First Comes the Pitch (and the Earth).

From a very young age, I have spent much of my time close to nature. I have been surrounded by the beauty that is the natural landscape of our Earth for as long as I can remember, beginning when I started vacationing in New York State's Adirondack State Park 17 years ago. For this reason I have obtained a profound appreciation for the intricacy and perfection of mother nature. Its majesty is impossible to capture in any number of flowery words. In addition to this, nature is the basic foundation for our survival as a species and for that of all other species. Clean food, clean water and a clean environment are the most essential things to our very existence. Having said that, I believe that we live in a society that does not value ecology as it should, or at least not as I do. Instead we live in a society that is profit-driven, motivated by the pursuit of monetary and material gain. The term used to describe this type of a society is capitalism. Sadly, as I became older and more aware of the world I live in I realized that those things should be so basic to all life,  have been commoditized and sold when they should be equally distributed and shared. What I have realized is that the capitalist society we live in today is not a sustainable one. Because of institutions such as private property and the free market, our most basic needs can be withheld from some members of society simply because they can not afford it. I see this as the most flagrant, offensive flaw in the way we live. While some thrive on surplus, others starve or die from a lack of potable water. That is why I have adopted the ideology of eco-socialism and have decided to use it as the topic for my Senior 20 project. Eco-socialism is simply the idea that capitalism is largely to blame for the disastrous state of our environment today, and by extension is the adversary of all life. When I was deciding on a topic, this was one of the first ideas I thought of. When compared the other topics though, nothing comes close in pertinence to the defense of our basic human right to survival.

Toxic Chemical Spillage in Hungary renders dwellings inhospitable.

A poster created by the Industrial Workers of the World advocating for a sustainable environment.