O’Donnell-Hall 1

Devonte O’Donnell-Hall

Professor Cook

English 1201.508

31 October 2021

Research Essay Final Draft

A prevalent topic in today's society is Climate change. Over many millennia humans have

degraded the environment we live in. While this problem might not kill off the human race in my

lifetime or a few more it will no doubt make human life worse. Our planet is slowly dying and it

may be too late to stop it. While there are many solutions like renewable energies, not everyone

cares enough to try them. We as humans need to adapt to these new solutions to prevent such a

disastrous fate for our planet.

The problem started to ramp up in the age of industrialization. At the time global warming was

hardly researched and was very much an afterthought. As we have started to move away from

coal-powered factories we have started to realize the damage we have done. Sadly, the biggest

factors in global warming are mega-corporations, so no matter how much the individual tries to

make a change it does not matter until the corporations try to change. There are still things we

can do to encourage such corporations to move towards a greener future. “Finally, stricter

regulations on air quality, fuel quality, and vehicle emission standards would help support

decarbonization efforts. Investments in clean public transportation, smart electricity grids to

incorporate renewables into power generation, and retrofitting buildings to make them more

energy-efficient”(Dabla-Norris). If citizens began to purchase things that benefit the environment

specifically more companies are likely to move in that direction. My family has a few solar
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panels to help store energy if the power goes out. While we haven’t fully integrated, it is a step

closer to a greener house. The biggest industry in my opinion that is moving towards that

direction is cars. People like the idea of electric vehicles and not having to go to a gas station

anymore. There are many benefits to an electric car and they have only recently been getting

developed. We can see the potential they will have. You can charge it in a parking lot or even

your own garage. “Third generation biofuels from algae are very promising as they can be grown

in fresh water, waste water and sea water in ponds and also in closed systems under controlled

conditions”(Kumar). Every day many people are pushing to find something new that can help

put an end to this problem. The research into these solutions is fairly new so it is hard to outright

discover a new solution right away. There are a lot of things we can look into, but much of the

world just does not care. People in the situation to help are too busy with their own affairs to do

anything. On a daily basis, people would rather throw plastic into the ocean or onto the street

rather than bring it to a recycling bin.

Another important problem is the effect this has on animals. Sadly animals do not have the same

capacity for science we do and do not realize that the earth is being affected so negatively. Polar

bears are one of the most talked-about animals when it comes to climate change. They are losing

more of their natural habitat each day. When on the topic of bird migration patterns George W.

Cox states “Because of their dependence on specific habitats and resources in different

geographic regions at different phases of their annual cycle, migratory species are especially

vulnerable to the impacts of climate change”(Cox). These animals have no control of how they

affect the climate and they also do not know how to help it. Many other animals are put into

harm's way because of the selfishness of humans for hundreds of years. When trying to find an
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animal that can survive this long-term you would have to go to a microscopic level. “Tardigrades

are well known for their ability to survive environmental stressors, such as drying and freezing,

by undergoing cryptobiosis and rapidly recovering their metabolic function after stressors

cease”(Vecchi). “Despite observed negative effects of warming on other ground invertebrates in

previous studies at this site, long-term warming did not affect the abundance, richness, or

diversity of tardigrades in this experiment”(Vecchi). Even animals that are known to be resistant

to drastic weather events are affected short-term. This goes to show animals that we see every

day will not be so lucky. Even before climate change, we are on a regular basis hurting animals.

Pollution has been one of the biggest problems on this planet. Billions of people on this planet do

not care enough and throw trash on the ground. Places where it is easily in the reach of animals.

These animes may try to eat it or get it stuck on them. “ Over 1 million marine animals

(including mammals, fish, sharks, turtles, and birds) are killed each year due to plastic debris in

the ocean (UNESCO Facts & Figures on Marine Pollution). Currently, it is estimated that there

are 100 million tons of plastic in oceans around the world. It is expected that another 60 billion

pounds will be produced this year alone. In some areas, the buildup of plastics is estimated to

span 5 million square miles. To put it into perspective, that is the equivalent of the area of the

U.S. plus India.”(Turtles). An outrageous amount of animals are killed from the negligence of

humans each year. It was not until recently that we cared to start to go out of our way to clean up

these oceans. Years ago we had trash islands where we would go and dump trash that couldn’t be

incinerated. The problem was that this was extremely easy for the animals to get to, and

incinerating trash is horrible for the environment. The incineration of trash is another major

component of climate change. “Pollution produced by burning garbage subjects communities

near waste incinerators — disproportionately made up of low-income, people of color — to

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harmful, costly, and avoidable public health risks.” Many communities are affected by this and it

is seen as a bad thing to have in your community. It actively lowers the value of the communities

it belongs to.

