Nikki Cable

Doctor Munro

EN 101:04
5 October 2008

Our Environment
Since the 1950’s individuals such as Rachel Carson have been trying to inform the world of the increasing environmental crisis. How much are we willing

to give? People are going hungry, rivers are drying up, the weather is changing dramatically, and no one seems to care. Not only are human resources
disappearing many animal species food and resources are too. Instead of fighting with our environment, we should be fighting for our environment.

Recently more and more people have been getting involved in saving and rebuilding this environment that was on the edge of annihilation. Considering
that everyone is effected by this crisis, we should all care and try to help. Human beings have an ethical relationship to the environment because we are

causing global warming, depleting the world’s resources, and causing many animal species to become extinct.
Pollution to our atmosphere caused by cars, factories, and chemicals is getting in the air, soil, and water; and in turn creating global warming. Global

warming by definition is an increase in the world's temperatures, believed to be caused in part by the greenhouse effect which is a result of atmospheric
pollution by gases. Elliot Richmond explains this process in his article entitled “Global Warming”.
Infrared radiation from the sun passes through the atmosphere and warms the surface of Earth. As the surface warms, it also radiates infrared. However,
since the temperature of Earth is much lower than the temperature of the surface of the sun, the infrared radiation emitted by the ground, building, rocks,

and plants has a much longer wavelength. Radiation of this longer wavelength cannot pass through the atmosphere, and is absorbed by the air or reflected
back to the ground.(166-170)

A small amount of this global warming is good but to much is bad. The warm air in our atmosphere is causing ice caps to melt. If the Greenland ice sheet
melted it would rise global sea levels by 26 to 33 feet. If the Antarctic ice sheet melted sea levels would rise by 330 feet. Imagine major cities under water,

and a loss of tons of necessary resources for survival. This would cause a huge change in the life of every living thing on earth.
Depleting resources have become a major issue in many countries all over the world. Not only has the production of crops decreased, so have raw materials

and oil. William E. Rees in his article Life in the Lap of Luxury as Ecosystems Collapse writes, “The United States has been producing less and less oil the
past 30 years and now imports most of its petroleum“(678). Humans are using these products in massive amounts and faster than the earth can produce.

The more demands people put on the earth the more of an agricultural and environmental crisis we fall into. We demand a lot out of the agriculture we
expect things such as; convince, variety, and healthier environmentally friendly foods.

Since the 1940’s farmers have been using chemicals known as pesticides used to kill things known as pests such as; insects, weeds, and rodents. There are
now over 200 basic chemicals made for this purpose. These pesticides are very harsh on crops and our environment. Rachel Carson in her article The

Obligation to Endure writes, “Similarly, chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to
another in a chain of poisoning and death”(664). About 500 new chemicals enter the atmosphere every year, it is almost impossible for humans and animals

bodies to adapt to so many each year. Single-crop farming produced an extreme increase in specific insect populations. Insects that eat only corn can grow
in population when in massive amounts, but if it is intermixed with other crops the insect population doesn’t increase.

Food and water safety is a more current agricultural crisis. Severe illness’s can be caused by irresponsible agriculture procedures and unsafe food handling.
Dana Hoag expresses in her book “Agricultural Crisis in America: A Reference Handbook” how food safety effects everyone, “Food and water safety is a

crisis to consumers because they want to be safe. It is a crisis to farmers, ranchers, and food handlers because keeping food safe can be very costly. Not
keeping food safe can be even more costly, so agriculture is taking the issue seriously“(32). Statistics show that about 3,900 people die from food borne

illnesses, and there are over 460,000 cases of waterborne illnesses.

In the past few decades there has been an extreme increase of extinction in curtain animal species due to pollution and human impact on the environment.

Ben Zuckerman in his book “Human Population and the Environmental Crisis“ states, “Wilson (1992) provides a conservative estimate of the current
extinction rate of 1,000 species a year from destruction of forest and other key habits in the tropics. In this decade he estimates that extinctions may rise

past 10,000 a year and by 2020 we may have lost a fifth or more of all extant plants and animal species”(50-1). This statement is extremely disturbing and
unbelievable.

Population growth has caused a demand of food, houses, and land. Which, in turn, mean that more and more animal species are being forced out of there
natural habitats into somewhere they are not adapted to. In these new areas that many species are forced there is overpopulation of animals. The weaker
species will in turn die out. Zuckerman states, “As human populations increase, the modification and sometimes total loss of habitats may result in the

extinction of species faster than we find new ones and certainly more rapidly than we learn of their function in the ecosystem in which they occur”(47). The
loss of these different entire populations of animals has made a huge impact. For example if all the spiders in the world became extent we would have an

over population of small insects such as fly’s.

The crisis that our environment is currently going through is a very serious problem. I feel that every person has an ethical responsibility to the

environment because destroying the earth like we are is causing global warming, depleting the world’s resources, and causing many animal species to
become extinct.

The more we help the more we save our planet and the longer it lasts. People should get more involved in trying to fix and save the earth. After all it does
effect everyone.

Works Cited

Hoag, Dana L.. Agricultural Crisis in America: A Reference Handbook. California: ABC- CLIO, 1999.
Richmond, Elliot. "Global Warming." Animal Sciences. Ed. Allan B. Cobb. Vol. 2. New Library. Gale. Belmont Abbey College. 3 Dec. 2008
Zuckerman, Ben. Human Population and the Environmental Crisis. Boston Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Inc., 1996.

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