Grand Canyon National Park Argument

I recently backpacked 32 miles through the Grand Canyon National Park over spring break. My trip leader told me, “Sorry I made you guys pack so many warm jackets and clothes, its usually not in the 90’s during this time of year”. Just like that I thought to myself, I could have had a lighter pack but I also thought about how global warming is real and its everywhere, even in the vastest lands. Like astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz said and I mentioned in my previous paper, “the more you look for planets like Earth, the more you appreciate our own planet” I came to a realization just buy exploring the Grand Canyon how important the rule of leaving no trace behind really is. The Grand Canyon National Park, as well as other parks really enforce this
rule. Not only does it reduce human impact on the landscape, but it also preserves the look and dynamics of the environment as mother nature intended.
Even though at first it appears to be a vast arid land with barely any life, when you look closely, life is everywhere. From cryptobiotic soil crusts, consisting of soil cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses that play an important ecological role in the arid Southwest to lizards and birds scowling the ground looking for food to eat. Any trash, pollutants, waste, food etc. that we humans add to the environment can and is having negative effects on the species they contaminate. Not only is the pollution evident on the ground but in the air, the sky appears to be full of clouds but in reality those clouds are jet exhaust which floats and expands with wind to create what looks like these long spaced out clouds.
It does not take much effort to see this change happening on your own, it also does not take much effort to accept this negative change.
How can we justify the elimination of glaciers and sea ice which have been with us for thousands of years which are now disappearing in a matter of decades? Its an insult to our planet, ourselves as a human race and only shows how selfish, careless and egotistical we have become. I am a big advocate of new technology, especially Elon Musk’s latest creations which push the advent of energy usage. What’s sad however, is that much of our current technology is not doing any good to the environment. What I find puzzling is this, there is an ongoing crisis, humans understand that crisis, humans have a need, humans make a technology that temporarily relives their crisis, that technology then has a negative impact on the planet. Its this on going cycle of “temporary relief, or fixing” that hurts the planet. If we understand the damage we are creating and causing why must we keep doing it? There are plenty of laws out there to stop someone from stealing but how many laws out there stop you or a corporation from polluting or using fossil fuels instead of pushing for new ways of generating energy. That’s what needs to change, its evident even here in Ohio, where winter all of the sudden is in the
50’s.
This brings me to my concluding solution and question, we filter the air in our homes and vehicles, why do we not filter the air in our environment, as well as our water. Do we value our life and what sustains our precious life more than we value spending billions on oil just so that we can make useless trash and pollutants for the sake of the dollar regardless of its negative effects on the future generations to come? I didn’t have to leave my home town and go to the Grand Canyon to notice the changes we have brought upon our planet, but I’m glad I did, because even in the Grand Canyon, an area so large and so empty, changes are just as evident.