When we pollute the environment we pollute ourselves. A sobering thought, but the effects of pollution goes beyond suicide by poison. Also affected is the oxygen supplying plants we eat and animals with which we share this planet. We especially notice when the cute animals become endangered, also when tastier varieties become rare and expensive or are part of the problem like the ones who provide juicy steaks. Cattle gas goes beyond being a pasture faux pas. Field flatulence is a major cause of air pollution and Ozone depletion. Pesticides, cow and pig waste pollute underground water and rivers which make its way to the Gulf of Mexico killing the sea life. Are there solutions? Of course there are but don’t look for them from political leaders, many of which profit from pollution and will be long gone when the most damaging effects of pollution are realized.
We have all heard of and likely understand the long-term effects of climate change, why it’s occurring and what can be done to lessen the impact such as “going green” by reducing CO2 emissions. The most severe consequences won’t occur for 30, 50 or 100 years but the time between now and then will be challenging and the only entity with the resources to manage the situation is the government, not a reassuring thought. The chasm between parties and their ideologies, agendas and priorities seem on a path to ensure we all suffer as much as possible. Our generation won’t see the most severe consequences but we’ll have a front row seat to the coming attractions, longer droughts, water wars, famine and epidemics caused by mass migrations from once fertile lands now deserts and man-made underwater reefs that were once coastlines. Just about the time society becomes accustomed to the new climate norm the snow caps will have had time to greatly diminish. Less sunlight is reflected from the white snow while the remaining darker land absorbs more heat and the warming becomes supercharged. This unhappy phenomenon is known as “positive feedback loop.” (Impacts, 2007).
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Pollution Speech".
Nobody is “for” pollution, not even Exxon or the Koch Brothers, it’s that too few are against it to the point of becoming informed and involved by taking action, demanding change from the government and from our own behaviors. When you take the nine-passenger SUV to the steakhouse, at least understand that maybe you pause to feel a morsel of momentary guilty regarding your contribution to pollution. True, the SUV is a safe vehicle, for you, but it streams poison into the atmosphere and eating that steak contributes to poisoning the air, ground and water.
There is an area in the Gulf of Mexico that is morbidly phrased the “Dead Zone.” It is the size of New Jersey and situated just south of the Louisiana/Mississippi area and east of Texas. The main contributors are agricultural by-products, fertilizer and animal waste, which flow from creeks and tributaries into the Mississippi River Basin then into the Gulf. Human waste from waste treatment facilities throughout the center of the nation contributes about one-quarter of the total volume. The pollution, consisting of mostly nitrogen, kills life on the sea bed where small fish feed. Fewer small fish mean fewer big fish. The shrimp and oyster business along with the entire fishing and tourism industry on the coast have been severely impacted. (Gulf, 2015).
The callous thoughtlessness of politicians, industry and the ill-informed are creating a world we wouldn’t recognize. It seems like such a simple, non-partisan concept: don’t poison ourselves and make our planet unlivable. Government can be a solution despite all recent evidence to the contrary. In the 1970’s we had a Republican president who formed the Environmental Protection Agency. This country ended the use of DDT which saved the Bald Eagle among other life forms and stopped ‘acid rain” from being a major problem under a Republican president in the late ’80’s. This nation can take great measures to help to ease the effects of climate change. Democrats will work to please their tree-hugging constituents so if Republicans return to their conservative conservationist ways we may begin to stop killing ourselves and other life on our only home.
- The Gulf of Mexico ‘Dead Zone’ SeaWeb 2015 Available at: http://www.seaweb.org/resources/briefings/dead_zone.php Accessed April 7, 2015
- Impacts of Global Warming on The Environment. University Corporation for Academic Research. 2007. Available at: https://www2.ucar.edu/news/backgrounders/impacts-global-warming-natural-systemsAccessed April 7, 2015
