North America Human Environment

Dr James Hansen’s argumentative essay, “A Solution to the Climate Problem,” discusses his premise that it is imperative for humankind to deal with carbon dioxide emissions, which he believes needs to be phased out by the mid-21st century. He begins with the current paradigm in government efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and claims that so far it has been a lot of talk and action in the other direction. Dr Hansen argues that while governments pay lip service to agreements such as the Kyoto Accord, they are going full steam ahead with projects that will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions, such as going forth with coal-fired power plants, coal-to-liquids, hydraulic fracturing, and tar sands oil extraction. Dr Hansen believes

One realization I pondered from reading this book is humans have been performing agricultural practices for more than 10,000 years which began in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, but farmers have only been showering these crops with dense chemicals for the last several decades. The use of heavy chemicals as pesticides and fertilizers ensures the crops will yield a large harvest and create a hefty profit. Today, crops are genetically engineered in a way that they produce their own insecticides and show immunity to pests. The book also explains that eating from an organic farm in the United States and shipping the crops to your home would be more environmentally friendly than eating from an even local but industrial conventional farm.

In 2013, the Obama Administration issued the Climate Action Plan to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 % reduction below 2005 levels by 2020. This plan’s three objectives were carbon reduction, strengthening capacity for climate change response, and leading international cooperation for climate change crisis (White House, 2013). To reduce the

Poor soil management can lead to biological, chemical, and physical degradation, which can in turn negatively alter the activity of

(Phillips, 2008, p.385) Farmers are the reason as to why the region has been stable, has helped the economy, and are the “guardians of the land,” as noted by Phillips. (Phillips, 2008, p. 385) That being noted, farming has helped so many individuals, such as in jobs as well as food products such as wheat in our everyday lives. Technological innovations have helped in the development of the land of the Palouse. Chemicals have helped evolve the land with the growth of crop yields, such as “herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and hybrid wheat varieties.” (Phillips, 2008, pg. 387) This has caused long term environmental problems such as soil erosion. This has brought me to the interest of how the land that overcame the main problem. That is soil erosion stripped off the land due to farmers using chemicals to implement growth in their

The microbes found in soil go hand in hand with the microbes found in our bodies, especially the gut microbiome. Soil is used to grow various plants and crops which we then ingest. As stated in Healthy Soil Microbes, Healthy People, we have completely destroyed soil microbes by overusing fertilizers and pesticides just like how we have destroyed our gut microbes by ingesting processed foods and large amounts of antibiotics. Soil microbes, including bacteria and fungi, form symbiotic relationships with plant roots to help provide the plant with many nutrients needed to survive. In order to restore and improve the soil once again, we need to reintroduce bacteria and fungi that are capable of repairing the damage. Through recent technological advances, the soil microbiome was genetically sequenced. This allows farmers and other scientists to understand which microorganisms are

“Scientists have been warning about global warming for decades. It's too late to stop it now, but we can lessen its severity and impacts” - David Suzuki. Global warming, a primary topic of debate in various conversations throughout all levels of government, has been an issue for countless years. In fact, of the 134 years recorded, the 10 warmest years have all occurred “since 2000, with the exception of 1998 “(NASA). Solving a global issue such as this is not as easy as it may seem; however ,The Paris Agreement vows to do just that by setting a plan to limit global warming to well below 2°C in “the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal” (Europa). Before signing off on such an agreement one must analyze the many negatives

Soil pollution also referred to as soil contamination occurs when degradation or destruction of the earth’s surface and soil occurs directly or indirectly as a result of human activities. As Americans we tend to abuse the use of things such as cars for driving, books, paper, and computers without the knowledge of where it will end up. According to the food and Agriculture Organization approximately 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes to waste. After the garbage man has taken the materials, it ends up in a huge or small landfill waiting to be emerged into the soil. The average person generates

Urbanization brings about a new set of problems to the environment. These problems include air pollution and land pollution. As new builds and roads are built the ability of soil to absorb

It is true that we are in a battle of feeding our people while trying to care for our soil and environment. While trying to produce enough food to feed the masses, we are still and will always be damaging the environment in some way. The use of chemicals and pesticides on crops is wonderful for yield, but is toxic and destructive to the soil. It is also a fact that not all farmers can afford to do better practices

“On the global basis, the soil degradation is caused by over grazing (35%), agriculture activities (28%), deforestation (30%), over exploitation of land to produce fuel wood (4%), and industrialization (4%).” 100% of what causes soil degradation is caused by humans and animals. 35% of the blame goes to the animals for over grazing, but the other 65% of the blame goes to the humans for agriculture activities and chopping down trees. Another example is, David Pimentel also states, “The bottom line on soil production is that it takes (on average) about 100 years to generate a millimeter of soil. This is about a human lifetime.” Although it is stated that animals contribute to land degradation, it’s only a small portion (35%). The main reason for loss of arable land is human development. Forests are cut down for farming space, fuel wood, or space to build some kind of industry. When land is being used and used, and no one manages it, it can become deplete; which means, the land is dried out and unable to grow vegetation. Soil production takes a long time, on average, it takes 100 years. 100 years is too long to wait for new soil to plant food.

The environment is getting worse due to many reasons, one of being ‘off-farm input’, which is effecting and damaging the environment. ‘Off-farm input’ consists of fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides, which is used on agriculture to grow faster and larger. These ‘off-farm input’ is effecting and damaging the environment, through the chemicals in the pesticides and fertilizers, creating groundwater contamination. The ‘Environmental Protection Agency’ has stated that herbicides

The management of agricultural land is considered one of the most significant human activities capable of changing the soil characteristics. Intensive agricultural practices are an important factor contributing to the degradation of soil properties (García-Orenes et al., 2009; Maitima et al., 2009) leading to lower levels of organic matter (Fliessbach et al., 2007; Schjønning et al., 2007) and changes in soil microbial diversity and activity (Nicol et al., 2003; Govaerts et al., 2007). Many studies have shown that land use determines the composition of soil bacterial communities (Wallenius et al., 2011; Osborne et al., 2011) and the bacterial communities are more sensitive to land use changes than the soil chemical and physical properties (Romaniuk et al., 2011). On the other hand, the use of land affected indirectly the bacterial community structure but it does not deplete bacterial diversity under the imposed environmental conditions (Jesus et al., 2009; Suleiman et al.,

Today, even though the issue at hand might not be large scale pesticide use in most areas of the country, modifications to the ecosystem through genetic engineering of crops or advanced fertilizer technology continues to alter global ecosystems. Even while the human race tries to make the world more comfortable, it should not forget that nature is delicate and requires respect.

One of the largest, and unspoken issues being dealt with in the United States today is the use of pesticides and their rate of decay on soil rejuvenation. American culture currently accepts the adaptation of genetically modified foods without regard to its various effects. In fact according to the Organic Consumers Association,” It 's estimated that 75 percent of processed foods contain GMOs and 80 percent of all food consumed in the U.S. is processed.”(5) Our country has developed a system in which the agricultural norm is to use genetic modifications in order to keep up with the demand for fast, good looking produce. As long as America is choosing the cheaper option of mass produced GMO infested product, we will see a continual decline in soil quality and American health problems. In an economic sense, due to the oversupply of genetically modified foods farms with GM foods are having to deal with the over-exposure of pesticides, which slows down the rejuvenation rate of the soil.(5) In fact, the government purposefully pays farmers to use pesticides in order to keep the cost of living down for people who are currently living in poverty. The soil in the America needs to be organically restored in order to have this finite resource withstand the lifespan of the human race.