Weston+G’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

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 * Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Trees **

=Text of Speech= If you have read my blog about the future you probably know where I’m going with this: the environment. It actually wasn’t until recently that I identified as an environmentalist, you see I’ve grown up with environmentally friendly parents so I always thought it was normal to recycle everything able to be recycled, to have a compost pile, and to walk or bike most reasonable distances. Turns out few have this same mindset. I have friends who only drink bottled water and neighbors who will drive to Vons to grab some milk even though we’re just three blocks away. I can’t imagine why we as Americans have no love for our beautiful planet; it’s not as if it is some horrible sight to see. Earth is beautiful but we feel the need to destroy it with trash and CO2 emissions. And it appalls me even more to hear how so many are shocked and angered by Obama’s movement to help save the environment. Even if it never gains traction at least he is trying.

We should just be ecstatic to have another politician who cares about the environment; it’s only been say 100 years. It seems people are just inherently selfish, way back when in the 1950’s LA had a policy that was actually beneficial to the environment, shocker right, it wasn’t much, the simple policy was that all cans must be separated from trash so they could be recycled into new cans. Well as you can imagine having to put can in a different bin than regular trash is quite a bit of work for an average citizen, so when it came time to elect a new mayor one candidate ran with one major promise: to end this policy. And guess what he won. Way to go LA, way to go.

In the America I hope to see in the future people would be a bit more caring to the environment. I don’t want any nonsensical people like my sister’s former roommate who refused to recycle, who would even take cans and bottles out of the recycling and put them in the trash. I would hope to see more and more people embracing healthy lifestyle choices like biking or going hiking instead of going shopping. Despite all the flak that it gets biking is great. Maybe it’s because of all those wretched cyclists who think they own the place but biking has garnered a rather negative connotation. However what could be better than biking, in most cases it’s only slightly slower than car, you’re not paying money every time you use it, and you get to feel the wind rushing through your hair. It’s a win-win situation. However I doubt this could ever happen since America has such an obsession with trucks, maybe it’s because a lot of men feel the need to have a big brash truck, maybe out of some sort of compensation for something else. And a truck has always seemed unappealing to me, they’re massive, loud, and fail to get even close to decent gas mileage, but I suppose when you’re trying to destroy the environment it makes sense to opt for that 6.2L V8 that gets 10 miles to the gallon. Plus with an engine like that you could destroy every small hybrid out there, killing two birds with one stone.

Most importantly without environmentalists our world would have gone to hell quite a while ago. Its people like Teddy Roosevelt who should be cherished. He started the national parks so the US could still have forests. Without people like him all of America could be one giant LA with graffiti and litter lining the streets. One day I hope to be able to spin 360 degrees and see nothing man made, this shouldn’t be a rare thing it should be commonplace. That being said I have no hope for our future, we still have still have to live with the one-percenters over consuming and the many republicans who refuse to believe in global warming, seriously what is with that, this is global warming not unicorns. Aside from that I think our biggest downfall will be the adults with an “I don’t give a fuck” attitude because they’ll be dead by the time global warming and enviro-destruction has real consequences they can see. Oh well, the world was great while it lasted.

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