Earth is a beautiful place full of mountains, rivers, oceans, and vast diverse species of wildlife. However, many of our common practices destroy our planet and cause it great harm. Global warming is becoming a huge issue, and many ecosystems are dying out because of human waste. Recycling, cutting down our waste, and not using plastics are some of the best things we can do to conserve the environment and slow down global warming.
According to the EPA, “landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 15.1 percent of these emissions in 2019” (EPA 2021). Unfortunately, over 80% of those items in landfills could have been recycled (Brucker 2018). Recycling is extremely important when it comes to conserving the environment and cutting down our pollution. Almost anything can be recycled including plastics, glass, cardboard, metal, paper, wood, and countless others. Recycling can ensure that landfill pollution drops, and that less materials have to be used in order to make new products.
250 million tons of waste are produced every year by the United States alone (Leahy 2018). This unimaginable amount of waste does horrors to our planet. Landfills, polluted rivers, and entire islands made completely out of trash are a commonplace in our society. Cutting down our waste is a necessity in conserving the environment. Composting, buying second-hand items, using reusable diapers, and reading the news online are just a few ways in which we can cut down our waste.
Plastic is used in countless everyday items. Bags, utensils, packaging, and water bottles are just a few examples. Around 8 million individual pieces of plastic make their way into our oceans every year. This devastating amount of plastic has horrifying effects on wildlife. 100% of baby sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs, 100,000 marine animals die from plastic every year, and 1 in 3 fish caught contain plastic. (Condor 2021). Humans need to start using reusable bags and water bottles, bamboo toothbrushes, and less packaging in order to cut down this ridiculous amount of plastic waste.
Earth is slowly dying due to the waste and pollution that humans produce. Being more conservative when it comes to our waste and being more open towards recycling are mandatory if we want to help save our planet.
Sources:
https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/zero-waste-families-plastic-culture
https://www.condorferries.co.uk/plastic-in-the-ocean-statistics
Dear Atticus,
I am devastated by your post, “ Save the Earth,” because it’s really sad how the Earth is slowly fading away and people are not doing much to stop it. There are many ways people can help save the Earth and many ways we can prevent the climate from getting really bad. It’s devastating to see the Earth getting worse and worse each day.
One sentence you wrote that stands out to me is, “ Earth is slowly dying due to the waste and pollution that humans produce.” I think this is really sad because many people are not caring about the Earth anymore. There is lots of trash thrown everywhere even in our oceans which is something really devastating. Climate is getting really worse, fires and hurricanes are destroying people’s lives. It’s important that people start to change and start to care about the Earth.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because topics like these are very important. It’s important for people to understand what is happening to our Earth and try to save it before it is too late.
-Antonia
Atticus, I found your article to be very necessary and thought provoking. This topic is extremely important in todays world and lots of people are not as educated about it as they should be. You brought up a great point when saying “Almost anything can be recycled including plastics, glass, cardboard, metal, paper, wood, and countless others.” This is a very important thing and I had no idea that wood could be recycled. If you are interested in recycling and more about the climate I suggest you read this article by Boulder (https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/03/18/recycling-and-climate-change) Thank you for bringing up and writing about this topic, I look forward to reading your work in the future.
Atticus, I found this article about the environment very interesting and eye opening. I was aware that recycling made a difference for the environment but wasn’t aware how signicent it was. I can’t wait to see your future articles about the environment.
Atticus I found your post to be a good post to read. I do agree with what you are saying about how we do need to save the earth. A quote that I liked from the post is “landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 15.1 percent of these emissions in 2019” In oceanography, the class watched a movie about how we are losing most of the world’s corals here is the link to the movie:https://youtu.be/aGGBGcjdjXA I hope this movie gives you more information about saving the earth. here is an article that I read about saving the earth is https://www.nationalgeographic.org/arti
this article talks more information about how we can save the earth. I hope this helps you get more information about saving the earth. I am looking forward to seeing what you write in the future because you write a lot of good things about saving the earth. thank you.