Follow, The Orange
Sep 26, 20204 min
At the time of writing, deaths from COVID-19 have surpassed more than two-hundred thousand in the United States, with nearly seven million confirmed cases, by far the most dismal numbers related to the entire world population's disease susceptibility of well more than eight billion (CDC, 2020). With more than three hundred million, the United States ranks third globally, quantifying internet users per capita. One might wonder why Americans have performed poorly in light of having such vast access to advanced information and technology. Having access to information is generally considered helpful in times of crisis and combatting pandemics and enemies alike.
Computer-mediated communication technology allows for increased collaboration across vast distances. As members of society can access vast amounts of information via tablets, laptops, and desktops in the post-industrial network society, it should be no surprise that virtually everyone knows about the disease. Nevertheless, not everyone receiving the same information necessarily cares about or believes the information they have accessed. Responsible members of societies look to common sense, intelligent dissection, and reasoning to reach a general understanding of the internet of things in the connected age and take appropriate action.
Many of us pick up our cell phones and instantly access the day's news, which continuously and instantly updates. Right, threatening, or indifferent- one of the first things I often do in my morning routine is to grab my phone, which is far more than a phone and may cost more than an entire year's worth of food for many people in the world. Looking to Twitter, one can disseminate helpful weight-loss tips and learn of a country's infection rates halfway across the globe simultaneously.
Access to quality information does not mean one will heed good advice. People have different motivations for doing or not doing things. Politics, personal ambitions, and governing bodies have distinct interests that are not always transparent. What is clear is that information is abundant, whether based on sound science and facts or biased, alternatively motivated disinformation or propaganda.
A global society faces many of the same challenges dating back to the pre-industrial era when humans lived in hunter-gatherer societies, also connected by tools. From pandemics to issues of climate change, societal pressures to cooperate intelligently persist. Communication exists to advance collaboration or advance some endeavor within and among people (Diijk, 2012, Chapter 2). Since communication is at the forefront of cooperation, why is there so much noise on the internet regarding fundamental ideas and concepts, such as wearing masks or eating less meat?
The BBC (2020) website reports that there have been more fires this year, in 2020, August to September, than the whole of last year, yet many people do not believe that climate change is real, or rather that the climate is changing. Deforestation is the number one cause of forest fires, which is often a deliberate process for feeding and raising cattle- widely known as a highly inefficient food system given the number of resources we put into cattle versus the amount of energy received. Also widely known is that trees play a vital role in regulating the temperature of the Earth. Nevertheless, Brazil is accelerating deforestation at unprecedented speeds, and the Trump administration in America is opening up its largest forest to development.
Since people need access to information to make the right decisions, the net allows for increased accessibility to knowledge-generating tremendous opportunities for human development, and advancement in new, more efficient energy and food systems. However, the collective mindset must agree to recognize the incredible problems that exist first to take appropriate steps toward resolution. One way to accomplish cooperation is to promote a unified message and create a robust societal network engaging climate, energy, and health issues.
Such is the goal of The Modern Living Peace Train (TM). We aim to promote a more plant-based diet and raise awareness of issues impacting humanity concerning the climate. The hive mind can accomplish so much when people put their minds toward accomplishing a task together. Fighting disease, combatting rising sea levels, and finding common ground requires a collective effort that cultivates talent and propagates the will to serve. To be good stewards of the Earth, we must be stewards to each other.
According to Diijk (2012), while it is easier to put information out there on the internet, it is much more difficult to get heard (Chapter 1). An endless plethora of websites exist to do good, and some bad, but getting people to act is a more complicated endeavor and is not for the faint of heart. The website www.futureearth.com seeks to combine similar thinking peoples into one cohesive earth-saving network. Many wonderful organizations exist to advancing good causes for the entire human race, but to take on global climate change, feeding humanity, and curing disease is no small task. The good news is that many try to make the world a better place as an internet that drives the best the human condition offers is a noble cause worthy of all humanity's attention.
While humanity advances technology and other means of interactivity, the internet poses yet more challenges, like privacy, intimacy issues, and sometimes advancing isolation or even matters of hate. To battle the privacy domain, one must take control of their actions on the internet and use it more for productivity rather than entertainment in some cases. Self-control finds its way into every area of modern life, and like eating a healthy diet has its benefits just as using caution when surfing the internet does. Reading privacy statements and terms and conditions of sites visited, and social networks used proves a useful tool in protecting one's privacy.
Respect for the individual and respect for the Earth is at the precipice of a more peaceful communication revolution on The Modern Living Peace Train (TM) seeking to create the largest online global social force for good the Earth has ever seen!
References:
BBC. (2020). Can charcoal make beef better for the environment?. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200206-can-charcoal-cut-cows-methane-to-fight-climate-change
CDC. (2020). United States COVID-19 cases and deaths by state. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesinlast7days
Diijk, J. V. (2012). The Network Society (3rd ed.). Bibliu.