The Imbalance Between Us And Our World

In man's struggle with nature to reach the top, we have achieved many milestones that overall separate from our animal counterparts. However, in our pursuit of growth, we have made our world suffer. This can sometimes go to show that taking action to grow just so we can improve ourselves as a species is not always the most beneficial to our planet and even us. Even with our decisions leading to a world that one day may end up crashing, humans will have to find the balance in moving further and innovating beyond what our world can allow.

One example of our progression getting in our way was the advancement in the Technological era. During this time, we as humans pushed ourselves to create technology, like smartphones that help make our day to day lives easier than ever before. However, this came with many side effects that we still have no answers to that have people around the world in difficult situations. In an article, “Why Smartphones Are Making You Ill”, Goldhill states, “...the potential for incessant smartphone communication can make us feel more isolated. Young people, who spend 11 hours looking at their screens every day, expect constant updates from their friends, and a lull in messages can lead to anxiety. “There’s the terrible feeling that the person is ignoring you,” says Dr. Richard Graham, a psychologist specializing in technology addiction at Nightingale hospital.” This quote helps explain how we as humans have only seen destruction and deterioration in our society from the advancement of smartphones and technology. Humans built technology like smartphones to make our lives easier and better overall, but we have only made even more mistakes. While it may be true that it does help our lives to a certain extent often, it still has overall put our world into even more of a terrible situation than previously. If we are to use this to progress our growth and also create the least suffering and destruction, we must find a path of balance together as people where we can say we are going too far or not far enough.

Just as the technological era was seen as a way for people to improve their lives but also one with defects, economic expansion in our world has also been another situation where we shouldn’t go all in even if it makes us overall better. Economic expansion like that of the Crimean Bridge was an event that people all over the world questioned. This event was originally a way that Russia built to show its power and growth as a nation, but other nations looked at it as a risk for not only people for the environment it surrounded. An article by Hayley Coynash states, “These include deep-lying mud volcanoes and a sludgy bottom that is unsuitable for bridge foundations. Most disturbingly, it is an area of high seismic activity. The piles would need to be much deeper than they are in the current design, and he fears that the construction is likely to be weak...”. The Crimean Bridge as described in the quote was not built to sustain itself in the area that it was built and has high risks for areas surrounding it. This endangers plant life and marine life that surround the area if the bridge is threatening to fall or break. Even though Putin claims it as a mission for them to complete to show themselves as the power they are, it is also a scenario where just because we can, doesn't mean should go for it and try it, and continues our struggle with Mother Nature. Economic expansion has cause greater fight between nations and the fight for who gets what has made expansion overall has more negatives that outweigh the positives.

Population growth is a defining factor in our struggle against nature, but to us was seen as our strength compared to other species. Our attention has been on focusing on finding ways to keep more people alive and for longer, where we should have been monitoring the amount of death to make sure there was an equilibrium between those who live and those who die. China's population has been booming and is one of the most populated areas today, and restrictions were put to help find balance in our population growth. In the article, One-child Policy, Kenneth Pletcher states, “...official program initiated in the late 1970s and early ’80s by the central government of China, the purpose of which was to limit the great majority of family units in the country to one child each. The rationale for implementing the policy was to reduce the growth rate of China’s enormous population.” China putting a limit to their population is an example of how we are trying to help the balance of out our populations and struggle with nature. There are many issues with overpopulation like famine, exhaustion of resources and plenty of others. However, using China’s example we can find solutions to struggles with nature and tone down steps we took that maybe we should not have.

In conclusion, humans have made many accomplishments throughout history that are seen as unimaginable for other species on this planet. Despite this, we have many periods and events of innovation where we have to step back or need to step back so we don’t cause an imbalance between us and our world. Technological advancements have made our lives easier with inventions like cell phones, who have also had negative effects on the newer generation of today. Economic expansion like technology isn’t all good, as it has had effects like the destruction of nature, as well as exhaustion of some natural resources. The population growth has also tested what our planet can withhold, as it has increased demand from our planet and continues to hurt it. Today some of these examples like China's population restriction have tried to help hold back some events that we should have been more careful about, and as time goes on man must find the equilibrium between itself and the planet.