Columns, Opinion

RUTH: A virtual perspective

Last year, I started playing a game called Minecraft in which the sole objective of the game is to break blocks and build structures out of said blocks. I always found myself resorting to Minecraft whenever I became stressed because I found that breaking virtual blocks is surprisingly cathartic.

For such a simplistic game, it actually has infinite real world applications.

I know what you must be thinking. This column is supposed to be about the environment. Why am I talking about some weird computer game comprised entirely of blocks? Well, I promise you, there’s a relationship between the two.

In Minecraft, the world is your palette, your resources are unlimited and the opportunities are simply endless. Whenever you run out of land, you can simply walk to a new location and more land is generated on the map. Once you have filled everything within your grasp with agriculture and buildings, you can walk to new unchartered territory. Clearly, conserving resources in Minecraft is not on my agenda.

Although I’m not an engineer, I’ve constructed some magnificent creations in the game. I deforested an enormous section of land and converted the wood into planks to construct an impressive pirate ship, with a crow’s nest overlooking my entire village. I also made a vibrant tower made entirely of wool with a luxurious ceiling composed of diamonds, emeralds and gold.

Minecraft is basically one large competition of who can utilize their unlimited resources the best and who is willing to spend — or waste — more time playing. The thing that surprised me is how resourceful I am in the game. After I chopped down a tree, I planted another sapling in its place. I guess you could call me an environmentalist in real life and in my virtual life as well.

In a world where there is no such thing as non-renewable resources, all of its players use each resource to its fullest potential. I started in a pristine biome and tailored it to fit my needs. I simply just use what the limitless virtual Earth had to offer.

So how does Minecraft relate to the real world?

If resources were constantly regenerating, we wouldn’t have any incentive to conserve them. The issue of conserving environment would simply be swept under the rug and it would become as unobtrusive as sliced bread. You don’t see people doing extensive research on sliced bread, and you definitely don’t see people majoring in the subject. Of course, we would be aware of the existence of those green things with cylindrical brown things attached to them. However, we probably wouldn’t think twice about cutting all of them down because similar things would regenerate for us to chop down again.

There’s always something intriguing about the things that go unnoticed. Without people realizing the importance of resource conservation, I wouldn’t have been captivated by the need to save the environment. I wouldn’t have any desire to become porous to all the environmental knowledge around me. So it goes without saying that I wouldn’t be able to major in environmental analysis and policy.

There would be no environmental research and maybe people would simply follow my lead and start building endless pirate ships and towers made out of wool with a ceiling made out of diamonds, gold and emeralds. Although our superfluous use of resources is increasingly detrimental, the drastic increase in environmental awareness is a great thing. It’s beneficial to recognize the error in our ways, as long as we assemble the initiative to do something about it.

In the real world, we actually care about resource conservation. National parks and national forests serve as pivotal roles in keeping large portions of our country unscathed by human disturbance. While protecting the entirety of our nation’s resources is an impossible mission, these national parks and forests serve as a guide for us. Of course, the resources on this Earth are made for us to use, just like in Minecraft, but they surely weren’t made for us to abuse.

With our domestic oil supply decreasing as we progress into the future, we can’t simply walk into unchartered territory and have oil-rich land generate. Instead of acting like we’re living in Minecraft, with an unlimited supply of resources and oil by leeching off other countries, we need to start living in the present. We’re approaching an era in which sustainable energy and resource conservation is entirely feasible.

Last month, the Minecraft server that I regularly play on was reset. A clean slate was presented to us — an untouched landscape with endless possibilities. One must wonder, if we had a reset switch on our planet, how differently we would approach the topic of resource conservation the second time around.

Jennifer Ruth is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying environmental analysis and policy. She can be reached at jenruth@bu.edu.

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