Many people argue the point that they have not directly seen the effects of climate change. While

that may seem true it is most definitely not. This is something that is slowly affecting everything

in our world. “Natural disasters, unpredictability of weather conditions, sea-level rise etc.

jeopardize life activity, increase the likelihood of natural disasters, and are the consequences of

climate change, global in nature, and often of unprecedented scale”(Nukusheva). Many things

just happen too slowly or we do not attribute it to climate change. There are many things affected

by climate change like the sea levels that change at such a rate the human eye can not see it.

Climate change is something that moves slowly. We will never actively see climate changing.

What we can see is the effects, the habitats that it is and will destroy. This is a global problem

that every continent will have to face, so every continent should be doing its best to prevent it. It

is a shame that the world itself rarely can come together as a whole to work against something

like this. Even if we are all working on it, many refuse to work with another country they dislike.

This is something that will be passed on to our children. They will be the ones playing catch-up

while we are long gone. “In five to 10 years, vast swaths of the planet will be increasingly

inhospitable to humans. We do not know how habitable the regions of Australia, North Africa,

and the western United States will be by 2100. No one knows what the future holds for their

children and grandchildren.”(Figueres and Rivett-Carnac) Every year our planet is getting hotter.

Tropical destinations will become places people will never go because of the heat. It doesn’t
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make sense why so many people are willing to ignore this gigantic problem. No one wants to do

anything until they get something out of it or it is too late.

For years the government has been campaigning to stop pollution and slow down climate

change. They tell us to recycle our stuff in our homes, this is a good thing but it is not the

solution. Small-scale recycling will never prevent global warming because the individual is too

small of a factor. While the people are recycling every day we have global conglomerates that

are destroying the environment daily who will not seek an alternative to these methods. These

businesses have so much power that their influence prevents laws that would force a change for

eco-friendly power. It is sad to see the money-driven landscape we live in takes priority over the

longevity of our planet. This is easy for people to brush off because when the planet dies they

will be long gone. The problem with this is that our children and their children will have to deal

with the aftermath. Humans keep taking but barely give back to the earth. We have hunted

species to extension in the past because no one at the time cared enough to preserve them. This

unwillingness to sacrifice certain things to maintain our ecosystem is sad. Humans are actively

ruining the habitats of other species by having non-eco-friendly companies.

“Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, study says”(Riley). This is the

problem that we face today. A group of fossil fuel super companies creates most of the global gas

emissions. Fossil fuel companies are almost always older and have been around for generations.

This means most of the time they have immense power and connections in fields that would

hinder their profits. Then there is the fact that there are one hundred of these super-powerful

businesses. They do not care about the environment, just that they make money. This won’t be
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stopped until these endeavors are seen as not profitable. The problem is that they provide

essential resources the quickest. There are fuel alternatives, but they are not as popular and have

had less time to develop. This is the easiest to see with the car industry. There has been a major

push towards electric vehicles. Electric vehicles will let us switch from gas to electricity which is

much better for the environment. “UBS predicts that electric cars will account for 20 percent of

new car sales in 2025, 40 percent in 2030, and almost 100 percent in 2040”(Brown). This

industry has been very progressive by regular corporation standards. This is one of the first

industries that were not eco-friendly to start moving towards it. While the situation is different

from most because they make a lot of money from this alternative it is still relieving to see such

an industry go in that direction. I believe one day all major industries will move towards a

greener product. There will be no other option, killing the environment has become a more

noticeable problem. Over time more people have started to care, at the moment many of them

aren’t in the position to make a change but they will eventually be. We have already begun to see

it in major industries. Technology is another big one that has started to go out of its way to use

recycled metals and cleaner energy sources. Other companies will be doing the same thing in the

near future. People will see this and start to expect it from others, this will force the company to

do something or face bad publicity.

The most prevalent part of climate change is the rise in temperature. This is what in the end will

kill off many species and destroy their habitats. “The Arctic will likely lose its summertime ice

cover by 2050 even if levels of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere are significantly

reduced by international efforts,”(Bellona). The arctic has already begun to be affected and it is

impossible to stop it. Many species that live there will have a very hard time surviving and
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adapting to this new climate. A lack of ice will lead to many things that are unusual for the area.

