As we discussed in class, the debate between switch or cut to help our environment is a heated debate between some. Before this argument was brought to my attention I had always thought cut was the only way to do it.  But with many opinions flying around the room it made me realize that cut is still important, but so is switch.  I thought that by switching, people were just trying to put a Band-Aid over a much larger problem.  Now I realize that both are crucial to the evolution of our world.  We need to learn to cut down how we spend and consume things.  If we don’t do this eventually we will run into a problem where switching will not help us. We also need to switch to a different way of thinking.   We need to start thinking of ways that innovative technology can help us move forward.  In the past we have been focused solely on the industrial revolution and the economy. This quote by Smil just about sums it up;

“Modern civilization has engineered a veritable explosion of energy use and has extended human control over inanimate energies to previously unthinkable levels.  These gains made it fabulously liberating and admirably constructive—but also uncomfortably constraining and horribly destructive.”

Smil, Energy in World History, 224.

Therefore we need to move forward in a manner that is not as destructive. We must advance in a way that helps both the economy and the environment.  As the picture below states: we are running out of time, act now before it’s too late.