Page 13 - The Wisdom Digest 2023-01
P. 13
Essay Award Grade 9
By: Lee Zi Qing
HOW ARE WE AFFECTING
THE ENVIRONMENT
Many people already know that humans have a
significant impact on earth and its environment, but
they do not realize to what extent. Humans have There are already many cases of marine animals
choking to death, most notably sea turtles which
been slowly but surely polluting the planet we stay mistake plastic bags for jellyfish. Nowadays, a big
on. At this point, we as a collective are a parasite to contributor to the environment’s downfall is fast
our host, Mother Earth. Over the past century, many fashion. Brands that are sold online for instance,
toxic man- made chemicals have been corrupting mass-produce low-quality clothing that is trendy.
the Earth. Things like nuclear bombs being made And once it is no longer trendy, most of the time
caused harmful toxins released into the air and the the buyer throws it away which adds to landfills.
soil. There are also many cases of nuclear waste The mass production of clothing also destroys our
being dumped into the ocean or buried in the soil atmosphere as it takes up a lot of energy from
fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide into the
instead of being disposed of properly.
air. Many of the technology we use also adds to
As a result, many types of wildlife cannot reside the problem is things such as cars, air-condition-
in their natural habitat anymore, otherwise, they ers, and even the lights that are in almost every
building. They all add carbon dioxide to the atmo-
would die or even go extinct, this ruins the ecosys- sphere, thus causing global warming. Forests
tem’s delicate balance.Thankfully, there are many being chopped down illegally only makes things
non-profit organizations now that are trying to fix worse. So, we should try and reduce how much
this. A well-known reason is a plastic. Plastic did electricity we use as it comes from fossil fuels.
not exist in nature and therefore takes a long time
to breakdown. However, it is being produced at a Thankfully, people are now trying to reduce the
high rate constantly and you can see it everywhere. damage caused to the environment by replanting
But plastic is not being recycled and instead thrown many tree saplings, cleaning up the ocean, and
recycling whenever they can. Some countries are
out. It is then dumped in a landfill or somewhere in banning fossil fuels and instead generating energy
the ocean where it ruins the environment. through windmills, like Switzerland. Thanks to the
media, global warming is being acknowledged
more and taken as a serious issue. Hopefully,
we can impact the Earth positively within the
next century.
