The Hole Truth

Remember the hole in the ozone layer?

When I was in my teens and twenty's, the big environmental news was how the hole in the ozone layer is growing, letting in too much of the sun's radiation, which was going to increase humans problems associated with solar radiation.

Most scientists agreed, few were skeptical, about the cause. Humans were causing it.

The main cause of the hole is CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons, a result of human activity. Governments around the world got together to change manufacturing and distribution of products that contain this ozone destroying pollutant.

Now the hole is shrinking. I'd like to think this solution was a direct result of human action to stop ozone depletion, but that hasn't been determined yet.

Now the big environmental headline is Global Warming. I have also been hearing about the Greenhouse effect since I was very young, and understood it. The more we pollute the planet, the sicker our planet will become.

The Earth is alive. Either the earth will become sicker and sicker, or something will happen to eliminate the cause of this illness. I think, for the sake of our species, we need to do all we can to preserve the earth's health, or many species of animals, including humans, will suffer. Maybe not today, or the next generation, or even in the next hundreds of years, but it will come too soon for those who will bear the suffering.

Continued economic and population growth is unsustainable. We must put controls on this growth, before it destroys us.

Most scientists agree that Global Warming is caused by human activity on our planet. There are a few government paid skeptics, but even some of those have moved away denying the obvious. Skeptical scientists usually change their mind when they've studied the problem themselves.

In the latter part of the last century, countries around the earth have been moving to reverse the causes of Global Warming. Our current U.S. leaders have made bad decisions that have reversed these positive actions of environmental issues.

We all need to do what we can to reduce our "carbon footprint" on this planet. It begins with the little things you do everyday. In my honest opinion, and what common sense tells me, this is the right thing to do. It doesn't matter if others join me in my effort, I need to set the example. It is the only ethical way to live.

There are some great essays about the environment and human causes of our planets problems at Earth Meanders.

Added to Playlist - Would by Alice in Chains

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