There will no longer be land for animals to rest on, which will not be a problem for native sea

animals. The problem lies with the land animals, they will have to move from one of the only

habitats that can accommodate them. The closest natural area to accommodate them would be

across the planet. This means if their species are to be preserved it will be on us to do it. While

we can’t fix the current problem I feel we should start making a solution to prevent more like

this. It would be great if we had a way to cool down the global temperature.

Climate change really becomes a problem for humans when it comes to water levels. “Sea level

has risen 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880.” While it may seem little this will only

grow faster over time. A rising water level will progressively take land away from humans and

animals. Animals have no way to consciously go against this, while we do. It is up to us to solve

the problems. Over time the landscape of the world will change drastically many states in the

U.S. next to oceans will be swallowed up at some point. This is not a problem we think of now

but we will have to in the future. It is not feasible to prevent it at this point, it makes much more

sense to think of how we will adapt to it. Whether this is raising the height that people live at or

moving to a state that is farther into the middle of the U.S. This will lead to overcrowding and

limited resources. Slowly more and more of our population will be hungry, there will be less and

less space for people to live. People in places of power will only get more powerful because the

population has no means to oppose them. Products will be more expensive because it is too hard

to obtain the methods of producing them. Climate change is a catalyst for more problems. We are

the only species on this planet that has the means to fix it. Even with that people are just
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unwilling to care. They make it seem as if this is something that will never affect them, yet it

already has they just don’t see it.

Another problem that we must take into account is overpopulation. “Worldwide, around 385,000

babies are born each day. In the United States in 2019, about 10,267 babies were born each

day.”(Miles). This is a pressing issue because the earth cannot maintain this many people forever.

We have grown to such an extent that we are taking more things than the world can give back.

Each person is going to need natural resources from our planet. They need to live so they will

take it without regret. The problem is that we do not have a way to replace many of these

resources. “​​According to the World Bank, for every 1,000 people in the world, an average of

7.748 people will die each year and 19.349 will be born. That’s a ratio of about 2.5 births for

every death.”(Vuillizon) Every time someone passes on another two people are born. This is not

good for humans, animals, and the earth. The population is growing at such an uncontrolled rate

that in the future we will not be able to provide for everyone. Though it is already too late to stop

the already born, I think there needs to be an initiative to slow down the number of children

being born. At some point, we will not be able to handle it as a species. The number of people on

the planet will grow so large that the earth will not be able to sustain us. At the point we are in

now it already can not. It will not naturally grow back the resources we take because it is taken

too fast. This has to stop if we want to keep this planet for hundreds of thousands of years. We

either must limit the rate at which the population grows or find a way to mass-produce these

resources we keep using. This will give the earth time to heal and prevent us from continuing to

destroy it. At this point, it would be more sensible to find out how to make the resources we take.

Too many people have already inhabited our planet. We need to slow down our intake of
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resources and find out how to make new ones ourselves. The only problem is that we have no

clue how many of these natural made resources come about, yet we still use them at an absurd

rate. Companies are mining for gold every day to use in their products. To my knowledge, there

is no limit to how much they can take.

The most disheartening part of climate change is that it is almost completely the fault of humans.

We as a single species are the catalyst for this epidemic of environmental problems. There is no

one to blame, but us yet many people try to discredit climate change. For years our personal gain

as a species has taken priority over the livelihood of other species. I feel it is time to make a

change to how we operate. Global warming was not a pressing issue before industrialization,

while animals do contribute it is either so minuscule that it barely matters or it is amplified by

humans. We also contributed a much smaller amount like animals until the period where we

ramped up production using things like coal factories. While it is very late we still have a chance

to fix this. The only problem is that humans will never be on the same page. We will forever

oppose each other. It is amazing to see that in human nature we inherently want to be superior

and feel that we are. For years we have put our own priorities first ahead of the earth's problems.

We hunt animals to extinction just to eat them even if there are other alternatives. We do so much

that hurts our ecosystem and do not even do half of that to give back. One day this is gonna ruin

our species. We are so used to taking these natural resources that we do it until they dry up and

find the next best thing. This will not stop until we are out of everything. Then we will not know

what to do next. The first thought will be to abandon this planet and move to another. At some
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point, humans will be advanced enough for regular space travel. I believe we will kill our planet

to the point it will be necessary to leave and find a new one.

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