Persuasive paper (rough draft)

United States Congress,

As a member in our society I have noticed that a common mind set is that as humans we can do whatever we want with no regard for the environment or other species. 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 environmental issues are even going on. If everyone understands the importance of taking care of the environment 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 oil.  We extract what we want from the kill and then dispose of the rest of the animal. With humans growing 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 mean we have the right to rule the world?

            We are land animals, so we do not know a lot about the ocean even though is 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 of the northern and southern hemisphere which is called a gyre, sort of the effect of a toilet bowl. Because the current spirals toward the gyre this is where trash like plastic accumulates and essentially stays forever.

 What is even worse than the visible heap of trash is the micro plastics. Except for a handful of plastics that are made to break down most of these particles are made out of bisphenol A which breaks into microscopic particles. It will never completely break down, and humans just keep contributing to it. 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 these particles 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 and we really do not have the technology to do this yet.  When or if we do figure it out, it may put 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 a lot 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. Because we are so dependent on it, 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’s 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 but the shape of the environment is essential to all life and that really can not 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. 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. 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.

           

 

 

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>.