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Many of us have failed to realize the damage we've caused to the planet we call Home. We wake up every morning under the false impression that there will always be food to eat, clean air to breathe, oil to fuel our cars with, and icy towers with polar bears for our grandchildren to see. But little do we know that there might not be any of that left for future generations to witness, and that every day we are killing our planet a little more with our own hands.
How badly have we injured our environment? Badly enough, to the extent that we can't afford not to worry. We are destroying the environment in ways we cannot even perceive. First of all, the main damage always goes back to our booming population. Birth rate has risen in enormous amounts, causing us to force artificial growth onto our plantations to feed as much people as we can. We use fertilizers and insecticides in great quantities, which eventually result in the contamination of air, soil, and water (Patterson). We are also forcing the introduction of different species to different areas to satisfy the local population into eating and breeding what they want, that causes a terrible imbalance and domination of certain species in local areas, such as the Python outburst in Florida (Patterson). We are also removing our basic sources of oxygen by wiping out entire forests for the cultivation of urban life. That not only puts numerous species on the risk of extinction, but also causes changes in land soil and even weather (Schwarzfield).
We are now also consuming more energy from our environment than ever before, and one of the highest consumers of that energy are cars. We now live in the "age of the automobile", where a single car can emit up to 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year in the form of exhaust (Schwarzfield). The amount of oil of course needed for those cars to run is beyond expectation. Our most important concern for the environment is, as most of us have heard, Global Warming. Since 1969, more 20 percent of the world's ice caps have melted, and temperature has risen by about 1 F (Schwarzfield). This process causes sea levels to rise and put many species on the risk of extinction and opens doors to rising natural catastrophes that could wipe out entire cities. Global warming is caused by Greenhouse effect, which is basically a group of gases that trap the sun's heat (Schwarzfield). The gas that is most responsible for this process is carbon dioxide, which constitutes more than 82 percent of the greenhouse gases in the United States alone, and is produced through cars and coal-powered factories (Schwarzfield).
Coal mining is also one of the most damaging processes of the world. Mining not only creates climate change, but also endangers several species and whips out great amounts of forest lands (Schwarzfield). Both types of mining, strip-mining and top-removal mining, are a great danger to our environment (Schwarzfield). In strip-mining, the rocks, trees, and other refuse are dumped in valleys where they cover up several streams that are heavily depended on by the natural world around them. That causes a great imbalance in their surrounding wildlife.
Humans are also prone to very destructive accidents. In 1989, a crude oil spill in Alaska left a long lasting impact in the region, where an estimate of 250,000 seabirds, 2800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and 22 killer whales were killed (). Also, about 2.5 million gallons of oil are spilled every day in the Gulf of Mexico (Oil Spill Facts).
In brief, our environment can only hold so much damage, and we keep pushing it to the very edge. No one knows how bad things will get in 100 years from now, but all we know is that our pace for damage and destruction of our planet is increasing by the minute.
HOW BADLY HAVE WE INJURED THE ENVIRONMENT? -by Nadeen Ibrahim