(no subject)
things to NOT be apathetic about:
1. native american rights, specifically to sacred ground. really. the more i learn about this, the more i am horrified with how our country has treated and continues to treat these groups. today i listened to a lecture given by the chief of the oklahoma cherokee nation, and was once again amazed at how these people persist and prosper, despite such huge obstacles. all the various native peoples have such rich and beautiful cultures, it is pathetic that we cannot see, appreciate, and help to preserve them.
2. ANWR. there's not enough oil there to sustain us for even a year, it'll take 10 years to develop, and will dry up 10 years after that. so while we get a drop in the proverbial bucket, barely enough to be signaled by a blip on the oil price radar, we will be irreparably damaging one of the few expanses of pristine wilderness still left in the united states. we will destroy the habitat of thousands of animals, wasting our time and resources on a fleeting payoff, when they could be utilized to actually develop alternative fuel sources. bears, wolves, muskoxen, wolverines, just to name a few, will all be without a home. caribou will be left without a breeding ground, and over 100 bird species without a key point in their migratory paths. and to unify these two points, native tribes like the gwich'in will lose the creatures and land that have sustained their lives, not to mention their culture, for literally thousands of years. it is not worth it.
things to DEFINITELY be apathetic about:
1. my social life. it blows.
2. genetics. as in the class, not the subject as a whole.
1. native american rights, specifically to sacred ground. really. the more i learn about this, the more i am horrified with how our country has treated and continues to treat these groups. today i listened to a lecture given by the chief of the oklahoma cherokee nation, and was once again amazed at how these people persist and prosper, despite such huge obstacles. all the various native peoples have such rich and beautiful cultures, it is pathetic that we cannot see, appreciate, and help to preserve them.
2. ANWR. there's not enough oil there to sustain us for even a year, it'll take 10 years to develop, and will dry up 10 years after that. so while we get a drop in the proverbial bucket, barely enough to be signaled by a blip on the oil price radar, we will be irreparably damaging one of the few expanses of pristine wilderness still left in the united states. we will destroy the habitat of thousands of animals, wasting our time and resources on a fleeting payoff, when they could be utilized to actually develop alternative fuel sources. bears, wolves, muskoxen, wolverines, just to name a few, will all be without a home. caribou will be left without a breeding ground, and over 100 bird species without a key point in their migratory paths. and to unify these two points, native tribes like the gwich'in will lose the creatures and land that have sustained their lives, not to mention their culture, for literally thousands of years. it is not worth it.
things to DEFINITELY be apathetic about:
1. my social life. it blows.
2. genetics. as in the class, not the subject as a whole.