An Inspiring Story

John Francis, an American Environmentalist, has refrained from using motorized vehicles and has walked and sailed the world for the past 22 years. After seeing two oil tankers collide and spill gallons of oil beneath the golden gates, Francis decided he must give up driving and riding in motorized vehicles, he also decided to give up speaking and he listened for 17 years. During these 17 years Francis went to school and earned a Ph.d. Through his 22 years of travelling and 17 years of not speaking Francis learned that communication is vital to saving our environment. He also realized he must come out of his long silence to share his message; "we have to leave behind the security of what we have become and go to the place of who we are becoming. " (John Francis) Francis makes the parallel that we are the environment and how we treat each other is how we should treat the environment. Change must be made in order to achieve a sustainable environment. He stresses that we must come out of our comfort zones of who we have become and respect our environment, and respect ourselves.

While thinking about Francis's idea, I began to think about whether the media does really do a good job at covering current issues. Well, considering I had never heard of Francis before this video, I would say no. But, I also don't watch the news or read as often as I should. But, as for media coverage I do see, I believe although it is relevant, they focus too much on small details and don't look at the issue as a whole. The media lacks logic in there way of presenting current issues. Instead of introducing the issues and ways to fix it, they scare audiences and make them feel helpless. When the oil spill occurred in the gulf, fingers were pointed as to who was to blame and not much action was taken.

There is a pro-environment group where people believe that the all environmental issues are vital and changes must begin now. And, opposing pro-environment are the people who believe the current environmental issues are exaggerated and it is not that important to our future as the media makes it out to be. Well, I believe that the media exaggerates everything, for example, in my criminology class we were learning about crime statistics and in one particular case murder rates dropped 5%, meanwhile the murder media coverage increased by 20%. Although, I believe that humans should be pro-environment regardless of the media as Francis says we are the environment. Whether global warming is actually happening, and whether our ozone layer is seriously and quickly deteriorating, we should still practice environmentally friendly ways and try to come away from the destructive and wasteful people we have become. We should aim towards a goal which will allow us and the future generations a lifestyle which is not only sustainable but provides quality to all.

This sustainable life is difficult to achieve because we have become so comfortable in our ways, but that does not make it impossible. Humans have evolved  from nomads to highly sophisticated and technologically advanced individuals who generation after generation achieve and accomplish what once was thought impossible. To me this is inspiration and belief that a sustainable future is more then possible. With the growing disconnect from the environment, our goal only seems to be further away. People have lost touch with the environment, and over beautiful natural habitats we have built offices and homes and buildings among buildings. With this growing disconnect we move further away from our goal, and this to me creates a danger. Where has our love for our earth gone? We have become too focused on materialistic things to stop and think that we must protect our environment to protect ourselves. If our way of life continues this way, we will certainly not only look past our Earth's beauty but damage our environment in ways such as deforestation and habitat destruction, and we will lose soil fertility. As our population increase we will over hunt, emit more greenhouse gases, and be short energy. (215, Easton)  So I say get outside and help our earth, and in turn it will help us!