A Word About Environmental Issues essay.

It is almost impossible to pick up a newspaper without seeing articles about animals losing their homes when people clear land for new buildings, oil spills polluting our water, landfills overflowing with garbage, and blackouts resulting from energy shortages. We hear about global warming, acid rain, and holes in the ozone layer.

We are all interdependent. This means we need one another for survival. When we breathe, we exhale carbon dioxide, which is the gas plants need to live. Plants, in turn, give off oxygen which we need to breathe. Living things depend on one another in many ways.

We are destroying forests by cutting down or burning the trees. Deforestation destroys the plants and trees that provide food and homes for many animals. It also affects the air that we breathe because trees produce much of our oxygen. Trees take carbon dioxide out of the air. This carbon dioxide traps heat near the earth, so temperatures all over the world become higher.

Educating people about exotic and wild animals and generating an active awareness for preserving endangered wildlife and the environment is crucial to the survival of the Earth and her vanishing species. If we keep destroying our planet at the current rate, there will be no wildlife and natural habitats for future generations to enjoy. If we keep devastating this planet with our carelessness, ALL of our animals and plants will be no more than photographs in books.

Many people think there is nothing they can do, but they are wrong....preservation and eco-awareness starts at a local level. Let's all follow the three R's of the environment.

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle

Did You Know?

About 27 million acres of tropical rain forests disappear each year. That EVERY SECOND, we destroy enough rainforest to cover a football field. If we continue to destroy them at this rate, there may not be any rainforests left in our world 50 years from now.

About 25% of the drugs prescribed by American doctors have ingredients that come from forest plants. About 70% of the plants used to treat cancer grows ONLY in rainforests. Quinine, a cure for Malaria, comes from the bark of a South American rainforest tree. Ipecac can help someone who has swallowed poison. It comes from the rain forest of Brazil.

There are about 6,000 landfills in the United States. Landfills are enormous holes where people dump garbage. The Fresh Kills landfill in New York City was predicted to have to close by the year 2000 because it's mounds of garbage would be 500 feet high, about the height of the United Nations building. About 80% of garbage goes to landfills. We incinerate or burn another 10% of our garbage every day.

In the last 30 years, people have destroyed more than 40% of the world's rainforest. Much of the wood used in the United States comes from the rain forests.

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