When a Box of Animal Crackers Become the World

I love eating those graham Animal Crackers: each little cracker, shaped with distinguishing characteristics of a lion, elephant, bear, or a tiger, found in that red animal circus cage box. Of course, I could live without them, but they indulge my tastebuds and complement a fresh glass of milk beautifully when reading a good book!

Today, I'm reading a few articles on the degradation of our environment, a required assignment for my Environmental Studies class. As my mind drifts from the facts, figures and numbers before me, I see myself staring at that red box, painted with powerful figures from the animal kingdom, and I suddenly realize that I truly am eating away all the animals of the Earth. In fact, not just the animals, but the plants, the soil, the air, the water, and the sky - everything that we take for granted, yet depend fully upon.

Maybe the reading had gotten to me, but all of a sudden, that box of animal crackers became the world. In that box was every living thing imaginable and unimaginable, species that we've not yet discovered and seen, to the atmosphere that we move in every day, to the mountains that surround our land and the oceans that borders our country. Exploiting the earth benefitted our lifestyle; we wanted to live better through the progress of modern technology, and in one sense, we did. We have so much more than our ancestors could have even dreamed about. No longer are candles needed, other than to provide a romantic dinner, nor do we have to find a well to gather water for drinking, washing, or cooking. There is no need to walk days to reach our destination; we can simply drive or fly our way there. If we're hot, we no longer have to find a shady spot or fan our sweat away; instead, clicking on the air conditioner cools off our entire homes so we can rest comfortably at home. We no longer have to send mail to a long-distance relative through a courier who rides a horse across the nation for us. Instead, we can simply send an email or text message a friend to see how they are doing, and they can return our message in an instant. No longer do we even have to rely on the oven for hot foods; the microwave can "nuke" meals and gratify our stomach in minutes with a cup of soup noodles or cheesy macaroni! Even our libraries are becoming obscure - no longer do we have to thumb our way through a dictionary to find a word's definition - one click at dictionary.com reveals to you a word's meaning, and even its proper pronunciation!

Yet with all the progress we've made, our world doesn't seem to be getting better. True, it makes us get what we want faster and with less work, but often, it's not enough. The air conditioner may be working too slow; the flight may be uncomfortable, and the drive may be too far. And we ask: "Are we there yet?" Progress seems to advance our world to have unimaginable abilities, yet that same progress is slowly destroying our world in more ways than once.

We know that our ozone layer, damaged by the pollution of our modern world, is thinning out and full of gaping holes, allowing UV rays to shatter even the DNA in our cells and cause skin cancer. Our world's temperature is rising, enough to leave polar bears to be drowned in the cold Arctic waters because the land they once knew is no longer there, and swim though they might, they cannot find any icy platforms to climb onto. We know that modern technology has allowed us to catch much more fish than we need, and as a result, seals are becoming endangered because their food sources have declined. Bees are dying by the millions, and scientists don't clearly know why. Their closest guess for now is that somehow, the use of electromagnetic waves in modern technology, such as those used in cell phones and satellite television, might affect their sense of direction. Flocks of birds have flown into airplanes for the same reason! Homing pigeons can sense the electromagnetic waves our world gives off, allowing them to fly in the right direction, even in the dark of night. However, our technology disturbs these waves, throwing these birds into disarray and confusion. They're not blind to a large airplane; their sense of direction has been distorted, and as a result, cause fatal "accidents". Baby sea turtles, born in the dark of the night, are sensitive to light, and will crawl towards the ocean as it reflects light from the heavens. With the growth of beachfront hotels and restaurants though, many have found these hatchlings to crawl towards the artificial lights instead, and into the cold gravel of the street where they may be crushed unknowingly by a moving vehicle. The documentary "March of the Penguins" brought to the public light the dangers that the changing environment brings on the Emperor Penguins, and the recent animated Pixar film, "Wall-E", shows that the ever-growing need of human consumption will make our planet so polluted that even the most modern technologies cannot fix a planet so ridden with junk that it cannot support natural life. And on, and on, and on...the damage our "progress" has done on our natural world, to all the life that our Earth supports, is just as unimaginable as the progress that we've made since man first used a sharp rock to cut open fruit to eat.

The story doesn't stop there. Unfortunately, with the growth of our modern world, our minds and bodies also find it easy to be complacent with our comforts and conveniences. America, a most developed nation, no longer suffers from acute diseases caused by poor hygiene, nor finds death through starvation. Instead, developed nations suffer from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, caused by eating too many "good food". We live in a nation full of cheap potato chips, supersize menus, and have little need to exercise because we have cars to take us from our garages to the closest parking spot we can find at the
grocery store. In fact, if you don't like your own image, you're welcomed to have laser surgery to remove that "muffin top", "spare tire", enlarge or reduce your body here or there, or even make the shape of your nose "perfect". The humans on "Wall-E" also find it a struggle to simply get up and walk, as they are trained upon birth to float anywhere they want on their own moving chair, and no longer experience what it means to run, climb, hop, skip, and swim with joy and glee and freedom. Like the humans on "Wall-E", we are glued forever to our screens on our cell phones or computer, and lose face-to-face interaction and often, personal interaction with one another. When a good friend is in distress and in need of your company, it is best if you are able to give them a hug...not a text message that says "*hugz*". When you fall in love, it's the most wonderful experience to be able to see that love returned in his or her eyes, and to be wrapped in that person's arms. Though nice, it is incomparable to an email that says "I love you". Though I cannot say that emailing a friend is a great way to stay in touch, it is in the company of out loved ones that we feel the closest to one another. And what about our minds? We no longer have to remember as many things when we can "google" anything we want, and phone numbers are saved on our cell phones. I myself remember being able to recall many of my friends' phone numbers and birthdays when I was younger; now, with a cell phone storing important phone numbers, I don't even remember the cell phone numbers for my mom and dad! Has my brain degenerated? Like Ray Bradbury writes in his foreword for "Fahrenheit 451", "Because you don't have to burn books, do you, if the world starts to fill up with nonreaders, nonlearners, nonknowers? If the world wide-screen-basketballs and -footballs itself to drown in MTV, no Beattys are needed to ignite the kerosene or hunt the reader." Fire Chief Betty lit books on fire in the future of Ray Bradbury's novels, yet, we are each our own Beattys when we choose to substitute technology for our personal, social lives.

So what do we do? One person alone cannot fix Nature. However, each person can do their best to help, and as the saying goes, one snowflake may not do much, but together, it can cause a snowstorm. Unfortunately, I do not know who said this insightful line first, but it shows that together, we can do much. We can each bring our own reusable grocery bags to the store, and to consciously remember to not be lazy and complacent by forgetting them in our car. We can consider the car we drive, and what we should buy when it is time to purchase a new car. Fortunately, gas prices are motivating consumers to make better choices! We can recycle, use less plastic cups and plates at our next party, and walk to the store if it's close enough. We can even start growing our own fresh vegetables and fruits in our backyards! And like the Earth, we cannot take our family and friends for granted. We must not forget that we are social beings, and have the need to be accepted and loved by others; joining an online community (think myspace!), a clan (i.e. Counterstrike), or a forum or blogring of like-minded individuals help, but real belonging, acceptance and love is best found in the time you share with our friends and family.