Energy and Climate Change Essay

Submitted By vanessapringle
Words: 1073
Pages: 5

Without energy there is no modern economy. Without a stable climate there is a danger to our environment. Without a healthy environment sooner or later economies will be affected. Once economies start being effected then there are risks to material well-being, civil society, personal or national security. The overriding problem associated with these realities, of course, is that the world has long been getting most of the energy its economies need from fossil fuels whose emissions are imperiling the climate that its environment needs. However, the situation with energy and climate change is one of the greatest problems facing the people in the United States today. Scientists have shown that we are changing the world around us with all the ways we currently power the country. What will future generations think about the people who lived during the time that the world was being changed by all the pollution we are throwing into the atmosphere? If everybody thinks it is not their problem then they are turning their backs on the children of the future. We need to believe the information from scientists and we need to take responsibility for how our society is affecting the natural world. Only then we will we be forgiven for the damage that is being done to the world.

There is a lot that our parents and grandparents did not know about how the environment was slowly changing. As Al Gore best said it, “The effects of global warming have been clear for a long time.” Now the scientific community has shown us proof about how bad global warming and climate change could get if we continue doing things the same way. For example, global warming refers to the increase in temperature on the Earth's atmosphere and oceans over a period of time. The rising temperature is an result of human activities, which come in the form of gasses released into our atmosphere, such as, carbon dioxide, methane, aerosols and other greenhouse gasses. When sunlight hits the earth’s surface, some is reflected back into the depths of space in the forms of infrared radiation or heat. The greenhouse gases trap some of the heat and in turn warm the Earth to make it habitual for people. Unfortunately, we have gathered large amounts of greenhouse gasses, which is warming our earth and making it hotter. At the rate we are creating gasses the Earth cannot counter react the effects effectively. All temperatures across the globe will continue to rise, and so will water levels (“Basics” Global Warming Solution). Therefore, if we want to be remembered as the generations that destroyed the world, even though we knew it was happening then we are doing a good job. It is something that we are all responsible for not just the leaders.

For years and years, more and more evidence has added up that the pollution we are creating is affecting the world as a whole. As the number one user of energy in the world America has to take responsibility along with other big energy using countries. For instance, “In the American Heartland the Midwest, we produce most of our energy. That region of the United States produces over 20% of the carbon dioxide released. The Midwest is responsible for more global warming than most counties except a few including China, India, Russia, and Japan. The Midwest has the largest concentration of coal plants, and they produce massive amounts of carbon dioxide. It is also known that the Midwest is the juggernaut of American transportation which has developed a heavy carbon burden.” (“Top 10 Things You Can Do to Reduce Global Warming”). There are a lot of people who see that we have to be leaders in confronting all the energy issues. That is good. However, there is a reaction to want to blame something else or to just not believe the scientific facts. Some people in America do not want to believe facts no matter how much they are proven. If the world in a hundred years is like the worst case scenarios that scientists have predicted, then the people