Saving Our Earth

Essay by mattikusUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, June 2005

download word file, 3 pages 3.0

Technology has changed the world is so many positive ways. We can pick up the phone and call anywhere, anytime. We can travel on land, in the air, and even into space. We can identify someone using a simple drop of blood using DNA. How can something with such positive effects also have such profound negative ones? According to the textbook, Society and Technological Change, the most obvious and longest lasting consequence of technological advance is the alteration and destruction of the natural environment (Volti, 88). If each generation continues to destroy our environment, what happens when we get to the point of not having one? How are future generations supposed to breathe without air and trees? A Native American proverb says, "Man did not inherit the earth. He merely borrowed it from his grandchildren". This says to me that we need to save our earth so that our grandchildren have a chance to swim, climb trees, and enjoy the wonderful gift that we have "borrowed".

One way that we can do this is to conserve our natural resources. Volti states that even though the United States is less than 5% of the world's population, it uses more than 30% of the world's resources (Society and Technological Change, 88).While the three fossil fuels, petroleum, coal, and natural gas, give us enormous amounts of energy; the excessive use of them greatly alters the environment. National Environmental Trust reports that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming. The burning of these fusels increases the amount of green hose gas levels in the atmosphere. These gases actually change the atmosphere and warm the earth. Other impacts of global warming are droughts, floods, warmer ocean temperatures, and rising sea levels, an increase in severe weather, melting of glaciers, dying...