Letter: Society should focus on advancing the sciences

If we continue at the current rate of resource consumption, even while disregarding population growth, most of the Earth's renewable and nonrenewable resources will be depleted no later than 2138.

If the resources civilization is dependent on run out, what will happen? Most conservationists say to solve this issue, we need to drastically reduce our requirements of resources. This solution will not fix the problem, it will only buy us more time. We need to reverse the damage, not just reduce and slow it down.

Our nation needs to take the initiative to start swaying our interests from short-term economic growth to the sciences. With science comes technology, and with technology comes sustainable economic advancement.

Our country is in a financial crisis. Our government focuses on fixes for the economy, yet almost nothing gets better; things only get worse more slowly. If we invest in science, in the long term, our nation will be technologically advanced, economically sound, and will avoid ecological catastrophe.

Think about our country and world in the future, if things carry on like they are.

Our descendants will be helpless to fix anything because their ancestors left them in a economic and ecological mess, and with no time to fix their world before everything hits rock bottom.

To start on the path to an excellent future for human civilization, we need to make only one sacrifice: Focus on the advancement of science instead of short-term wealth for the good of our ancestors.

Connor Hamp

Yuba City