This planet is an amazing thing. We have everything we need to make life an enjoyable experience. The way people treat the earth is not representing a respect for the earth. We should appreciate the earth and everything it provides for us. Instead of taking care of our planet and taking time out of our own schedules to help slow down the dangerous toll we are taking on the earth, people just go on and completely ignore the signs. As everyday goes by we slowly take away from the earth. We are not considerate of the earth and how we constantly deplete our natural resources. The earth is screaming out for our help and attention but we constantly ignore it. The warning signs are clear when we take a look around and see how much we could do to prevent the possibly fatal outcome. According to the Environmental Defense organization, vehicles from the United States produce 314 tons of CO2 every year. Little things that we do everyday such as driving to work, throwing away a plastic bottle, and lawn care can make a big difference in the long run. In America, we spend around $25 billion dollars on our lawns in a year. We use chemicals and pesticides that are dangerous to our air to take care of our yards. It seems rather silly to do this when there are more important things to care about. People in third world countries barely have money to eat while we can spend $25 billion on our yards. It’s really sad that by some people lacking consideration for the earth that everyone has to suffer for it. We have built ourselves a spiral of bad behavior and the only thing that can stop the cycle is the world as a whole.
The world as we know it is indeed suffering from all of our neglect to it. some things that we do to the earth are a necessity, as you said "little things that we do everyday such as driving to work, throwing away a plastic bottle, and lawn care can make a big difference" Some of these things are uncontrollable. There are currently over 600 million motor vehicles in the world already, a good solution to this is to switch to hybrid cars right? Many do not have the financial support to buy one in these hard economic times unless hybrid cars were given out at a deal or free. There is something we can do about recycling though, it wouldn’t be enough to just get everybody to recycle their plastic, a better solution would be for the manufactures of such products to find another material to use that can be disposed of without harm to the environment.
ReplyDeleteWhen I noticed your label, “Environment”, I was immediately captured since I am a Biology major and extremely interested in environmental affairs. Your heading was sort of vague, but your picture really stood out from the rest and the fact that your first words appeared on the side was a nice touch. Yes, it is true that our negligence for our beautiful planet, Earth, will one day be the destruction of it. Still, what is there for us to do about it, like you mentioned, “as a whole”? In reality, there isn’t much. Sure, one or two companies can decide to use easily recyclable products in packaging, but the economy isn’t run on the better of the whole. It’s primarily run for efficiency. We want everything to be easy, but saving the planet just isn’t one of those handouts. Also, a report appeared on News.con.au by RMIT environmental engineering expert Tim Grant , in which he says that “whether it is better environmentally to recycle household items made of plastics or simply throw them away may depend on where you live.” Following along with that statement, many people around the world don’t have the kind of money needed for such big spending for Hybrid cars, easy recyclables, and safe pesticides. The government can no help us in this crisis since it is too in just a great deficit. Besides, what is there really to do “as a whole”?
ReplyDeleteI agree, as a society we are slowly but surely depleting all of earth's natural resources. We take the meaningful blessings of earth for granted, such as clean air and water. But if we continue to treat our environment the way we do, these resources may not be available for future generations to come. Can you imagine your children or grandchildren breathing in highly polluted air as a result of our negligence? I agree that we must asses this problem as a 'whole' but this is a difficult task due to not everyone being aware of the condition of our planet. Also, because some people are unwilling to change over to more 'green' and environmentally friendly ways of living.
ReplyDeleteI agree that some people are inconsiderate and take advantage of the resources that have been provided for them. People just assume that all the resources are never ending and will always be there. The truth of the matter is the resources are quickly being used up. Just natural gas alone only has about sixty years of use left(http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Much-Natural-Gas-is-Left?&id=393542). If everyone realized this, then they could start helping change the condition of the earth as it is now. They could see that the things they are doing is doing more harm to the world than helping it. Like you said, as a whole we all must make this change to better our planet.
ReplyDeleteIt's as if people think they are above nature rather than a part of it. I think our society has adopted the notion that man is in control of nature--that he is the pinnacle of evolution--and that it's his responsibility to manipulate it for its own good. However, the earth has been doing it's thing for millions of years. Even after we're gone, it will continue.
ReplyDeleteIt's not our job to police the environment, but to police ourselves. We should recycle and be more conscious of our decisions, not for the sake of the planet, but for the sake of our civilization. A single person creates 56 tons of trash (http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html),14 billion tons of garbage gets dumped into the oceans, and we've created landfills that can be seen from space; I'm just so confused as to how anyone can ignore these facts and still live unchanged. It's as if our society has jumped off a cliff and can't fathom why the ground is approaching so quickly.