Will Shapiro The Environment and You

Will Shapiro

The Environment and You

Every day we are all bombarded by a constant stream of news by the media. Whether it be good things like the recent pictures of Pluto taken by the innovative probe New Horizons, bad things like the recent San Bernardino shootings, or just random things like Kanye’s new baby Saint West, we are by no means being shorted by the amount of information that is being thrown at us every day. Unfortunately there is one piece of crucial  news that does not get the coverage that it should and that is climate change. Now within the next 8 minutes I am going to -hopefully- change that fact and give you a healthy dose of information about the environment, what’s hurting it, who's it affecting, to what extent, and what we can do about it. Now that’s a bunch to cover so let's get this speech on the road.

So what IS hurting the environment? Well,  nowadays that list can get pretty long, and honestly there are things we can't really do much about like  the 1.3 billion cows grazing that constantly fart according to a Gizmodo article have a larger negative impact on the atmosphere than transportation CO2 emissions. But anyway there are many aspects of climate change that we can fix, or rather do things to lessen their impact even if we can’t fix them completely. These impactors are still the same ones that have been affecting us for decades, but are still not getting the widespread attention they need. Just to name the big ones we have coal, natural gas, burning of fossil fuels, and even deforestation. OK so that list has only has five things on it, but if you think about it those 5 industries are what really keep the world running. The coal and natural gas give us electricity, the fossil fuels make our cars work, and the deforestation gives us literally everything that is made of wood from the sheet of paper my speech is on to the podium over there. At first glance it seems as though they are a necessary evil in our lives, something that we are just going to have to live with and eventually deal with the consequences. Unfortunately this may have already begun because the consequences of climate change have already started to show their ugly heads.

While some of those effects are easily noticeable,  others can be sneaky. Probably the most easily noticeable one is the current issue in China. Right now in Beijing, schools are being shut down and people are being advised to stay in their homes because of the terrible smog that is covering the country in a nasty haze that is toxic to their health. In fact, according to ecowatch.com, cancer has become the leading cause of death in their country. All this pollution comes from the abundance of factories and coal plants that make pretty much everything we use today. All that waste goes directly into the atmosphere where it gets trapped. Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly more common for this pollution to then fall back down from the atmosphere to ground height so everyone has to breathe it in. That just leads to a toxic nightmare and the air has been estimated to be as harmful as smoking 40 cigarettes a day. Over 4,000 people die everyday due to this pollution, that adds up to 17% of all deaths in china. And you all know that China is crazy overpopulated, so 17% isn’t actually that small a number.

China is not the only place being affected by our abuse of industrial  manufacturing, deforestation, and fossil fuel consumption. Sooner than you think, all of us will be affected by the consequences of our polluting habits. Global warming in a nutshell occurs because the heat from the sun comes down to earth like it has for the last 4 billion years, however, it is then supposed to then leave after bouncing around in the atmosphere heating us up, but since the industrial age, humans have been pumping gases into the atmosphere that absorb and prevent that heat from leaving, this gradually causes an increase in temperature around the globe. Now what happens to ice when introduced to heat? It melts obviously. So much like when you put an ice cube out on a hot sunny day, the icebergs and ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctic have begun to melt as well. These massive structures are dumping water back into the world's oceans that they have not been a part of in millions of years. The biggest threat that this poses is an increase in water levels. Now that may not seem like too big of a deal, ( big whoop we get a foot less of beachfront) but that is simply not the case. A recent study by livescience.com estimates that water levels will rise 21 feet in the next century. In fact, the rise of sea levels is already happening near the Maldives, a chain of islands very close to sea level, so even a small increase in sea level could put them underwater, that is why their president has started saving money to buy a new homeland for his country when the effects get too severe.

The pollution of our environment is not something we can ignore as an issue for our grand kids to deal with. It is happening here and it is happening now. Right now we are seeing the effects such as an increase in the severity of killer storms like hurricanes and tornadoes due to increasing ocean temperatures. We can see the effect on crops with recent studies estimating a 90% chance that(3+ billion) people  who rely on crops for a living will have to move to milder climates to avoid starvation. Wildlife is also suffering. Another study showed that climate change due to global warming is on track to cause the mass extinction of around 1 million animals due to harsh habitat changes. Global warming is not something we can just ignore and hope it will go away like some dirty dishes in the sink, It needs to be dealt with or else were all done for.

