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.