Global warming and acid rain are but two of the devastating consequences we are presently witnessing as the result of pollution. It would be wonderful if we could continue to exist on this great planet without destroying it in the process. Envision wandering around a city center and enjoy clean air which has no poisonous toxins caused by our pollution, wouldn’t it be great? The thing is, this is no longer feasible; we humans have guaranteed that with the pollution we’ve created we’ll be breathing in airborne poisons, which can impair our habitat and ultimately our health.
All types of life found in that massive body of water, our oceans, which total 70% of planet earth’s surface, are being ravaged by pollutants such as oil and chemical spillage, which inevitably affects us as well. For many people who had a living from the sea by fishing they no longer have a job as a consequence of pollution. Neighborhoods have depended on fishing for generations, for both food and economic prospects, and now all of this is coming to an end for many. A significant instance of how we are destroying the ocean is with oil spills, a recent example of this is the Deepwater Horizon spill which left many people jobless and cost billions of dollars to sort out. The food chain and the whole of the ecosystem experienced significant damage, as a direct consequence of the deaths of large numbers of not only fish but also birds. A sad example of mankind prioritizing its short-term demand for oil, a dead substance, over the well-being of the earth and its other inhabitants.
As the world’s known oil reserves approach exhaustion, billions are pumped into exploration for new fields, money which could be used to broaden and develop green energy production. Current green energy options, which do no damage to the environment, are capable of delivering a lot of our energy needs. Provided that the sun shines, solar panels, for example, can heat water and provide electricity as well. And something that’s equally simple in concept, wind turbines, uses another free resource (wind) to produce energy. So long as the wind blows – and many turbines work well at minimal wind speeds – a wind turbine will work, which is a neat advantage. The pursuit of green energy alternatives is becoming more and more important as we near the end of our oil reserves, not to mention the harm oil does to the environment. If we did that, global warming and the other ruinous results of pollution could very well be stopped, and just possibly reversed.
It is you and me that are going to reap some benefits in the short term and future generations will benefit in the long term. Rather than being at the mercy of severe weather patterns and harsh living conditions, our children, and their children, could live happily in a clean, beautiful, and bounteous environment. As individuals we can start doing something right now to make a difference. We can recycle, we could install our own power source like home wind turbines or home wind generators, and would could use CFL light bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs. But unless of course we begin living green and looking after our environment, this won’t happen.
It will be a tremendous and rewarding achievement to confine the harm to our home, planet earth, and it’s environment, but it will take time, much money and plenty of work.
