Mata 1
Richard Mata
ENG 102
Hernandez
1st draft
11/30/2012
Human Activity and Global Warming
Everyday people get up, drive to work and maybe even bum a smoke while they are at it. Humans go through every day not thinking how their lifestyles affect the environment. Some humans maybe do not realize how things as simply leaving a light on (which is run by a power plant), driving a car or smoking can harm and pollute the air. Being aware of how humans are treating the world is very crucial because it is the world in which future generations will be living in. It is very important to understand the type of damage humans are causing before it is too late and everything is out of control. Human activity plays a big part in Global Warming. Global warming is increasing and is harming the environment due to unnatural causes like fuel emissions coming from cars, fossil fuels burned by power plants, second hand smoke from cigars, and deforestation. Co2, the most common cause of global warming, is produced by vehicles. A car is something almost everybody has which means there is a great number of them in the world. As Sholnn Freeman says, the United states alone produces 45% of the world’s emission of the carbon dioxide, the most common cause of global warming. This is true because the United
Mata 2
States owns 30% of the world’s vehicles (1). Every year the number of cars being produced are increasing which makes an impact on global warming because there are so many of them. According to Worldometers: real time world statistics, it is calculated that one billion automobiles are currently being used worldwide. Due to the fact that there are so many cars in the world that humans utilize, the amount air pollution increases. Power plants have a great role in global warming due to human activity. Human activity often involves using electricity by powering electronic devices that are being used, for instance, charging a cellphone. Every time a light is turned on it is using electricity that is being produced by a power plant that burns fossil fuels that cause global warming. According to Dina, Cappiello “Power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010” (1). One power plant in Juliette alone produced a great amount of carbon dioxide, as Cappiello says. According to cappiello, this power plant by itself let 23 million metric tons of Co2 in 2010. All the power being used by humans requires these power plants to produce more energy and that energy is made by burning fossil fuels which pollute the environment. People who smoke probably only know about the damage cigarettes do to them but cigarettes also harm the environment. Second hand smoke can be considered a pollutant. According to Jessica Taylor, “Cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals which are exhaled and released into the air and the atmosphere.”(1). There are many smokers out there that are releasing all these chemicals into the air and may not even realize that they are not only harming themselves but the environment as well. There are a lot of smokers here in America and around
Mata 3 the world. According to Jessica Taylor, “Approximately 30% of North Americans are smokers, and the percentage goes much higher in developing countries, which means there is a massive amount of pollution being released into the air every day”(1). With all these smokers around the world the amount of these chemicals that are released into the air add up and make a big impact to global warming. Smoking may be something that may not be considered or thought about when it comes to air pollution, but it is something that plays a part in harming the environment and is also something that humans can stop practicing, considering that it is not necessary, in order to decrease the amount of harm they are doing to the environment. Forests decrease the amount of air pollution by absorbing Co2 and other air pollutants, while