November 3, 2016

Dear Next President,

According to a report by UNEP’s International Resource Panel by 2050, human beings could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals,ores,fossil fuels, and biomass each year. That is a ton of resources being put to use. Use as humans need to reduce this amount to not use up all of the earth’s natural resources. I believe that conserving natural resources is very important.

Humans use lumber to build houses or buildings, oils and gases to work machinery and vehicles, fertile land to grow our crops, and animals to hunt for food. In a few decades this could all be gone. According to Washington State, all natural resources could be gone in 80-90 years from now if humans don’t put a stop to this. Invasive species are also a major problem. For example, European Starlings travel in huge flocks so when they eat it causes great damage to crops, they will also take over other bird’s nests.

Many things are happening in this world, our climate is changing, freshwater reserves and fish stocks are dying, forests are shrinking for lumber, fertile land is being built into communities, and species are becoming extinct. Us as humans need to adapt to all of these things. Today humans extract around 50% more natural resources than only 30 years ago, that’s about 60 billion tons of raw materials every single year. Most of the time humans use precious materials to waste. Also, according to a new UN report, the Earth’s amount of natural resources extracted for human use has tripled over 40 years. But humans have solutions to these serious problems.

The National Parks Service has started setting aside land to not be destroyed for crops or lumber. IBM and Repsol have started putting land aside for gas and oil mines and factories. These are just a few companies or services who are helping the loss of natural resources. We can do the same by recycling and reusing materials or goods. This can limit the amount of waste that is emptied into landfills. If humans start acting now, in the future there will be enough natural resources to go around. If this world had no natural resources this would be an absolute disaster.

Sincerely, 

Jack