind power, tidal flow energy (these are all free and sustainable sources of energy, once the initial investment is made). As well as lobbying for massively increasing fuel efficiency in current fossil fuel industries (with an emphasis of developing options like electric cars and scooters, more on this to come). We absolutely must but more pressure on our governments with letters, emails, petitions and protests showing them what we want them to do to clean up the world. I believe that this truly is what the citizens of the planet want, a Green future; we need to show our leaders that they must do it! We should be studying and researching new developments that are taking place around the world and teaching our children, the generation of tomorrow, what these changes are and how they can help to fix the problems of today. It's not too late to make a change. Start today. Find out something that you can do in your home community and take action to make a personal difference.