The World We Live In | Teen Ink

The World We Live In

November 8, 2011
By snoopy10 BRONZE, Whittier, California
snoopy10 BRONZE, Whittier, California
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Human society has grown immensely in many ways over the past centuries; in population size, knowledge, expansion, creation, cultivation, and much more. Things that used to take sizeable amounts of time to be done can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes, such as food process. Similarly, transportation methods that took days at a time can now happen in less than a few hours. Our human civilization takes a liking to these types of simplicities. Most, however, do not see the detriment it brings to our world around us. All these luxuries we humans take for granted and claim to be a “necessity for life” comes at a large price. Humans think we are bettering our lives with our new inventions, expansions, and creations, but this all is doing far more harm than good. The resulting pollution, deforestation, and natural resource consumption are destruction resulting from human actions is a much bigger issue than needing to create and have the next extravagant cell phone or highly advanced automobile.

With all of the industrial expansions and efficiencies comes a large price. The creation of mass quantities of substances in factories requires the output of pollution in a variety of different forms; in waste pollution, air pollution, and sometimes even radioactive pollution. With waste pollution, proper disposal techniques and practices are not exercise and is most often dumped into a water source. These actions dangerously pollute these water sources and create many bad effects. It not only pollutes water that we as humans require so vitally for surviving, but it greatly harms the aquatic ecosystems and harmonies of the water source. Dumping of waste materials, especially radioactive materials, has affected many water sources and killed thousands of beautiful sea life.
In terms of air pollution, brought about by many things such as car exhaust and factory production, bad conditions and results are produced. Smog and emission into the air are an automatic result of industry. It increases respiratory and health issues for many, as well as plays a significant effect on human life through constant exposure. This detriment, however, is not nearly as serious as the constant deforestation.

The deforestation and overexploitation of rainforests and land are leading to the destruction of the environment. By demolishing the vast amount that humans cut daily, we are ultimately putting ourselves at a greater disadvantage. This is because trees are photosynthesizers and exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. Because humans expel carbon dioxide and require oxygen, nature and humans work well together. However, through the killing and destruction of so many trees, less carbon dioxide is being converted back to oxygen. If this trend continues at the exponential pace it is on now, the human race will run itself extinct soon from now.

The vast majority of society realizes these dangerous and horrible problems facing the planet. Unfortunately, they do nothing about it and try their best to ignore it. The opposition feels that everything will be satisfactory because our advancing society will become so advanced that we’ll either figure out a way to fix this dilemma or discover a new and better way to survive. The biggest argument is that the human race absolutely must have all these new advancing technologies and, subsequently, the consequences are well worth it. They feel the atrocities being committed to our Earth should be done if it means their way of life will stay simple and comfortable. Frankly, their ignorance is what has gotten us into this mess originally. We must protect and conserve our environment for the benefit of everyone.

The human race of the twenty-first century has overexploited and depleted the Earth’s natural resources at an immense rate. Rainforests are being cut down at an impressive pace, which is not only damaging the land, but thousands and thousands of animals-some even to the point of extinction. Species of animals are being killed off rapidly by deforestation, overfishing, and overhunting. Wild animals that used to roam freely are now extinct because the entire species was wiped out by humans for humans. From a biological standpoint, these practices are extremely detrimental to the human race because it decreases the overall biodiversity. By destroying animal habitats and causing animals to go extinct, the overall biodiversity of the Earth decreases. The less biodiversity present of the Earth, the less chance a species of life contains. It is crucial to have a very large, diverse community for a better chance of surviving and living in both every day and in the case of a disaster. Therefore, the more animals and species of life, the better off it is for the human race.
The expansions and growths by human society have been very immense and groundbreaking throughout the years. By creating new inventions to make older tools and techniques quicker and simpler, humans have created a new and easier lifestyle. Most of these tools and inventions, however, are not as beneficial as we feel them to be. In fact, the simpler things in life are actually much more work and unbeneficial to the human race and Earth overall. Unimaginable amounts of pollution is being produced daily in industry and travel, horrible deforestation actions are depleting the environment we must have to survive, and sadistic consumption and destruction of natural resources are a few of the many atrocities committed in the pursuit of humans to have the “necessities of life”. Rainforests are disappearing and will soon be gone; the beauty of coral reefs will soon vanish, never to be seen again. All we will have left is our human race and the “necessities” we needed.

Ignorance is not bliss; disregarding these problems that we ourselves have created on this Earth is not going to make the problem go away. We need to come together and realize how our modernization is much more detrimental than beneficial. We also must join together for a solution for the better of us all; the Earth, the animals, and the people.



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