Environmental struggles can also instigate many of the problems contributing to our overall weakness. Some environmental struggles we face are seen through our economic division from Canada and Mexico. This means decreasing overall barriers that are promoting trade embargos within some NAFTA agreements couldn't hurt anyone. Mooney Knox and Schacht and the ECU states, “It is only a matter of time before a cooperation based in Canada or Mexico wins a NAFTA case against the United States” (Public Citizen 2005). This would put a stronghold on the United States and could lead to economic disaster and even threaten to start new cultural barriers. The divisions of North and South America are most likely handy-capping our overall ability to progress with new ideas and promote environmentally safer alternatives. The problem is a United North and South America would come with much compromise. Different economic environments would definitely promote diversity. Another issue which is concerning worldwide is the spread of foreign substances and foreign born diseases. Many scientists have recently proven the fact that many viruses have been known to mutate in different environments. Threats such as spreading the bird flu could prove disastrous in time. The same could be said for spreading foreign insects and pest, which could evolve to destroy existing ecosystems. So our struggles are not without compromises to the solutions of many of these issues.
Issues regarding the economic systems of different countries have also affected our environment. A countries wealth may have much bearing on the total outcomes of many toxic pollutants. Mooney Knox and Schacht, and The East Carolina University state, Wealthy nations have higher per capita consumption of petroleum, wood, , metals, cement, and other commodities that deplete the earths resources, emit pollutants, and generate large volumes of waste” (476). In other words our distinctive patterns of contributing to a large scale environmental holocaust are gradually expanding into an unpredictable future. These patterns are displayed by large corporations and gradually trickled down through individuals in society. The changes need to be made to ensure a better future for everyone.
The effects of these inherited environmental trends are now beginning to dismantle the atmosphere and our most precious life giving resources. Andrew C. Revkin states, “This "tipping point" scenario has begun to consume prominent researchers in the United States and abroad, because the answer could determine how drastically countries need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years”Sept. 29, 2005. Revkin also states, “The findings are consistent with recent computer simulations showing that a buildup of smokestack and tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases could lead to a profoundly transformed Arctic later this century, when much of the once ice-locked ocean would routinely become open water in summers” These predictions could mean nothing short of massive flooding and climate changes as well as atmospheric changes.
Water usage and drought conditions are a high concern for the world today. We seem to be running out of important natural resources. Nothing seems as precious as the fresh water supplies which are now said to be diminishing, at the same time it's said we are taking on more salt water. Another issue is fighting contamination and pollution affecting the resources we use everyday. Contamination of our waters can be causing illnesses and poisoning leading to some forms of cancers. Examples of acid rain and our natural instinct to promote deforestation have proven extremely disastrous over time. Mooney, Knox, and Schacht, and the ECU states, “In recent decades we have witnessed mass extinction rates of diverse life-forms” (495).
Pollution can also be presented in forms of microorganisms being introduced into our environment. Dan Shapely states, "It's common every year in late summer. We see an increase in E. coli results," she said, referring to the bacterium that indicates possible contamination with human or animal feces. "For years, we've seen that kind of trend." It is easy to say low water levels draw back deep under ground and invite run off from drainage and waste as well as toxins and build up in slow moving pools and wells. This is promoting a path way back to third world health issues in even the most advanced nations.
The environmental problems are obvious in society, but the solutions often reveal the compromises we are not ready to accept. There may come a point where many countries including America turn to alternative methods of fuel sources and environmental resolutions. A funny, but interesting statement I heard on the radio was one callers claim to his family's recipe known as corn squeezings', other wise known as (white lightning). Simply stated you could probably propel a rocket with the stuff and what's more invigorating to the idea it's a green growing plant and plentiful in America. Mooney Knox and Schacht and the ECU states positive some positive solutions being, “Responses to environmental problems” such as “the use of green energy modifications in consumer products and behavior” (498).
Other ideas would be the combination of our massive coal mines and corn squeezings' to produce a new cleaner burning fuel for heat and automobiles. Even a gasoline additive to produce cleaner more efficient combustion would be great. Other methods to reduce emissions may be natural gases like methane, solar energy, and even hydrogen, to provide clean chemical reactions without combustion. In the meantime Nuclear power plants could easily be replaced with ocean based windmills to provide free power world wide. This is economical, logical, and rational as apposed to smog, meltdowns and wars. Other alternatives to fight the textbook statistics featuring inherited low birth rates for our generation, is as a logical solution for recycling garbage possibly as an alternative energy source to nuclear reactor sources. Fire and ice on earth would resolve even the most imminent issues such as freezing garbage in Antarctica and melting nuclear waste deep in the depths of an active volcano.
Both ideas could prove more environmentally harmless than trying to send waste products in to outer space. Molten lava would meltdown just about anything including garbage, so why not utilize these disasters to our advantage. And of course recycling is always necessary, but not every district is required to participate. A unanimous critic gives an example of the need for recycling by stating, “Materialism, or the emphasis on worldly possessions, also encourages individuals to continually purchase new items and throw away old ones” (2008). In these times we must combat every problem with full force to win the environmental respect we all deserve here on earth. This respect has always been existent between people and the earth in which we live, but many people believe we have recently began to loose much of the respect towards promoting new life here on earth.
