This was written in June of 2008 for an English project during my freshman year:
We are at the point in life where we are potentially killing our only home. Deforestation, pollution, and global warming are becoming a huge threat to animal and plant species throughout the earth. Most of these threats are caused by humans, but, we can change this by the way we act and think.
For my research, I determined why people care more about useless, material things, instead of the earth- the one thing we cannot live without. To do this, I used An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, The 11th Hour directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, and a survey I constructed. Using these resources, I determined that humans barely care about the earth because they don’t know about the earth and the effects of our actions, others believe that they cannot live without material things, and that some care, but don’t take action about it.
One of my conclusions is that people believe they cannot live without material things. In my survey, 77% said that they could not live without electricity. I also asked “what is the one thing you can/ cannot live without?” According to the survey, people cannot live without: television, their pet(s), water, their ipod, family, and friends. They also said that they can live without: bees, having a certain pet, pickles, television, school, their ipod, their cell phone, homework, vacations, and outdoing neighbors. By gaining interest in material things, we loose interest in the environment and the effect of these material things on the environment. If we took the time to realize how and where something was made, the materials used to make them, how long we’ll use the product for, and what short-term and long-term effects the product will have on us and the environment, we probably would buy fewer products. Everything we buy has an impact on the environment by how they are made and used. Greenhouse gases are naturally given off by non-manmade products, but, it is the manmade products that are dramatically increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide. All electronics release carbon dioxide, causing global warming to increase.
My second thought of why people do not care about the environment is that they simply are not educated about the earth and the effects of our actions. Out of the eighteen people surveyed, only four (less than 25%) could state at least one fact about global warming. This survey also asked if the person believed in global warming, 50% said yes. Although global warming isn’t the only cause of death (of humans and other species) in the world, it is a major cause. Hurricane Katrina is nothing compared to what will be seen in the future (Gore).
The third reason is that some people care, but they don’t take action. Those who are not taking action believe that there are enough people who care about the earth already, so why should they bother? In the survey, 16% believe that there are too many people who care about the environment. Also, 50% chose animals or nature as the one thing they care about, yet only 5% are vegetarian/vegan but surprisingly, 89% recycle. You don’t have to be a vegan or a vegetarian to love animals, but obviously some people cannot make a simple sacrifice to stop murder.
Using a survey, a book, and a documentary, I concluded the reasons why some people care more about the ipod, the new car, their money - the useless material things compared to the one and only earth. If we don’t stop this ‘earth-icide’ all species will die. You wouldn’t want to read a newspaper titled “Human causes death of over one million species” while waiting in purgatory, would you? We need to change way we act and think about our only home. We can live without electricity, we can learn, and we can take action. Won’t you help stop this earth-icide?
Bibliography
Gore, Albert. An Inconvenient Truth. New York; Rodale 2006
The 11th Hour. Dir. Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. DVD.
Leonardo DiCaprio et al.
Survey created by Katie F.
PLEASE NOTE
* The survey I created and used consisted of eighteen people. The results are accurate for those eighteen people and are not to be used to assume the same results will occur in a larger, more diverse survey.
