May 27, 2013
1126
Longworth
Washington
DC, 20515
Congressman
Sam Farr,
Most people care about keeping their home clean, although,
when it comes to the home we all share it seems to not be in the front of our
minds so much. I have observed that most people do not really think the
environment on a day to day basis. I go to school and live near Santa Cruz and
I have observed that it is a place where people generally care for the environment.
We are at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and actually see some of the human
effects on the coastline and most people are aware of this. Although Santa Cruz
is only one small area in the world, and outside of coastal areas a lot of
people actually do not believe global warming or any other environmental issues
are even going on. If the public understands the importance of taking care of
our home and takes action accordingly the earth and every organism living on
it, including us would be in a lot better shape.
Humans have driven a lot of species
into extinction. This is due to the belief that we are the “master species”,
and lack of knowledge about the animals that have been systematically decimated
for human pleasures, such as money. Very few actually went extinct because we
ate all of them; it is usually because they have some other kind of value to us.
For example, with whales we want their natural oil. We extract what we want from the kill and
then dispose of the rest of the animal. With humans rapidly growing in numbers
we need places to live, so we have built towns and cities by cutting down trees
destroying habitats. This has also driven species into extinction. We have massive
brains and are able to communicate using language better than any other
species, but does this give us the right to dictate the world?
We are land animals, so we do not
know a lot about the ocean even though it dominates 71 percent of our planet. Because
we do not live in the ocean habitat, a lot of people are not aware that we are
trashing it. According to my Oceanography teacher David Schwartz and my Marine
Biology teacher Nicole Crane there are garbage piles the size of Texas in the
middle of the ocean. This happens because on each side of the hemisphere the water
has a current that spirals and down wells in the middle. This is called a gyre,
sort of the effect of a toilet bowl in the ocean. Because the current spirals
toward the gyre this is where trash- such as plastic- accumulates and
essentially stays forever.
What are even worse
than the visible heap of trash are the micro plastics. Except for a handful of
plastics that are made to break down most particles only break into microscopic
particles. It will never completely be gone, and humans just keep contributing
to it and unknowingly consuming it along with all of the animals in the sea.
Seven Billion pounds of bisphenol A are manufactured each year and they are
known to cause health problems in people and animals. These synthetic particles
are found in nearly every sea creature and because we eat them they are in
human bodies as well. There was a study done in Japan that detected the women
with high levels of bisphenol A were the ones who had several miss carriages
and in some cases they were never able to conceive. This not only interferes
with human reproduction, it also as some of the same effects on fish. One out
of every four male sword fish produces female eggs due to these toxic synthetic
particles that cloud the water. Scientists and engineers have had ideas to
take the trash from the gyres and convert it into energy, the problem is it is
expensive, the particles are to small pick up, and we really do not have the technology
yet. When or if we do figure it out, we have to be cautious of putting too much
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is a whole other problem.
Too much carbon dioxide is very
detrimental to life on earth. There are many theories of why dinosaurs went
extinct. There were huge numbers of volcanoes erupting during the time of dinosaurs
so one of the most plausible theories is that the gas from the volcanoes caused
their mass extinction, because there is mostly carbon dioxide in the gas exploding
off volcanoes. According to USGS.gov the changes in levels of carbon dioxide
have mimicked the global temperature. Every year 300 million tons of carbon
dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere by volcanoes, which seems like a lot,
but in comparison with the human activity it is only 1 percent of total carbon
dioxide emission. We top the charts at 26.8 billion tons a year. To reduce this
amount our society would have to be less dependent on oil and burning fossil
fuels in general. Because we rely on it so much it is extremely difficult to
get people on board to try a different energy source now, unless we find
alternate energy sources that work just as efficiently.
Finding alternative energy sources
and using products that are biodegradable is not impossible. Hydrogen engines
have even been made to replace the use of gasoline. Although the gasoline
industry is so profitable that the government makes is seem like that is the
only option for us so they can make money. The well being of the economy is
really important too, but that can always be altered to fit our life style. The
shape of the environment is essential to all life and that cannot be reversed.
We need to look at the big picture. If we don’t try to slow down the global
warming green house effect, our food source will be slim from the decreasing
crop fields and loss of habitat.
We are so accustom to wrapping
nearly everything in plastic. Plastic is good material for things that need to
have a long life such as cars, but for things like wrapping food in plastic and
plastic water bottles, it just does not make since that we wrap permanent
materials in products that last no longer than a week. Consumers can help by
bringing their own bags and try to minimize the things they buy wrapped in
plastic, such as plastic water bottles. Although nearly everything is wrapped
in plastic, so it’s difficult to avoid and that is where the government can
help. By putting regulations on wrapping material we can minimize the amount
going into the environment. Monitoring the materials used to produce plastics
may cut out some of the bad side effects it has on humans, animals, and the
environment. When the synthetic plastic materials were first made nobody
thought about where these particles are going to end up. Now that we know how
toxic and permanent they are it is time to change our ways.
Our intelligent brains are part of
the reason we are in this mess, but if we use our brains we can slow it down.
Just getting more people to realize what is slowly happening to our earth it
would help to figure out how to move forward while doing less damage to the
environment. Congress can help by setting regulations for factories that
produce hazardous materials like bisphenol A. This is our home and it’s time to
start taking care of it. The rising heat has affected a lot of the animals in
the North and South pools already, and it is only a matter of time until it
will directly affect us.
Sincerely,
Hailey
Whitehead
Works Cited
"Plastic
Not-So-Fantastic: How the Versatile Material Harms the Environment and Human
Health:
Scientific American." Scientificamerican.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29
Apr. 2013.
"Volcanic
Gases and Their Effects." Usgs.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
"TOXIC: Garbage Island - Part 1." VICE.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2013. <http://www.vice.com/toxic/toxic-
garbage-island-1-of-3>.
