On Conservation

In about an hour or two, I will have to make speeches to little kids on the importance of conservation. It is a lofty topic, one that might go over their heads, but nonetheless an important one. I plan to approach this as down-to-earth as I can:

Ethical Argument:

It takes so much to produce materials. Take a grain of cooked rice for instance: it begins as a seed that must be planted by the farmer who toils every day to keep the stalks growing straight. During its development period, the little seed of grain is fed with gas-powered trucks that disperse fertilizer and spray pesticides. It is nourished day and night for months to come, expending X rays of sun, X gallons of water, and X amount of nutrients in the soil until the day it is finally mature enough to be picked. The farmers then must gather the grains, transport them back home, mill the husk from the rice, pack them into bags, send it to a central dealer who will then ship the rice around the world. The bags of rice are then bought by markets who drive the rice bags to the store, organize them, and then put them on display after the price tags are in place. The mothers (or fathers) then purchase these rice bags and take them home so the rice could be washed, cooked and served to children who do not think twice as they munch away with oblivious gusto. For the sake of simplicity, I did not go into the transportation apparatuses that make the entire process possible. Ultimately, the American standard of living is often too comfortable, the human labor too invisible, and the consuming process too convenient for people to realize and appreciate all that consists daily life. When understood in this context, materials are no longer independent entities but whole chains of mechanisms that have culminated into final products. It is a process that deserves to be recognized, respected and appreciated.

Moral Argument:

25,000 people die each day from hunger related causes–that is one person every three and a half seconds. Half the world–nearly 3 billion people–live on less than two dollars a day. 1 out of 2 children in the world (1 billion) live in poverty. [globalissues.org]

Enough said.

Conclusion:

In the United States, much that is taken for granted is a luxury in other parts of the world. It is a shame for such privileges to be treated as ordinary and cheap as dirt, and with oil prices (and as a result, commodity prices) rising in all parts of the world, an appreciation for existing resources is that much more crucial–after all, all material goods in the world are limited. Let’s value them for what they really are.