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Shantel Harding
Professor Dursema
English 1010
24 Apr 2015
Eradication of Earths Population
Animals, people, crops, and life on earth are a means to an end; everything loved and
known live in danger if habits do not change. It remains necessary for the people residing on the
earth to decrease a few of the major activities hindering the earths climate, thus slowly
eradicating life and vegetation. The climate is always changing because of the huge contribution
of human activities altering the earths atmosphere in large amounts of gases, deforestation, and
lack of knowledge. It is vital for humans to do their part in decreasing the health hazard that
shows no mercy when destroying lands, killing animals, people, and causing water to rise from
the melting glaciers. Global Warming acts as a major conflict affecting the world as a whole. It
continues to persist as a problem humans continue to create, but luckily a chance at redemption
remains nigh.
It may seem that the climate changing does not bear much effect, but the impact moves
slowly and will hit hard within the next one hundred years. A few of the many human causes of
climate change resides as the consistent increase of fossil fuels burning and the carbon dioxide
released from the cars running. With the rapid improvement of modern technology cars,
fireplaces, gas stoves, etcare hindering the earths atmosphere because of overpopulation and
over usage. Justin Gilles explains, Global emissions of greenhouse gases jumped 2.3 percent in
2013 to record levels, scientists reported the latest indication that the world remains far off track
in its efforts to control global warming. The increase of these and other gases from human

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activity has caused the planet to warm by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the preindustrial
era, which is causing land ice to melt all over the world.
The oceans are rising at what appears to be an
accelerating pace, and heat waves and torrential rains are
intensifying. If something is not done to stop, or at least
slow down the pace of hindering human activities, then
Earth citizens may result to extinction.

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Another major form of human activities influencing climate change is deforestation.
Deforestation destroys animal habitat reducing the survival rate of all species. The worlds rain
forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at this current rate. Forest soils are moist, but
without protection from sun-blocking tree cover, they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate
the water cycle by returning water vapor
back into the atmosphere. Without trees
to fill these roles, many former forest
lands can quickly become barren
deserts. Trees also play a critical role in
absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel
global warming. Fewer forests mean
larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and increased speed and severity
of global warming. The Editorial Board from the New York Times state that the world is losing
the equivalent of fifty soccer fields of forest every minute. This is affecting everyone because
trees release oxygen and trap carbon dioxide. But once the trees have fallen, they release the
carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. This does the Earth no good because it created a
counterproductive response from a human-made decision.
Why is the earths climate rapidly changing? How does it affect the people? Why does
knowing matter? It is vital to know and understand what causes the climate change, why the
earth is warming, and what can be done to preserve it to save the Earths population. Shelley
Tanaka shares that scientists have been warning everyone about global warming for more than
three decades. But many of the people are only now starting to get the message. The planet is
getting warmer, and the warming is happening at a rapid rate. (Tanaka 11). Climate change, once

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considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present. (Gillis). Carbon
dioxide is one of the major gases contributing to global warming, and increasing its
concentration will affect the amount of warming that occurs. The climate change is causing the
oceans to raise, the ice to melt, and the animals to die. The oceans are rising, the hurricanes are
intensifying, and the deaths are increasing. In the Antarctic, the ice is melting, creating a conflict
to the polar bears and other polar region animals. In the western states of America, droughts
reside as a problem. The winters are growing shorter, the rainstorms lessen, and the wildfires
intensify. Because the earth is so warm, when the climate produces precipitation, it provides an
almost counterproductive response because the sun evaporates it quickly. This is because the
climate is not providing enough rain to balance what is normally evaporated. The black tar roads
are formed and absorb heat, which is one of the many factors contributing to the warming of the
earth. Why does all this information matter? Most of earths population does not understand or
care to understand of the climate change. Knowledge is vital in this circumstance because it is
the day-to-day choices that continue to effect the change of climate. It is the decisions of the
people that control the fate of the future.
So what does it matter that the earth is warming, the oceans are rising, and the
atmosphere is toxic? What does it matter if the population is slowly annihilating one another
through over use of automobiles poisoning the air through carbon dioxide, rapid cutting down of
the trees that release oxygen, and not owning an ounce of concern toward any of this? It does
matter and it needs to stop permanently. Jared Diamond shares, There is no other planet to
which we can run for help, or to which we can export our problems. Instead we need to learn to
live within our means. (Tanaka 78). What is great about man-made decisions is that they can be
undone. The question is not the matter of if, but when. Climate change, once considered an

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issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present. (Gillis). Currently, the world needs
to adapt and lessen the impact. If the burning of the fossil fuels end today, the warming trend will
continue for several decades, as the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere continue to do
their works. Scientists estimate that the world would have
to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by forty to sixty
percent just to stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. Possible? Thomas Carlyle states, Doubt, of
whatever kind, can be ended in action alone. (Tanaka 90).
Steps that should be abided by are reducing emissions and usage of automobiles; develop
renewable energy like solar energy, wind power, etcdevelop new technologies that do not
collaborate with the burning of fossil fuels, and the planting of trees. The question one should
ponder is, What action needs to take place to prevent the population from extinction? Like
mentioned above, there are many factors contributing to the rapid changing of the climate and
most of them are man-made. The earth is in no danger, but its people are. The population seizes
control of the fate of the future. Will the human beings open their eyes and put a stop to the
obvious problem? Or will the earths inhabitants sit in arrogance until hearts stop beating? What
will the human race do?

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Works Cited
Tanaka, Shelley. Climate Change. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2006. Print.
Editorial Board. Losing Ground in the Amazon. The New York Times. The New York
Times, 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Gillis, Justin. Global Rise Reported in 2013 Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The New York
Times. The New York Times. 21 Sep. 2014. Web. 22 Sep. 2014.

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Gillis, Justin. U.S. Climate Has Already Changed, Study Finds, Citing Heat and Floods. The
New York Times. The New York Times. 6 May 2014. Web. 7 May 2014.
Solnit, Rebecca. Are We Missing the Big Picture on Climate Change? The New York Times.
The New York Times, 2 Dec 2014. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.