toxicity025 asked: would someone be willing to proof read this essay? i know its a bit long… but any help would be appreciated. please don;t be too harsh. English is my worst subject.
The environment is changing, there’s no question about that. With global warming, mass extinction, and other threats to the welfare of the world, it’s only a matter of time before humans permanently annihilate all life on earth. This has all happened before. People have to look into the past to preserve the future, for history is cyclical. Once upon a time an island by the name of Easter lived and prospered. Never heard of it? Well that’s because all life there perished. On this small island in the south pacific a group of people came and settled on what seemed to be the perfect island. It was thought to have infinite resources and everything one needed to survive in luxury. After time the population began growing exponentially which caused the resources to decline equally. It reached the point where there were more people than resources and the island turned to cannibalism and finally a collapse of all life. Is this the earth’s past or is it the present? Humanity has been given the crystal ball, it is known what can happen, and so it’s time to fix it before earth becomes the next Easter Island. Despite the recalcitrancy of humanity, which in effect is deteriorating our surroundings, the environment still shows a fighting chance of recovery if we as a whole can give up our lavish lifestyles and think more eco-friendly.
One of the main issues with today’s society is their lack of knowledge about how vitally important the energy crisis is. Most know only that fossil fuels are bad and the burning of them leads to global warming and other problems that they consider unimportant. “Using cleaner energy will preserve the environment in multiple ways” ( Kline 1). Many don’t understand how severe of a threat to the world’s welfare global warming is. Most people just take it as a joke or don’t think it will ever happen, but in reality the effects range from “extreme weather to glacial disappearance to higher sea levels” (”Effects” 1). And for some countries such as The Netherlands, who live on the ocean and whose entire country is below sea level, this change could be detrimental. One very good candidate for the solution is hydrogen. Although this is one of the more expensive solutions to this crisis, “Hydrogen is more effective and cleaner than oil” (Brown 1). Gas is still more expensive than hydrogen. “The cost of hydrogen per equivalent gallon of gasoline is only $1.40″ (Brown 1). So why hasn’t the world changed to hydrogen power? The only one’s who would suffer are the oil company executives who have in effect sent America’s economy into a recession by inflating gas prices to record highs. Along with hydrogen, another decent solution is harnessing the power of the sun. Even though it is not the most effective solution it is clean and, obviously, the most abundant. “Many South American villages are already using solar energy to fuel themselves” (Brown 1). The final major solution is using wind power. Like solar power, “Wind energy is one of the most abundant and cheapest ways of creating energy without releasing carbon dioxide” (Brown 1). And not only is this more eco-friendly it is also more cost effective, which is extremely beneficial to the world at this time due to a poor economy. “With each doubling of the world’s wind generating capacity, the cost will fall by 15%”(Brown 1). Scientists are now looking at ways to attempt to combine two or more of these potential power sources to create a clean and efficient fuel. The only problem is that the oil company will not give up it’s high profit business that easily; “The use of solar and wind energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun nor the wind” (Brown 1)
Not only is the world our home, it has many other important uses that we can utilize if it is destroyed. Along with providing us with the essential resources to life, it has many medicinal uses, which help people, live a longer and healthier life. “Four out of every five of the top 150 prescription drugs are made from ingredients found in nature”(”Preserving” 1). So why would humanity destroy something that without it they could not live? Although to some this is common sense, many do not think about how much comes from natural world. Too many people are too pre occupied with a television and their big, fancy jobs, instead of they taking notice to the daily destruction of everyone’s true home, the earth. All of one’s life accomplishments won’t matter if there is no place to live and show people. So humanity must collaborate to find the solution before it is too late.
Who is to blame for all of this? The human population is. Humanity’s gluttonous lifestyle is using the earth’s natural resources faster than it can replace them. “Throughout history, human’s have used over 7000 different plant species as a
7000 different plant species as a food source, now only 20 plants provide 90% of the plant food” (Wilson 1). This occurred because humans would pick all of the specific plant they could, so when it came time for the plant to reproduce there were not enough to recreate a high amount of them. Thus over a few seasons of this the plant would enter extinction. Also ” Human’s are over fishing, over hunting everywhere causing weaker eco systems and lower biodiversity” (Cincotta and Engelman 1). Biodiversity is important because “Biodiversity boosts an ecosystems where every species, no matter how small, has an important role. It is this combination that enables the ecosystem to possess the ability to prevent and recover from a variety of disasters”(Shah 1). The damage done can be fixed if people will just adopt new lifestyles and put the environments welfare before their own selfish desires. The closed mindedness of the importance of the environment will lead to the downfall of every species
the downfall of every species on the planet. What most people don’t realize is that their activities are affecting all species by pushing them out of their habitat, and pushing many towards extinction. “Human activities force the lower parts of the food chain to go extinct, which causes a domino effect and hurts all the species that are above it in a food web”(Kline 1). So when a human’s actions cause even the smallest of species to go extinct it will come back to effect him or her because now the next level of the food web has one less food source. That causes instability within the food web than it only takes one disaster and the entire ecosystem will fail, and to think it starts with such a small animal dieing off. Overall the profligacy of the 20th century has led humanity to overpopulation and shrinking natural resources. But overpopulation is not the biggest problem because “when determining resource usage, it is more dependent on how people live rather than how many there are” (
The place on this planet that we should be trying to save the most of is the rainforest, but sadly that is what is being destroyed the fastest. “One and a half acres of rainforest are destroyed per second. The rainforest used to cover 14% of the world’s land, now it covers a mere 6% and at this rate the whole rainforest will be gone within forty years”(”Impact” 1). One major advantage of the rainforest is its high biodiversity, meaning there are a lot of new and useful species located within its boundaries. And because of the high biodiversity it allows “80% of the world’s diet to be found within the rainforest” (”Impact” 1). And not a lot of the rainforest plants have been discovered or tested for useful properties, so we are destroying a section of the planet that could be used to help much of society. “The rainforest provides more resources than anywhere else on earth, it contributes 20% of the world’s oxygen while taking in carbon dioxide along with giving us over 25% of the planet
The place on this planet that we should be trying to save the most of is the rainforest, but sadly that is what is being destroyed the fastest. “One and a half acres of rainforest are destroyed per second. The rainforest used to cover 14% of the world’s land, now it covers a mere 6% and at this rate the whole rainforest will be gone within forty years”(”Impact” 1). One major advantage of the rainforest is its high biodiversity, meaning there are a lot of new and useful species located within its boundaries. And because of the high biodiversity it allows “80% of the world’s diet to be found within the rainforest” (”Impact” 1). And not a lot of the rainforest plants have been discovered or tested for useful properties, so we are destroying a section of the planet that could be used to help much of society. “The rainforest provides more resources than anywhere else on earth, it contributes 20% of the world’s oxygen while taking in carbon dioxide along with giving us over 25% of the planet
Ok i cant do this 100 more times…. its too long to fit. just rad the parts that there :). ignore the fact that its missing a big chunk and no conclusion. if u really love it i can email it to u
STEVE
