Stop Plundering, Start Saving

Imagine you are buying a car, and you are not sure what to go for. Your first thought might be a Jeep, or Mustang; however the one car that never comes to mind is an electric car. Which is understandable, it is hard enough to purchase a vehicle than to also have to think of the environment. However buying that car would slow the effects of global warming a lot more than you would think. So what is global warming? It is literally in the name, Global Warming is when the temperature slowly start to rise and emits a greenhouse effect due to burning fossil fuels. Essentially the earth's atmosphere is getting warmer causing many detrimental possibilities for our future. Humanity needs to understand what causes global warming and how they can prevent it from getting worse by adjusting their daily lives.

The Burning of fossil fuels is what led us to the start of global warming. Fossil fuels are any hydrocarbon that has a source of energy in them. Some examples of fossil fuels are coal, natural gas, and heavy oils. Every one of these fuels contains Carbon Dioxide which is literally the climates biggest adversary. When we burn the fuels they create energy to power everything we own, from phones to cars. Besides fossil fuels we have fracking, which is plundering the earth of its natural oil and gas. These fossil fuel companies want to use the acid drilling method to frack in national parks. It sounds like a bigger problem than one person can handle, but you can help by voluntarily paying a tax on carbon use and sign the petition for everybody to be taxed. When a person has to pay for something the less they want to use it.

A big problem is deforestation. Deforestation is when forests are cut down to make room for something else. This is a big problem with farmers who have to increase their land size to make room for their livestock. They use a method called slash and burn, which is essentially when farmers cut down acres of forests and burn them. Another contributor to deforestation is logging companies. Logging companies use the dead trees to sell wood or paper. Deforestation has many horrible effects for example, National Geographic states:

“Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day, and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.”

Deforestation creates more harm than good. For the animals whose natural habitats are the forest and for humanity whose natural habitat is the world.

Raise your hand if you are a vegan? Yeah not many hands went up there, believe it or not but global warming and the meat industry actually have a strong correlation between them. Livestock needs more resources than most, Peta sums up the problem:

“forests—which absorb greenhouse gases—are cut down in order to supply pastureland and grow crops for farmed animals.

Finally, the animals themselves and all the manure that they produce release even more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.”

As you can see livestock greatly affects our environment. Livestock industry uses so much energy. These animals need a lot of food, water, and land to thrive. When we deem them fit to eat we have to store the meat in large freezers and warehouses that use a substantial amount of energy. Energy that comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Not only do the animals require so much resources, they also create a vast amount of methane. Methane is a natural gas that is formed two ways with animals. When goats, sheep, and cows digest their food they produce methane into the climate, and when cows and pigs excrete feces, a.k.a manure, they release methane into our climate as well. Many people do not see methane as a problem because it is so important in our daily lives as environmental journalist John Platt states “methane — especially in natural gas — is an important fuel source, one that produces fewer greenhouse gases when burned than coal or oil.” Even though methane seems to be a better source of energy than coal or oil, it has a serious long term effect, the ice caps are melting in the arctic and water levels are rising due to methane and all of the fossil fuels.

There needs to be a change if humanity wants to save our planet; However the moment you tell a person to stop doing a habit, they run for the hills; However these few changes will help stop climate change if we all contribute. The first way is to change your light bulbs. Changing your light bulbs from fluorescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs or led bulbs, can save you money on your electric bill due to the fact that they use less energy. These bulbs also lower greenhouse gas emissions. Also buy products that are energy efficient, like energy star appliances. They have every appliance you could need and all of them are certified to save energy and money. One way to also save energy and on your electric bill is to have solar panels installed. They can be pricey but it is a small price to pay for lowering greenhouse gases. The sun is there use some of its renewable energy for good. The last thing is to just generally be aware of what you are buying. Stay away from products that have inessential packaging. Plastic water bottles are a good example of this, buy reusable water bottles instead and buy a filter to put on your faucet. There are many ways to start changing your lifestyle today.

Overall we as a people need to realize the detrimental effects of our actions on our planet earth. We need to stop burning fossil fuels as much, stop the fracking, and the deforestation. This is a hard one for many people to get over but the meat industry needs to obliterated. The meat industry causes more harm than good. It may seem hard but there are many things that you can start changing in your daily lives to save our planet. It is a lot to take in but we are plundering our earth and it needs to stop, or we will not have a place to call home anymore.