Now!
An essay by Felipe Ramirez Jr. on March 13th, 1989
An essay by Felipe Ramirez Jr. on March 13th, 1989
Nothing of this world will be the same in 100 years! The human race will be on the verge of extinction, where only the wealthy and powerful will be able to afford the luxury that would be necessary to sustain life!
In less than 100 years of since the industrial revolution, we as humans have done more to harm our environment, for ourselves and for most living matter, than nature of any other source has been able to do in the last 100,000 years.
In less than 100 years we've managed to pollute, poison, deplete, abuse our rivers, lakes, oceans, air and forest, and in the process, we have managed to destroy or wipe out a few species of plant life and wild life as well.
We have depeleted our forests much faster than they will grow and continue to do so at a dangerously fast rate. We are also depeleting our Ozone layer at an alarming rate as well.
I’m sure that most of us in indurtialized countires, have read or heard from news media of these probems and the green house effect being caused by air pollutions. But that’s the extent of it, we just keep reading and hearing about the problems!
At the rate of progress that we are going in this direction, I don’t think that 100 years is highly exaggerated, before we will come dangerously close to destroying ourselves and a lot of other life as well.
We must start facing up to the fact this responsibility is ours, because it is our making of these problems. We have that responsibiliy to the future generations, our children and ourselfs. We must reverse this slow suicidal cycle that we have gotten ourselfs into. We must start restoring and recovering our environment and natural resources back to their natural state.
NOW! Is that time to start reversing this cycle. Not 10 or 20 years from now.
We have come a long way in the last 100 years in the field of technology, medicine, electronics, computer, more efficient fod production methods, ect. Ect. But! We have done poorly in the area of environmental and pollution controls.
Society as a whole, has ignored their common snese and the values of health and life to the point that for the sake of change, modernization or profit, we have caused considerable damage to our planet in that process.
We want everything to be instant, easy, quick, convenient or disposable. Our values and life styles have changed dramatically in the last 50 years alone. Unfortuantely they have changed for the worse in terms of our environment.
We have acquired a higher quality f lifestyle in the process, but this can only be temporary if we do nothing about these problems we have created, in the process of modernizing.
Common sense can tell you that these problems are very real. All life will be very much in danger in the near future, if we do nothing to improve this situation.
The use of automoiles is probably the singe largest contributor to the pollution of carbon monoxide and other pollutents in the atmosphere.
The u.S. Uses the largest amount of fossil fuels being consumed daily of the world’s total consumption.
We have become a society that selfishly cherishes their independence, freedom, and luxury of private transportation to the point of ludicrousy. Some families or individuals have as many as 2, 3, or 4 automoiles to transport them for anything and everything.
We need to accept the fact that we need to change and take responsibility for that change.
Reducing the number of vehicles on the road today would help, but would not solve the problem by it’s self.
We need to look at different types of transportation, like mass transit. Different types of energy to power cars and other transportation.
The auto companies need to put more efforts and time into developing different types of power sources to power the future autos, like solar power, or electrical energy.
We have the technology now! All we need to do is work to make it efficient and affordable for the average person to own.
Private industry and government need to combine togetehr to build better mass transit systems for the public.
We are spending billions of dollars on space exploration and other space projects that are meaningless to the average perons and they will not benefit mankind anytime soon in any large sense.
If we spend some of this money in helping solve some of the more immediate ecological and environmental problems we have on this earth, then this would be a better investment for our future and the world. This money, time and efforts should be concentrated on solving the problems of this earth, rather than trying to explore other worlds. Space research is necessary for the field of medicine and other useful scientific projects that can benefit mankind in the immediate future but lets be realistic and use some common sense! The exploration of other planets and other solar systems are not going to do this earth any good right now.
Big government and big business are not going to start changing for the sake of these problems on their own.
Individuals and families are going to have to start voiceing their concerns and fears to their congressmen, representatives, employers, and other government bureaucracy. This is extremely important that people start realizing this and do so! Everyone will need to get involved in one form or another. The environmental protetcion agency needs to know we care.
The problems we now have on the environment and pollution are extremly complex.
So, the solutions are not easy. But, they will get much worse before they get better if this cycle continues. The complexity and amount of problems will only compound if no corrective actions are taken by the human race.
I believe that 20 to 30 years from now, the average family will only have one auto per family for transportation and rely more on mass transit.
Gasoline engines will be almost nonexistant due to heavy penalities applied to those vehicles still using them.
this is a world problem! It’s everyones problem and it will take a world effort to solve them.
I am not a scientist or a scholar, nor have I done research on the facts and figures. However I believe that if you were to do some research on the subject I would be amazingly close! Amazing?? No! Just common sense and we all have this quality. Hopefully we will start using it more in the future.
By Felipe Ramirez Jr.
3/13/1989
Note: Transcribed from a handwritten letter by Marina Weikel Ramirez on May 2nd, 2022
Felipe Ramirez, Jr. was born in Portland, Texas to Felipe Ramirez Sr. and Esther Ochoa. on March 13th, 1944. He attended Gregory-Portland High School in Portland, Texas. He was married to Mary Ramirez, the love of his life on August 5th, 1967 in Corpus Christi, Texas. He worked as an Aircraft Mechanic at Corpus Christi Army Depot for 26 years, before his retirement in 2004. He was a biological father to three children (Debra, Diana, and Philip) was considered a father by countless others. In his retirement he became a consummate wildlife painter and the best grandfather anyone out have ever asked for. He left his corner of the world better off than when he found it and continues to inspire others to do the same.
For more information about the daily expereince of industrial pollution along the Texas coast, please watch this video (narrated by Felipe's wife of 50+ years, Mary Barrera Ramirez).