As is the case of many of the topics today, mine is a very serious and important matter that will need everyone's utmost attention and respect; for this subject won't necessarily affect you and i in the near future, but rather our children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren... So in order to introduce such a subject that will affect our younger generations, I have decided to speak in a language that I understood as a child and hope that they will understand as well: that being the Oompah Loompa language:
Singing “What do you get when your country's a hog?
Consuming fossil fuels and producing smog
Spewing out emissions left and right
Destroying our environment all day and all night...”
I tell you what you will get...A situation that not only needs changing, but the kinds of changes that only individuals can make...the kinds that catalyzle and inspire further changes, until this dire situation is correct. I must be remembered that although many oil companies and irresponsible individuals don't view any sort of environmental problems, many average citizens, scientists, and activists not only see the impacts that our action have now, but also the impacts they will have in the future...Allowing for the realization that it is our responsibilty to curb emissions and pollution so that the rest of the world will either be protected from our pollution and/or follow our positive example so that, as stated before, our future genrations may thrive in a world that is both clean and beautiful. But for those who need a little convincing, i will attempt to show you the history of pollutants, the changes that we as indicviduals can make in order to lessen these ever increasing pollutants, and finally discuss the three possible outcomes that are depoendent on our present-day actions.
The history of pollutants, for human beings, is a long one. From our ancestory, who threw there their used bones into holes in their caves (early landfills), to the ancient Romans, who had a complex sewage and waste disposal system, to the medieval period, where filth was simply thrown into the streets, thereby becoming someone else's problem, to the industrial revolution, whre, acording to Berkley Univeristy's chemistry departmen, the amount of pollutants produced over quadroopled in less than 50, until finally today, when the level of pollutants in the environment is estimated to be two and a half times higher than any other time in the earth's history, according to ice drilling in the antarctic conducted by the National Institute of Polar Research over that past two decades.
