How Humans are Destroying the Earth and How it can be Saved

Hugo Y. Muniz Tellez

Professor Ramos

English 101

29 October 2019

Word Count: 1202

How Humans are Destroying the Earth and How it can be Saved

Earth is not how it used to be back when it first started with an ozone layer perfectly in contact and weather that is not all over the place, green fields and nice ice glaziers. In our generation, our world is being destroyed by climate change due to our actions in having multiple one use plastic being used for most things like packaging and eating utensils also our factories and non clean vehicles that destroyed the ozone layer creating a mess. It is easy to spot how the earth is being ruined and how it can be helped. In this report, climate change is going to be discussed in detail how it is destroying the earth and how people can start changing certain habits to help benefit the planet.

Before Earth was being polluted by human civilization it was healthy with nice green grass and clean lakes. Before trees were constantly being dropped down left and right, trees were able to help with with pollution from human beings and many other sources like vehicles, planes, and many more. Birds were flying, Earth had a nice ozone layer and lots of wildlife. Now as we wake up and see a “beautiful” sunrise that many don’t know is a product of pollution, human civilization is slowly killing their home.

First, humans need to recognize how they are polluting the Earth and how it is affecting their surrounding environment. Plastic is the first problem to contributing to pollution. Every minute around the world one million plastic water bottles are being purchased and most will not see a recycling plant but instead the ocean. The plastic is hurting the world by damaging the ecosystem and even flooding and creating lakes of pure plastic. Data from “Export Of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea”done by Christian Schmidt, Tobias Krauth, and Stephen Wagner, around eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean. It also affects the earth by all the burning of plastic creating pollution and destroying what is left of the ozone layer. We also destroy the earth by the vehicles we have, for example, vehicles that are not properly maintained and produce more carbon than they should if they were properly maintained and did not burn much oil if the oil was being changed regularly as it should and later recycled. Even the amount of fossil fuels and fuels wasted by cars and planes contribute a major part in pollution. Finally, one of the biggest contributors are factories. Factories are what destroyed most of the ozone layer and continues to destroy it. These common contributors are the reason for climate change. The world is changing and our arctic ice is melting and animals are suffering. Ocean creatures and mammals are dying from pollution and eventually all the animals will vanish, an example, the Cape penguins, “Due to human pollution, lose of nesting sites, lack of food and oil spill pollution, these birds are now endangered” (Panamajack). Now due to pollution and climate change our forest fires are now twice as long since 1970: “Large wildfires in the United States burn more than twice the area they did in 1970, and the average wildfire season is 78 days longer”(C2ES). The more pollution created through human interaction, the more climate change being created by humans and the more the world is slowly dying.

Moving on to climate change overall on the Earth is a big understatement. Most people shrug it off and do not truly understand how bad climate change is getting. Due to climate change the Earth is reacting in multiple ways people view as “normal”. Sea levels are rising and oceans are getting warmer. More natural disasters are occurring and floods are frequently happening. More wildfires are destroying homes. Actually, in July 2019 was Earth’s hottest month around the world recorded, “Regions across the world experienced record-breaking temperatures; the continent of Africa experienced its hottest month on record, and countries across Europe — including France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, and Luxembourg — experienced the hottest days in their nations’ history” (Time). In this quote it shows the significance that many other places have already hit the hottest day in their nation in history. This is all due to climate change that is occuring due to all the pollution created by human civilization. If humans continue using these same methods of living that continue destroying Earth, human civilization will not exist in the near future. 

There is a solution to stop this and save not only human civilization,but earth and its beautiful animals. As of 2019 human civilization has roughly about eleven years to change their ways of living before climate change is irreversible: “…stressing that 11 years are all that remain to avert catastrophe” (Espinosa Garces). There are multiple ways of helping the Earth. There are seven categories where humans can change their ways for the better, including: electricity generation, food, buildings and cities, land use, transport, materials, and women and girls. For electricity generation we can start storing energy. Even start using solar panels during the summer and there are programs out in a world where you can potentially receive it for free. This would help reduce the amount of fossil fuels being wasted every day. For food we can start using clean stoves and reducing food waste. Potentially helping and instead of burning food and creating more pollution reducing it down and possible sharing our food with people in need. For buildings many things can be changed instead of using gas/commercial light bulbs we can start using LED light bulbs to reduce the amount of energy used and they are brighter. Smart glass and smart thermostats can also be used in modern households from now on. This will start a chain of using less technology that hurts us, but instead upgrading and not only helping save money but the Earth. Even cities can be changed into walkable cities where people are influenced and motivated to walk to their day to day locations. For land use we can start by having more forest protection areas. Protecting certain forest and planting trees will help by reducing and eliminating pollution naturally. For transportation we can start using clean air vehicles and if affordable start using electric vehicles like Tesla. If not affordable for both options a bus is a great alternative or even bicycling to the needed destination. Finding different ways of transport will benefit everyone especially with little amount of carbon dioxide in the air. For materials there are multiple substitutes like alternative cement and bioplastic. The use of alternate materials will help reduce the amount of plastic and materials that hurt the Earth. Finally, women and girls, motivating women and girls can have such an impact on starting a movement especially since currently in the world there is more female protestars than there are boys. These simple changes can help the world from the damage human beings have done. If there is no action or anything to help the world before it is too late, mankind and life on Earth will vanish.For more information and ways to help fight against climate control please visit: https://www.drawdown.org/

Works Cited

Burnett, Dean. “Climate Change Is an Obvious Myth – How Much More Evidence Do You Need? | Dean Burnett.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Nov. 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2014/nov/25/climate-change-is-an-obvious-myth-how-much-more-evidence-do-you-need.This website contains an anti argument of climate control. This website states that climate control is fake even if we were to see it for 100 and many more years. They even stated that if all the threats of high sea levels and many more should have been happening already. Even saying certain animals that go extinct is cherry picking by scientist.

“Drawdown.” Drawdown, 12 June 2019, www.drawdown.org/. Drawdown is a website where it has all the solutions of climate change. It has multiple ways on how we can start recycling more and how to help the planet. It has picture diagrams and even has a step by step procedure we can do everyday to protect the Earth. This website is dedicated to helping out the planet Earth.

“How Our Planet Has Changed over Time.” CNN, Cable News Network, www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/09/world/climate-change-before-after/. This website shows multiple images of the Earth. It has images of how the Earth was healthy before and images of how the Earth is dying. It has specific examples like fires in the amazon with details and even deeper research. Overall, this website is meant to show visual representations of climate control. 

“8 Endangered Ocean Species and Animals.” Panama Jack Blog, http://www.panamajack.com/blog/8-endangered-ocean-species-and-animals/.

“Drawdown.” Drawdown, 12 June 2019, http://www.drawdown.org/.

“Effects of Climate Change.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change.

“Effects of Climate Change.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change.

Essick, Peter. “Air Pollution Causes, Effects, and Solutions.” Air Pollution, Facts and Information, 25 June 2019, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution/.

Law, Tara. “July 2019 Was the Earth’s Hottest Month on Record.” Time, Time, 20 Aug. 2019, time.com/5652972/july-2019-hottest-month/.

“Only 11 Years Left to Prevent Irreversible Damage from Climate Change, Speakers Warn during General Assembly High-Level Meeting | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases.” United Nations, United Nations, http://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm.

“Wildfires and Climate Change.” Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 12 July 2019, http://www.c2es.org/content/wildfires-and-climate-change/.

“Wildfires and Climate Change.” Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 12 July 2019, http://www.c2es.org/content/wildfires-and-climate-change/.