Independent Study Project Essay

Submitted By calcollings
Words: 1312
Pages: 6

Are there enough places left on earth that are untouched by human beings?

Have you ever thought about how much of a wide spread impact we have on even the most pristine and untouched lands in the world? The environmental impact of humans and the footprint we leave on this world for generations to come is crucial and many of people don’t take this lightly. The impact us humans have is a far spread crisis that doesn’t only affect populated towns and cities but it also affects the entire globe. Therefore, there are not enough places left untouched by human beings; we are leaving a foot print on the most far away and untouched lands without actually even being on them. There are not enough places untouched by human beings because global warming, pollution and over population of humans spread throughout our globe.
It is very hard to find a place today that has been untouched by humans because of global warming. One example of global warming is Co2 because carbon dioxide doesn’t just disappear; it actually lasts a very long time in the atmosphere. 56 percent of green house gasses are still aloft in the air and these gasses aren’t floating in one certain spot, they are spreading throughout lands that have quite possibly never been touched by human beings. “ Carbon dioxide also lasts a long time in the atmosphere: around 56 percent of all the Co2 that humans have liberated by burning fossil fuel in the past century is still aloft, which is the cause-directly and indirectly- of around 80 per cent of all global warming.” (David Suzuki, 2008, pg,2). This shows that humans are affecting the most remote areas of the planet because we know that the emissions we are putting into the air don’t just disappear and they spread throughout the globe by wind and water reaching to the furthest spots in the world. Another big cause of global warming is agriculture. The amount of pesticides and fertilizers, fuel and oil for tractors, equipment and shipping, electricity for lighting, cooling, and heating, and emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other green house gasses. For Example, “Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture mostly come from the management of agricultural soils, livestock, rice production, and biomass burning”(EPA, 2013, Para.10). This quote shows that even though when you see a huge crop farm it doesn’t always mean that the people are doing it to be more environmentally friendly, the amount of pollution created by 21st century farmers is astonishing and is a big reason for global warming, and global warming is the main cause of melting glaciers way up north. Another big producer of greenhouse gasses is transportation. Take a look over a busy intersection such as the 401 in Toronto; do you see how many vehicles go by daily? Almost every one of these vehicles are either ran by gasoline or diesel and the burning of these fuels turn into an emission that is sent into the air to add to our millions of other aloft emissions. A good example of this is, “Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily involve fossil fuels burned for road, rail, air, and marine transportation. Almost all (95%) of the world's transportation energy comes from petroleum-based fuels, largely gasoline and diesel”(EPA, 2013, para.4). A very good example of global warming having some very far reaching affects is the fact that Siberian winters us to get to below 50 degrees and now they are barely reaching -30. In Siberia, “one of the world's last wildernesses, global warming is causing profound changes to the lives of its people. Winters that used to reach -50 degrees are now a comparatively mild -30, which is causing the permafrost to melt”. So regardless of lots of people living in this Siberian wilderness, one of the last and most faraway places, we are still doing a huge amount of damage to the eco system. So all in all, the burning of fossil fuels whether it be by transportation or agriculture has a far reaching impact on the world, and