A Better Home
The earth has been around for over 4.5 billion years; growing, thriving, and a home to a countless number of plant life and animal life. The humans on the other hand have only been here about 200,000 years. Every year it seems like we are destroying and polluting this planet even more . Our lives have become a selfish endeavor for the pursuit of happiness and we don’t care what we have to destroy in order to get there. The destruction starts with our desire to want a piece of everything, which leads companies overproducing and destroy what limited resource we have. This overproduction leads to an increase in the development of pollution causing industries more bent on producing product then protecting the air we breath. Finally the products we so desperately wanted finally come. After a few months they get old and find themselves plastered all over the world, whether they end up in our forests or oceans, destroying the plant and animal life they surround. In this piece I hope to open your eyes to the horrifying world we have created and the solutions we can participate in to stop the destruction.
Over consumption
The problem:
It seems to be human nature to want and pursue everything imaginable, but it is this issue that has lead us into a world consumed by over consumption. We destroy forest for immediate gain without thinking of the ecosystems we have destroyed, overhunting a certain animal to the point of extinction, or even just the over production of harmful toxins that end up polluting our world.
The solution:
The solution is simple, if we can forget about our selfish wants and instead look at the needs of the world we can solve many of the world's issues. The table below is a great example of this, in that it shows the effect of replacing a few of our non essential needs with the essential needs of the world and the good that could come of it.
Annual Expenditure On Luxury Items Compared With Funding Needed To Meet Selected Basic Needs
Product Annual Expenditure Social or Economic Goal Additional Annual Investment
Needed to Achieve Goal
Makeup $18 billion Reproductive health $12 billion
care for all women
Pet food in Europe Elimination of hunger
and United States $17 billion and malnutrition $19 billion
Perfumes $15 billion Universal literacy $5 billion
Ocean cruises $14 billion Clean drinking water for all $10 billion
Ice cream in Europe $11 billion Immunizing every child $1.3 billion
Table obtain by the WorldWatch Institute
Air Pollution
The problem:
Air pollution can come from many different actions whether they be mining operations, agricultural activities, exhausted from factories, burning fossil fuels, and even from our household items. The problem that arises from air pollution could be more personal like the cause of respiratory or heart problems, or it could be affecting the world around us by producing acid rain, causing global warming, killing plant and animal life, and depletion of the ozone layer. All of which are very serious and shouldn't be taken lightly.
This is an image of the kind of air pollution we, here in Salt Lake City, deal with.
The solution:
Solutions to this problem are something we should practice everyday by car pulling or using public transit, turning off the lights or any other electrical device we aren’t using, strive to use more energy efficient products, and reuse products you think you don’t need anymore. The solutions to this problem may seem medial, but they more people we can get on board the better chance we have of solving the issue.
This machine is said to be the future of air pollution clean up.
Pollution in the Ocean
The problem:
1.4 billion, that's the number of pounds of trash that enters our oceans every year. This trash doesn’t just float off and magically gets cleaned up, in fact its kills a countless number animals and destroys ecosystems across the planet. People living on coast, birds flying over the ocean, and fish under the sea are all at threat every time a piece of trash enters the ocean. As seen on the graph below the number one pollutant in our oceans is plastic/polystyrene.
The solution:
Almost all ocean pollution starts on land, which means we can help stop the progression of pollution build up before it even gets to the ocean. One of the best ways we can solve this problem is by limiting the amount of waste products we buy and instead of using plastic bags when buying groceries, bring a reusable one. Another great way to stop the spread is by avoiding single packaged goods, that much wasted plastic is sure to make its way into the ocean. Even if you aren’t willing to change the way you buy your products, try disposing of them in a better way. Such as when disposing of a six pack holder make sure you cut each slit, these slits can get caught around animals if it happens to make it to their environment. A little on the mechanical side of problem solving is the Water Wheel. It is said to be able to clean up to 50,000 pounds of garbage in a day.
Conclusion
Life is our most precious commodity and should be the goal of everyone to preserve it, but it should be remembered that human life is not the only one worth saving. We should strive to protect our environment and do the best we can to fix the damage we have already caused. It is time that we stop over consuming and start using our means to their full potential. We need to limit are use of energy and stop the insurmountable amount of pollution we continue to pump into our skies, and most of all we need to stop polluting and destroy the world we call home.
Source list
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"Over-consumption." Over-consumption | World Centric. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.
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"Causes, Effects and Solutions of Air Pollution." Conserve Energy Future. N.p., 03 Jan. 2017. Web. 23 July 2017.
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"Plastic Entanglements Increase 40% For Marine Animals ." Ocean Health Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.
"Ocean pollution." Ocean pollution | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.
