Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Margaret Hall
Ms. McDermott
4 April 2018
From the time humans evolved to exist roughly 200,000 years ago on planet Earth, they
have been evolving to become the most intelligent life this planet has ever witnessed. Humans
slowly began to rise above the intellectual abilities of other species, creating strategies to make
life longer and of higher quality than ever thought possible. A world of more than seven billion
people manages to function by manipulating the environment to fit their needs, and as humans
have continued to evolve, the cultural landscape of the world has too, as small villages have
grown into massive cities and centers for trade and business with the intent of making human life
greater. But where did these cities come from? Where did the boats, airplanes, and trains come
from that that connect each metropolis? What allows people across the world to drive in cars,
and live everyday using technology that didn’t exists just a few decades or centuries ago? What
makes humans lives in 2018 the way they are? And why has society made such great
advancement in the past two centuries? One answer is the industrial revolution, which brought
about the beginning of the steel industry, the textile mill, steam engine, combustion engine, and
mass production of all sorts of products, and helped to improve transportation, communication,
and banking, all of which are slowly diffusing around the planets from developed to developing
regions. The industrial revolution is the single most important time in history that has connected
all parts of the world. But, the industrial revolution has had a major flaw that has the possibility
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to create more problems than the human race may be able to solve, plants of all different kinds,
whether it be an energy or manufacturing plant, and most types of transportation, cars, planes,
boats and more, emit greenhouse gases that stay in the earth’s atmosphere and will cause global
warming, which slowly heats up the earth. Another revolution, the petrochemical revolution,
helped to mass produce plastic, and plastics that have already been used and cannot be recycled
are the lead material of most of the litter worldwide, which is invading and polluting the
ecosystem. The increase in littering and greenhouse gases in the environment is leading humans
to ask the question, what will be the long term effects of harm to the environment, such as
It is common knowledge that emitting greenhouse gases and producing plastics are not
sustainable to the environment. As supported by the UXL Encyclopedia for Science, as more
greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone are emitted into the
atmosphere, they stay in the Earth’s ozone layer and trap heat radiated from the surface inside
the ozone layer, instead of letting the heat out. Before humans began artificially emitting gases
into the atmosphere, there was a healthy amount of greenhouse gases in the the atmosphere, but
after the industrial revolution greenhouse gas emissions have increased steadily. As combustion
has occurred more and and more frequently since the beginning of the industrial revolution, for
example in a car engine or a power plant that burns coal, greenhouse gas concentrations have
increased greatly. According to the article “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Pollution,” from Gale
Encyclopedia of Science, since 1750 nitrous oxide concentration has increased by 20%, carbon
dioxide by 40%, and methane by 150%, all due to human activity. In addition, concentration of
greenhouse gases is the highest it has been in 800,000 years, and the rate of increase of
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atmospheric concentrations is the highest it has been in 22,000 years. A consequence of global
warming is rising sea levels due to melting ice, according to the article, “The Greenhouse
Effect,” from Gale Encyclopedia of Science, sea levels have risen between 6.7 and 8.3 inches
around the world since 1901, this will continue to accelerate in the next century, and there will
be an eventual sea level rise of at least 9.8 feet. Another hazardous product of human
or crude oil. Plastic is unsustainable for the environment, as it is produced rapidly but takes
years to decompose. According to plastic-pollution.org and author Claire Le Guern, every year 8
million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean, and an estimated 100,000 marine animals are
killed annually, along with millions of birds and fishes. According to the World Wildlife
Foundation, at least 10,000 species go extinct every year, mostly because of harmful human
environment interaction. Altogether, humans are emitting harmful gases, and producing harmful
plastics, this, though, is not the entire extent of human impact on the environment. Humans are
also polluting water supplies, disrupting nutrient cycles, and cutting down forests, these are only
some of the many examples of how humans are negatively impacting the environment, along
Why does how humans interact with the environment matter? Humans are continuing to
artificially interact with the environment in order to better their human lives, but they continue to
neglect how their actions are going to harm the earth and all of its inhabitants in the upcoming
decades and centuries. If humans continue to treat the earth as poorly as they are now, the whole
balance of the ecosystem could be set off balance. As sea levels rise, up to 9.8 feet in future
centuries, the more than 4 million people that live within 120 miles of the coast will lose their
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homes, and sources of clean food and water. In addition, animals continue to struggle with the
rising temperatures, and an estimated 100,000 species will go extinct, which will throw off
ecosystems and disrupt balances in nature, causing even more extinction. Still more alarming, as
agriculture continues to grow as worldwide population grows, soil will continue to be depleted of
nutrients and water sources intoxicated with pesticides and insecticides, which could cause
health threats for humans and wildlife because of the large amount of chemicals. Furthermore,
plastic masses on land and in the ocean will continue to grow if plastic production continues, and
ocean life will continue to die. Plastics and landfills continue to fill larger and larger portions of
earth’s surface, which is taking away ecosystem and killing more animals. On top of all this,
humans are on track to continue burning fossil fuels at higher rates, and as humans also continue
to cut down forests, concentrations of greenhouse gases will increase faster, and temperatures
will rise quicker, speeding up the effects of harm to the environment. Altogether, the human
race is spiralling into a world of unsustainable living, and if humans continue to live like in such
a selfish matter, then the long term effects could not only be fatal for animals and plants, but
could be fatal for humans, as we will eventually be destroying our own homes and food supplies,
Works Cited
"Greenhouse Effect." UXL Encyclopedia of Science, edited by Amy Hackney Blackwell and
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2644300506/SUIC?u=la99595&sid=SUIC&xid=4d
5ee7d9.
Freedman, Bill, et al. "Global warming." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee
Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Student Resources In Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2644031018/SUIC?u=la99595&sid=SUIC&xid=f7
de2fa9.
www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution.
"A history of plastic." New Internationalist, Sept. 2008, p. 8+. Student Resources In Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A185654951/SUIC?u=la99595&sid=SUIC&xid=8241
6c74.
wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/biodiversity/.
Hoyle, Brian D., and K. Lee Lerner. "Enhanced greenhouse effect." The Gale Encyclopedia of
Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Student
Resources In Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EDHFWD491342613/SUIC?u=la99595&sid=SUIC&x
id=409bc3
“Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 14 Apr. 2017,
www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions.
"Microplastics." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/JIBCIC122267752/SUIC?u=la99595&sid=SUIC&xid
=c2b4614c.
"Pollution." Gale Student Resources in Context, Gale, 2017. Student Resources In Context,
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“When The Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide.” Plastic Pollution, plastic-pollution.org/.