Environmental Issues

There are many environmental issues facing our world today. If I were given a year to improve the earths environment I would focus on one issue the world faces today, it is our dependence on oil. This dependence we have is so strong we have started wars, killed and deceived people for oil. I think it is time we do something about it and try and find an alternative form of energy. Because soon this problem will be too much for us to handle and by then it will be too late.

Oil has become a pressing issue for both the Malaysia and the world in the past century partly to the fact that we are either too lazy or some people are too greedy to find an environmentally sound solution to our increasing dependence on it. There are many environmental problems linked to oil both directly and indirectly.

These are just a few solutions to this problem but we need to act on them now or else it will be to late because by then we will be involved in a tragic war over it or our earths atmosphere will have become so polluted the changes are irreversible. If it were up to me these things would be put into affect now we would live in a much cleaner and much safer environment such as the often to frequent oil spills all over the world. One cause to this problem is the use of outdated and poorly maintained oil tankers. One obvious solution to this problem is the constant maintenance and purchase of new oil tankers. Another would be the close inspection of these tankers yearly by an international authority that could deem them seaworthy or not.

After blow drying and stiffening their hair with hair spray, Americans jump into their sports utility vehicles and head off to work with their air conditioner blasting, looking forward to sitting in an air-conditioned office all day. This is just a small part of American's unthinking lifestyle that impacts our environment minute-by-minute everyday. The lifestyle of most Americans is detrimental to our environment. Americans use and abuse what the earth has to give, taking its natural resources and leaving in their place pollution. Just a few examples of how Americans contribute to distroying the environment include the greenhouse effect, over consumption of natural resources, and pollution of the water and air.

Until the majority of Americans decide to change the way that they live day-to-day, the environment will become progressively worse. There have been a number of attempts to better the environment such as public transportation and car pool lanes but this is only drop in the bucket. Until Americans begin to utilize these opportunities, make conscientious efforts to become more educated about the impact of their actions, and willingly give up or develop alternatives for their harmful luxuries, things will only get worse.

In The Press Democrats Sunday edition of 11-12-00, there was an article about how President Clintonwas calling for a new federal regulation,