If I could pick any generation to live in, I would go ahead and say that the one we currently live in would be my last choice. What do you see on the news every day? I constantly am turning on the news just to find out devastating news; in particular, threats to our environment being destroyed right in front of our eyes. The problem with this is that we see this all yet do nothing to stop it. Don't get me wrong, every decade in the past had some contribution to it, but the majority of them were not caused because of what we as people have advanced to today. There are so many occasions in which our advancements as human beings today are actually destroying the planet that we live on, and to be frank with you it needs to stop. Now.
We are destroying our environment.
It's been a long time coming, but within the past century, the amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases we have released into the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has raised our planets temperature by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. That might seem like a small number, but clear instances such as massive floods and melting ice caps say otherwise. With our advancements in technology and industries such as automobiles, we are slowly but surely destroying our atmosphere by the gases that are released from such products produced. Soon enough, islands are going to begin to be covered by water, ice caps are going to be melting away, and oceans are going to warm and become acidic.
Species are becoming extinct AS WE SPEAK.
Lets start out with a shocking statistic: The Nature Conservatory states that over 1/4 of wildlife species have the potential to be extinct by the year 2050 due to global warming. That means say goodbye to organisms such as polar bears, penguins, coral, and koala bears; because at the rate that we are at, these are just some of the thousands of animals and plants that will die as a cause of global warming. We are allowing animals who have lived peacefully with us for many centuries to die and never return as a result of our need for 'convenience' and 'advancements'.
We are wiping out OUR OWN HOMES.
CNN recently interviewed individuals who have been deeply affected by the result of global warming. They discovered that towns such as ones in Alaska are literally being melted away due to the warming. The melting of the frost and snow that some towns are built on in the state are causing those living there to relocate because their coasts are actually eroding. The Marshall Islands located in the Pacific Ocean will also most likely be submerged due to rising sea levels, causing those minute countries to disappear for good. These are just some of the hundreds of cities and countries that are being affected because of the heating of our atmosphere.
Our part to try to reduce global warming.
In mid-December, President Obama, along with many other world leaders, finally put in action a plan to try to help with this climate change. This action, The Clean Power Plan, was made to try and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32% from 2005 levels by the year 2030. With goals such as lowering the costs of renewable energy and producing more renewable energy products, our government, along with many others, is trying to help lower our global temperature in hopes to stop global warming from doing any more possible damage. You come into play by reducing your own carbon footprint. Whether that's driving less or using more renewable energy products, your effort matters.
Try and take part in both your knowledge of global warming and your efforts to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases you produce every day. Because believe it or not, this WILL eventually affect you and where you live.
