Environmental Issues

       
There are several different types of environmental issues that face the world today
as we know it. They all affect us in a negative way and take a lot of the resources that we
need to use to survive today.  While all of them are all equally important to discuss, global
warming is a climate change issue that you probably have heard in the news recently.
Global warming is the observed scale rise in the average temperature in our Earth’s
climate system. This scale rise is not just air temperature, but also sea temperature. For the
last three decades the Earth’s air and sea temperatures have been going up more than any
year since. Scientists have reported that global warming is caused by specific gases as well
as certain human activities. It is very possible that human activities have dominantly caused
global warming since the mid-20th century.
Two actions have been the primary cause of global warming, burning fossil fuels and
cutting down forests.  Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) creates carbon dioxide and
puts it out into the atmosphere. Cutting down forests also releases carbon dioxide because
trees absorb it. Climate changes prior to the 1700s can be explained by changes in solar
energy, volcanos, and greenhouse gas changes. However, our climate concerns in today’s
day in age can only be explained by deforestation as well as the burning of fossil fuels.
While conserving energy and taking the bus to work from time to time helps, real
change will be made when leaders create laws that improve our policy on energy and get
businesses to start developing environmental practices that help the world as a whole.
There are some little things you can do that will help.  Getting energy efficient appliances,
cleaning or replacing filters on your furnace, get an energy audit, and cover your pots and
pans when you cook.
Those little things will help on a small term level. However, getting the government to
set regulations for big businesses and taking charge of the matter is really the only thing
that will help in a long-term way. Contact your local government and find out what programs
that you may have locally that you can get involved in to help. Talk to the people in your
office. Spread the word around that this is a serious issue.   Hopefully this issue will be
taken seriously at some point.