America 's Impact On The Planet Essay

Since the beginning of time, water has played a key role in societies all over the world. The earliest recorded civilizations have all been found along large river valleys, such as, the Indus River in India and the Yellow River in China. Water is an essential part of life; it does not just sustain the life of all human beings around the globe, but also sustains the life of every living thing known to this Earth. All of the major cities that we know today are surrounded by large river systems that supply its people with the means to survive in that region. These rivers also link our different communities together and allow us to prosper, but these rivers are being taken advantage of. Our once great rivers are falling victim to pollution and

The article “Water Works”, published by Orion Magazine and written by environmental specialist Cynthia Barnett intends to inform the reader anyone can make water an important factor. Overlooking it has become common many people in the United States have adapted to through the changes that have occurred in society over time. At the beginning of her article, she describes an area that does not make water care a priority, whereas in another location they make it very evident water is important. The location she describes is gloomy, grey, and is a populated area that has old water systems that are damaging environmental factors. Barnett continuously emphasizes that people are the ones who can help restore nature. This is at a less cost than

What we are doing to stop burning fossil fuels and help the environment is everything we

Although the amount of pollutants from a single town or construction site may seem insignificant, the combined concentrations of contaminants threaten our lakes, streams and wetlands. When things such as: human and animal waste, decaying plants and animals, discarded litter, or food waste enter surface waters, either dissolved or suspended in stormwater runoff, they can deplete the supply of dissolved oxygen in the water. When dissolved oxygen is reduced below a certain critical level, it can impair or kill aquatic plants and animals (CNYRPDB, 2011).

In Los Angeles, at least 20% of fishes died from stormwater runoff. Who’s next? Repeatedly, stormwater runoff has indicated its negative consequences. From the bacteria in feces, to the chemical waste, stormwater has been made a hazard to all life on earth. Platypi, fish, frogs, and other marine life are in an immediate danger by the pollution. The pollution consisted of fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci, which are bacterias in organism waste. In addition, there 's lawn pesticides, and motor oils that are deadly. Water inundates humankind, making this an unavoidable conflict. However, creative solutions of managing the runoff has been proved successful. The solution appears as a green infrastructure, defined as a network system that helps manage water, or in this case, stormwater runoff. On the other hand, there has been recommendations of using public awareness as a solution, but this is only a key factor to a larger concept. In her article, “Water Works” Cynthia Barnett conveys how using these creative solutions such as the green infrastructure, is considerably more beneficial than the traditional ways of reducing water all together. She suggests that living differently with water, compared to reducing water, will benefit the nation greatly in their water dilemma. In addition, she believes that the pollution of stormwater harms Pacific killer whales, coho, and salmon. In agreement, I also believe that the pollution threatens the marine life. Hence, the management of

We live in an age where most environments on earth have been impacted by anthropogenic activities. For thousands of years, humans have been a natural component of ecosystems across the globe (Chapin et al, 2011). Human-environmental interaction contributes to processes that affect fluvial environments. For example, impervious surfaces are ubiquitous in urban areas; these anthropogenic surfaces reroute runoff (among other things), which can ultimately impact the morphology, water quality, vegetation, and floodplain soils of a local watershed, if it is near an urban area. Regardless of the anthropogenic presence throughout environments across the globe, ecological benchmarks can be set—physical, chemical, and biological—regarding what constitutes a healthy, natural environment. These parameters are important factors in ecological remediation activities and synonymous with the term “reference condition.” Based on a spectrum of watershed conditions—ranging from reference to

Climate change in America is getting worse everyday and can destroy many of living organisms including humans; therefore, humans need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions fast or, oceans will be dramatically changed, the ice will melt causing floods, and the changing in weather causing severe damage. These are major issues that need to be resolved if we are planning on making a bright future on earth.

The United States Environmental policy within the last 25 years has changed considerably due to events and politics. Things such as global warming, air pollution, water pollution, etc... has gotten the attention of more and more American citizens as well as celebrities and has created numerous environmental activist groups. These drastic changes have also brought about movies being made and telling the tale of how these changes will affect humans and the environment in the long term. One of the changes that President Trump is slowly trying to implement is eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (Green, 2017) The purpose of this agency is to create and enforce laws passed by Congress that protect humans and the environment. (Green,

NGS integrates greenhouse into other major policy initiatives, such as the Natural Heritage Trust, and launches new measures to increase greenhouse emission reduction activities across the Australian community. It provides the strategic framework for an effective greenhouse response and for meeting current and future international commitments. It will provide a fresh impetus for action by governments, stakeholder groups and the broader community and set directions for that action into the next century.

Human-caused pollution of water on the planet is a dangerous threat that will have negative results. Many highly populated areas, such as the Seattle metropolitan area, are located near large bodies of water, for example, “The U.S. has over twelve thousand miles of coastline, home to 53 percent of Americans” (Subramanian 4). Meera Subramanian, a journalist and Fulbright-Nehru senior researcher, reveals, “The latest knowledge of hydrological dynamics: strategically placed

A prime example of human impact is the global issue of water scarcity, something that can affect first and third world countries alike. The human need for shelter and food cause expanding development, which, in turn, cause increased amounts of pollution to enter into the environment. "Population growth and development also produce water pollution, which further diminishes available water supplies" (Cooper). Human activity also tends to be one of overuse, especially in the case of water. Many industries use large quantities of water, such as agriculture, industrial and commercial needs, mining uses, and thermoelectric power generation. “In the United States, these four major categories of users combined add up to the withdrawal of more than 338,000 million gallons of fresh water a day from surface and groundwater resources. Only about 27 percent of the water withdrawn by them is actively used” (Stuart, 25). The unused water is recycled, to be put back where it came from, but it could bring pollutants back into water storage areas. With enough time, the aquifer or river

to be grown trees have to be cut down and I have explained the effects

The United States, as well as all other developed and developing countries, must chose the welfare of the earth over the huge amounts of money to be made by exploiting the earth 's riches. Our great country should become the leader in paving the way for a brighter and safer future for our next generations. The United States should also continue to develop treaties with other major countries such as China, Russia, and Japan to slow the poisoning of the earth 's air and water supply. We must act and invest now in new technologies which assist in detecting and proving theories such as global warming.

The number of people living in urban areas is dramatically increasing across the world. Currently, 75 % of people live in cities in the developed world, (Bernhardt E.S. and Palmer M.A, 2007) despite such high percentage many do not get access to the green and blue spaces available, in other words cannot interact with nature. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency green spaces are ‘land that is partly or completely covered with grass, trees, shrubs or other vegetation’ (Environmental Protection Agency, 2014) This includes community gardens, parks as well as cemeteries. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2014) On the other hand, blue spaces include rivers, canals and lakes. (Sally, M, 2010) As urbanisation increases, it will pose a greater threat to nature such as pollution, habitat destruction, erosion and colonisation of native species. There are various ways to engage with nature. However, one reason for green and blue spaces not being utilised effectively by people may be due to people being unaware of the values that these have and the crucial functions they undertake in the ecosystem such as recycling nutrients and controlling the hydrological cycle.

U.S. Conditions like Florida and other states with a high range of hot spells are perfect