Claudia Reyes Wui Yarn Chan Shu Pan What do synthetic rubber and wind energy have in common?

Synthetic rubber and wind energy: two things that do not appear to have any meaningful similarities. The former is an artificial form of rubber and the latter is an energy source that is acquired from the power of the wind. These two are physically very different, but are alike in the impact they have on the environment. Synthetic rubber and wind energy have in common the fact that they replace the use of natural resources that have a harmful effect on the environment. The discovery of natural rubber proved to be disastrous for the rainforests across the world. As the possible uses and profits to be gained from this natural resource increased, there was a widespread replacement of the natural vegetation of the rainforest for the trees that produced the natural rubber. Thousands of acres of the natural rainforest were destroyed in other for the rubber producing trees to be planted. The emergence of synthetic rubber changed this replacement in many rainforests. After World War Two, shortages of natural rubber increased due to the war, resulting in the improvement of the quality of synthetic rubber that had first been invented in the early 1990s. This caused the usage and demand for synthetic rubber to grow and exceed that of natural rubber. Synthetic rubber effectively replaced natural rubber around the world and decreased the amounts of acres destroyed in rainforests for the purposed of planting natural rubber trees. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to produce energy harms the environment by releasing toxins into the air. The toxins in turn can fall to the ground in the form of acid rain, and the result is that the air, water and lands of the earth are polluted from this use of the fuels. Using fossil fuels as form of energy

harm all the aspects of the environment, but the emergence in wind energy has stopped a percentage of pollution from taking place. Wind energy is source of energy that uses the energy from one of the natural resources of the earth, the wind, and does not pollute the environment. As more and more windmills are set up around the world, and wind energy provides more of the energy of the world, the usage of fossil fuels and the pollutions of the environment decreases.

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