Our Planet SERIOUSLY Needs Our Help
Climate change has been in the public eye recently due to Donald Trump’s proposal for drastically cutting the budget to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the intention of defunding the agency entirely in 2018. This has inspired people to take action into their own hands more than ever. Environmental changes have been a concern for the past 20 or so years due to the drastic declines in arctic sea ice, deforestation, ocean warming, thinning ozone layer, sea levels rising, and the loss of most of the coral reef. It’s great that people are wanting to take bigger strides to better the world that we live in because our planet seriously needs our help.
To catch you up to speed on Trump’s proposal, it will cut the budget for the EPA so that research is put at a stand-still due to lack of funding, and the Clean Power Plan would be completely shut down. The purpose of this is to eventually defund the agency completely by 2018. Trump and his Republican-dominated House of Representatives and Senate do not believe that climate change is real, even though the evidence to support it is overwhelming.
Here are some need to know facts about how our planet:
1. The global sea level has risen 6.7 inches in the last century
2. The ocean has warmed .302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969
3. Arctic sea ice has declined 13.3% per decade
4. Deforestation accounts for 15% of carbon emissions each year
These are significant changes to our environment. More and more species are becoming endangered due to their habitats being chopped down. The sea levels will continue to rise and have the potential to destroy neighborhoods and cities. The rising temperature, air pollution, and active deforestation are also detrimental to the human body. Infectious diseases will spread more quickly and heat wave related illnesses will become more popular. Our bodies will not be able to withstand these changes.
It is great to raise awareness about these issues, but it’s even better to do something that could help. People always preach the “reduce, reuse, recycle” slogan, but that does actually make a difference. Reduce the amount of energy and water that you use; reuse clothes and shoes by donating them; recycle all materials that you can. Other things that you can do include investing in high efficiency appliances, switching to solar power, investing in an electric car or rethinking your transportation, and starting a garden. Our planet needs our help, and that starts with changing the way we live on a day to day basis.