10 Point Essay

Waiting On the World to Change

1. Sustainability -Living sustainability means living off the earth’s natural income without depleting or degrading the natural capital that supplies it. This means that we can take from the Earth and use what is gives us without destroying it. I used it to show that people who fight for the environment aren’t against using what is here on the earth. They are trying to make it so that people after are grandchildren might have access to some of the basic thing we take advantage of: a blue sky, clean water, and ample supply of food.
2. The world gives to mankind all that it could ever want. We are positioned close enough to the sun to be warmed and well light to live our lives, and far enough away so that we don’t burn up under its immense heat. We have the perfect combination of gases so that we can breathe and grow food. It gave us enough resources to move into the modern age and develop contemporary technology. So why is it that when people ask you to do small things for the earth they act as if it has done nothing for it lately. We have lived in a fairly stable world our entire lives and have continual take what we need from the earth. So why can’t we take small steps to help make it so that our grandchildren can live in a world better than the one that we are in. People in our world see environmentalist as crazy people who are trying to take comforts away from the mass populace. But are the things they ask for that more difficult. You live your life without even thinking about the decisions that you make you could easily live environmentally friendly.
3. List:
1. “This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make a wasteland of its home, or to stop and redefine itself. This is about much more than climate change. This is about us.” (George Monbiot, 2009. p. 33)

2. In recent months, three U.S. hospitals signed energy contracts that will save over $1.7 million in energy costs, provide them with up to 10 percent clean energy. The green energy will avoid 11,829 metric tons of CO2 being released to our atmosphere, which is equivalent to taking 2,052 cars off the road or not burning 56 railcars' worth of coal. Some of the human health benefits will include avoiding over 200 respiratory illnesses.

3. If every American home replaced just one light with an ENERGY STAR light, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars. (Light Bulbs (CFL))

4. The Earth is similar to your own mother she provide you with everything you need with a few earthquakes here and there and you go about your life mostly unaware of her own needs.
5. This is an example of a normal day where you make environmentally friendly chooses: You wake up in the morning to a house that you have heated to a warm 70 degrees and you wash up or shower without running the water for an excess of time. You then make breakfast get dressed turn off you energy fluorescent lights and leave for school or work. In those 5 steps you have done more to save the environment or live sustainably than anybody else has in their lives. Buying different light bulbs, turning down your heat some, not running water, and turning off the lights. These are steps that some people feel that are too much to ask when it comes to giving back to the earth. The next steps involve a little more work, solar cells to cut your light bill, or buying a hybrid car which gets you twice the gas millage, but are these steps really that much harder.
6. The problem of removing the United States from fossil fuels and generally toward a more Eco-friendly environment has been debated and comes down to a few major approaches. The first is government action creating laws and mandates that will in effect force the change to new technology because it will be more profitable for companies in the long run. Another approach is the consumer force; making products more available to the general public that will cut their cost and through word of mouth and experience spread into commonality. This is similar to the government approach in that if consumers demand products that fit certain standards then companies will be forced to create them or lose business to other companies. This can be seen as a better idea because it allows people to see that they are better off with eco-friendly products and lifestyles instead of having them forced upon them.
7. There are several things that will be changed if people one start believing that there is a problem. If this would happen people could make some of the small changes that are necessary to help fix the world. If they start making these small steps other people will be able to see that what is being asked of them is not as difficult as the propaganda has made it out to be. If this mass movement starts then if billions of people are doing these small actions then it amounts to a large positive impact on the world. The opposite direction is would cause a continuance of impractical uses of materials and resources until there is a backlash that will grab people’s attention: skin cancer in Australia, air and water quality in China, smog in Los Angeles.
8. “Thomas Jefferson once said that "each generation . . . has a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness; consequently, to accommodate to the circumstances in which it finds itself." A generation has passed and much has changed since the first Earth Day in 1970 awakened many Americans to the challenge of environmental issues and started the modern environmental movement. Carol Browner
This quote speaks volumes to the issue at hand. It is an attempt to show the America people that they have to make the choice to save the Earth and change the way America is run. If we as a people don’t tell government, by action and words that they need to change then it will never happen. We as American have a responsibility to use the information that has become available to us through things we take for granted such as Earth Day to drive our decisions in government and in our daily lives.
9. The actions being taken are going to do nothing. We as a country have been fine on fossil fuels for centuries. Scientist have said several times that the reserves of oil, coal, etc were going to run out years ago and the dates that they set have since past and we are still using those resources. A greater issue than even that who said that we are causing this great amount of damage to the environment. The earth has always gone through climate changes; I feel that it is arrogant of us to think that we have cause such a great change in our small existence on this planet.
10. Audiences (A) I understand the issue, but what can I do as individual to make any difference, especially a college student. Corey (C): Your most important job is to do what generations before you failed to do and learn about the issue, take small steps. (A): I feel like that isn’t doing anything to solve the issue so why should I even try. (C): If you read up on the research I’ve presented the smallest things can make a large effect, and if you’re informed you could convert 3 more people and so on. (A): To be truthful some days I think that this problem has been over publicized and isn’t that big of an issue. (C) Look, even if you don’t believe in Climate change you can’t ignore the fact that LA is covered in smog or that large parts of the NE are covered in acid rain. These are effects of our lifestyle and if we can fix these then we’ll begin to fix the bigger issues. (A): Okay, so what you’re saying is that I’m getting hung up on the big picture, I can’t find the trees because I’m looking at the forest. (C): For lack of a better analogy… yes