So what can we do?

While it may seem as though it's too late and everyone is doomed when reading these studies and facts that show how the world is slowly falling into a hot pit of chaos, all is not lost! What's done is done but we can help to mitigate future effects of this global warming by changing some things about the way we live and operate. According to pureenergies.com, right now the world pretty much runs on coal. It is the world's foremost energy producer, and also the dirtiest. It accounts for 24.5% of America’s greenhouse gasses alone and it is also an immensely destructive operation with examples of leveling mountains, flooding valleys with sludge, and killing scores in accidents that are all too frequent. Even though individually we can't stop these huge companies like Arch coal from doing what they do, we can control somewhat the extent of their influence in our personal lives.

Lights. The most common use of electricity that people all over the world use without a second thought. Now I know your parents have probably told you this already, but turning off your lights when you leave a room or your house is actually a good idea. Not only does it save your family money by not paying for that electricity, but it goes a step further and reduces the energy consumption in your home, therefore reducing the amount of coal that needs to be burnt to power your homes. Now that is just a small step you could take, a larger one is to get solar panels for your home. While in the past this was something that only the richest of people could do, it has now become a more cheaper option for many. Solar panels no longer have to be bought as said in a recent NPR interview, they can actually be rented to make it much more affordable. Now not only is it affordable but extra electricity can be sold back to the power grid for more savings. This new drop in solar panels expense makes it easy for us to enact change in our lives. We no longer have to be slaves to the coal companies, and together, a huge impact can be made in the battle against global warming.

Other ways of decreasing our carbon footprint is watching our transportation. A prime example of this would be Mr. Behler. He is a biking fiend. I once saw him bike all the way back from masterson station after one of our soccer tournaments to his house. And that is a pretty long ways away. Not only does he bike, but he also owns a Prius! Those cars emit a fraction of the emissions of most cars on the road today. If we were all just a bit more like Behler, then we could massively reduce our impact of on our environment.

But that's not enough

The biggest problem right now is not the emissions of these big companies, it's not the CO2 coming out of your tailpipe, its awareness. No matter what difference you try to make, if you do it alone then it won’t be enough. The best thing you can do today as soon as you walk out of this room to have the biggest impact on climate change and global warming is to tell others. What happens next can't be a singular effort. In order to see change, we need to get together and work together to find solutions. The next time you get your electricity bill, mention that solar panels are a now cheap option that actually makes you money, the next time you are looking for a car, and right now a bunch of us are as we begin to get our license, look into some electric or hybrid cars. Together we can actually make a difference.

In conclusion, we messed up. Humans have started earth on a path to destruction that is going to take a monumental effort by us all to correct, but that effort starts with you. It is in the choices you make everyday to turn off the bathroom light once you are done, to finance some solar panels on your roof, to maybe biking to school or work today. We ALL need to step up and realize that this situation is not going to fix itself and that its up to us, to fix it.

Works Cited

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

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"Do Cow Farts Actually Contribute to Global Warming?" Gizmodo. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Ferris, Robert. "China Air Pollution Far Worse than Thought: Study." CNBC. CNBC, 18 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Ghose, By Tia. "NASA: Rising Sea Levels More Dangerous Than Thought." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 26 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

"Global Warming Causing the Maldives to Buy New Homeland? - Red, Green, and Blue." Red Green and Blue. N.p., 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

"Global Warming Effects and Causes: A Top 10 List." PlanetSave. N.p., 07 June 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Goldstein, Jacob. "How Solar Power Has Gotten So Cheap, So Fast." NPR. NPR, 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Suzuki, David, Dr. "Toxic Smog Puts Cancer as Leading Cause of Death in China." Ecowatch.com. N.p., 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Wheeland, Matthew. "The Most Common Electricity Sources in the U.S. - Pure Energies USA." Pure Energies USA. Pureenergies, 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.