this is the most recent paper i wrote for my english class. my professor told me i should run for office. she doesn't know what she's getting into.

Environmental Destruction: The World is Not Enough

Something must be done to prevent the destruction of our environment. Rainforests and natural wetlands are being destroyed on a daily basis to meet the “needs” of businesses, forsaking the Earth for profits. At the rate that we are going, within my generation’s lifetime we will see devastating effects on the environment due to the destruction of forests. Greenhouse-effect gases will accumulate in the atmosphere, and with no natural “filter” to go through, they will cause massive damage to the ozone layer and our climate. We need to stop deforestation at all costs to protect the world for our generation and for generations to come.

In 1990, 150,000 sq. km of rainforests were being destroyed each year, an area the size of Great Britain and Wales (Collins, Jocelyn). The same amount was being damaged or degraded in the process. This figure is now much higher, due to deliberate deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia. Rainforests are being destroyed in logging operations, and to make way for hydropower plants and new land to be exploited. Temperate forests are being destroyed by paper and timber industries. Not only are native tribes ousted from their homes, but thousands of plant and animal species also disappear every year from deforestation. This could dramatically affect us in ways we haven’t yet considered. What if the cure for cancer was somewhere in the Amazon, in some elusive plant that now is threatened by money-hungry businesses? It could become one of the thousands that disappear each year, and we wouldn’t even know. Maybe it has already become extinct.

Trees are natural filters, which “breathe” in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. If the forests of the world are destroyed, the oxygen production of the world is also damaged, and with our growing population we could all be gasping like smokers within a few generations, all for the sake of clearing new land for mining operations and logging. I could go without that new, mahogany dining room set if it meant that my grandchildren could play outside in clean air.

The Bush administration has been particularly negligent in its environmental duties, from wanting to drill in the Alaskan Natural Wildlife Preserve to stopping the leaking of mercury into our water supply. If he’s elected for another term, do you think that he will suddenly put the interests of the planet first? Or will he continue to exploit Earth for the chance to get his corporate friends a little extra spending money? This is more important than the war on terrorism; this is global terrorism. And it must be stopped in whatever way it can, and I can say that I will not put my vote for someone who doesn’t take the needs of the planet first. How safe are we really, when all of our enemies are destroyed, if our children are getting cancer from chemicals in their drinking water, and global warming shrinks the coastlines of the world, eliminating millions of people?

The first steps we need to take in stopping deforestation, at least in America, is to elect a person who actually cares about the environment into the highest office in our nation. I refuse to turn this paper into an election editorial and preach about who I think would be the best choice. However, we must put someone with our world’s best interests in front of the need to police the world. We should also begin to see ourselves as more than just citizens of the United States. We need to start seeing ourselves as citizens of the world. We’re all in this together, on this spinning ball of rock, and we might as well make the best of it. This means stopping conflicts over oil, land, and natural resources, because what belongs to one community should be shared by all other communities, for the good of our species. We need to start harnessing the power of renewable resources for our energy needs, such as hydropower, wind power, and solar power. Auto pollution is one of the main causes of ozone depletion, and although it does make for a colorful sunset, we need to consider what we are doing to our planet every time we fill up our SUVs. We need to stop allowing “tolerable” levels of chemical pollution, such as arsenic and mercury, into our waters.

I’m not saying that we should abandon our ways of life altogether to run off into the woods and collect berries. I’m just suggesting that better ways can be found to power and create the material things that we all want and need. And we must start taking this problem seriously, before some unpredicted disaster occurs to our environment and to us, and we find that we could have prevented it in the first place.

Works Cited-

Collins, Jocelyn.“Deforestation.” Envirofacts Index Page. Feb 1^st, 2001. Accessed 4/7/04.

<http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/facts/deforestation.htm>

Greenpeace International Home Page.  Accessed 4/7/04. <http://www.greenpeace.org>

“Deforestation Facts.” Tree 4 Life Homepage. 2000. Accessed 4/7/04.

http://www.tree4life.com/ingles/deforest3.htm