the endangered environment
The old cliche "out of sight, out of mind" is the best way to summarize most of the world's perspective on the environment. It is most unfortunate that almost all of the people on earth cannot see first hand the rapid destruction of the homes of countless species. People do not and cannot see the holes in the ozone layer or the pollution in the water. Most people have never seen in person the trees of an entire valley cut down or the coastline blackened by spilled oil. Since the Industrial Revolution the earth's ecosystem has experienced a rapid decline. People are using vast amounts of resources at rates that will be nearly impossible to neither maintain nor replenish. There is also the cost of using and refining these resources, which is the lower quality of air, water, and earth, the extinction of various species, and the continued drastic decrease of finite resources of that we have come to depend our whole economy on. Every year more forests are cut down, more chemicals pollute the air, and more toxins fill the waters. This trend has continued for more than a century and a half and continues even today. The degradation of the environment continues and we have endangered it.
When oil is burned, it results in the releasing of many harmful by-products. The one of most concern is carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide is present in the atmosphere it traps solar radiation. The more carbon dioxide that exists in the atmosphere, the more radiation is trapped. This can lead to a dramatic climate change. The problem with this is that many living species on the planet require a certain climate to survive. The world climate normally changes over periods of millions of years. Since the late nineteenth century, the content of carbon dioxide in the air has increased by 25 percent (Caldicott 161) or 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit. This may not sound like much, but a climate change of 6 degrees could raise the sea level by 3 feet, submerging many parts of the world. This trend shows no sign of slowing down. Carbon dioxide emissions reached a new high of 23,900 million tonnes in 1996; nearly four times what it was in 1950 (GEO-2000). One of the largest carbon dioxide producing entities is the automobile. The total number of vehicles in the world is growing at an amazing rate. In 1980 there were 391.1 million vehicles in the world and in 1996 there were 676.2 million (GEO-2000-2). The United States alone uses 35 percent of the world's transport energy and is responsible for 25 percent of the world's output of carbon dioxide (Caldicott 167). This will continue to result in a dramatic increase of carbon dioxide levels and further endangerment to our environment if we, as a whole, do not begin to use an environmentally cleaner and safer source of energy. The world environment is degrading at an extraordinary rate. This is partially due to reoccurring oil spills, increases of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the ongoing disappearance
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1192
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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