Ever Growing Pollution

4 Pages 1085 Words

Final Exam Essay


Today in the Biosphere all species face problems, present and upcoming, due to the human race. Side affects caused from our growing population and increasing technology has contributed and will continue to contribute to the degradation of our shared natural environment. Global air and water pollution, resource depletion, and species extinction are examples of these problems, which we must recognize and find realistic solutions for.
Pollution in the air is mainly caused by fossil fuel burning. By targeting this source in ways that are practical we can significantly reduce it’s harmful output. Cars give of one third of the world’s carbon pollution and electric vehicles are being phased in through legislation requiring automobile manufactures to put electric vehicles on the market. The power to run these cars ultimately comes from electricity generating plants though. Coal burning power plants are a main source of the world’s power and can not be completely eliminated. Through developing scrubbers that eliminate more carbon soot and sulfuric emissions than do presently, these operations could be able to produce cleaner power. Other options such as hydropower and nuclear power can be used to cut back on carbon emissions, but their side effects are harmful as well. When a river is dammed fish cannot migrate, and years of sedimentation render the dam useless in the future. Nuclear power is very unpopular because of possible meltdowns, and the water used to cool the fission reaction is released into neighboring streams causing thermal pollution. With only an estimated 200 years left of coal resources, new ways of generating power must become widely used for the continued existence of the human race.
I do not believe that the use of electricity will decrease in the future. I believe that only by using solar and wind power to generate most of the world’s electricity will there be clean power. To ...