Pashales 1

John Pashales

Mrs. Klimas

English 10 Pre-AP, Period 4

17 January 2018

Current Environmental Issues

Denchak, Melissa. “Are the Effects of Global Warming Really That Bad?” NRDC, 25 July 2017,

www.nrdc.org/stories/are-effects-global-warming-really-bad.

Denchak, Melissa. “How You Can Stop Global Warming.” NRDC, 11 Dec. 2017,

www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming.

Melissa Denchak writes about how the Earth is changing due to higher temperatures during the

last few decades in her article “Are the Effects of Global Warming Really That Bad?”. She talks

about current issues that the world is facing both environmentally as well as economically. Using

examples of drastic changes in weather patterns, higher death rates, dirtier air, higher wildlife

extinction rates, higher level of acidity in oceans, as well as higher sea levels, Denchak is able to

describe the effects of higher carbon emissions as well as where this might lead us in the future.

Denchak says that by 2100 the average temperature of Earth can come as high as 8 degrees

fahrenheit. To put this into perspective, the already massive forest fires that we have in

California due to dryness could be exponentially higher as the dry season gets dryer and more

and more trees and shrubs and leaves are able to burn easier. The average dry season, as well as

wildfire season, could be expected to prolong to all year long. In addition to extended forest

fires, Denchak also talked about how sealife will also be affected by higher acidity in oceans.

According to Denchak over $110 million was lost in the Northwest oyster business due to the

decline of oysters dying from the over carbonated waters. Closely related to the sealife, the

wildlife on land will also be affected by higher temperatures, as the animals are moving outside
 Pashales 2

their regular migration patterns in search of cooler temperatures, resulting in their death with

more competition and less space provided for each animal. The average rate at which these wild

animals are disappearing is 114 times faster than it should be.

The main cause of global warming is human influences. These include the burning of

fossil fuels as well as deforestation which both play a major part in why the Earth is now dying.

The Earth is heating up and it is mostly the humans of Earth's fault. In order to cut down on the

warming of the Earth, us humans need to change our horrible habits. Major changes can be made

by not only large industries like Chevron, Exxon, Shell, and other major corporations that

produce the oil that is killing our environment, but also by the people of the world. We all know

that we should probably walk or bike or take public transportation more often but that takes away

from the busy day most americans live. Other changes like buying solar panels to be put on top

of your house is a great idea that doesn’t need to change your daily routine. Most of the energy

used to power your outlets is causing the demise of the United States’ climate change. When

fully charged electronic devices are left sitting plugged in, you are wasting tons of energy thus

causing more coal to be burned and more carbon to be released killing the environment a little

more every time. By unplugging your devices, you could save tons of energy and money, so

why not? Another change the community should make is to stop throwing away their food if they

didn’t finish it, especially meat! By throwing your food away, you are wasting carbon emissions

being used as well as money! You should not throw away your food because it will end up in a

landfill, take up space, and rot away as a waste of good food. The more meat you throw away,

the more cows, pigs, turkeys, and other animals have to be farmed and fed and the carbon

emissions coming from farms are insane. By lowering the amount of meat you need to buy, you

save an animal’s life, as well as your own as the amount of carbon emissions will slowly
 Pashales 3

decrease as time goes on. Denchak talks about how the world is being tortured by humans and

global warming and what the effects of climate change is but the solutions to global warming are

much more important and should be put into good use to save the planet from destruction.

“Global Warming Science.” Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-

warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-science#.Wl66xa2ZPBI.

Lavelle, Marianne, et al. “Coal Boss Takes Climate Change Denial to the Extreme.”

InsideClimate News, 12 Oct. 2017, insideclimatenews.org/news/11102017/climate-

denial-coal-industry-global-warming-robert-murray-energy.

Marianne Lavelle discusses Bob Murray’s stance of global warming in her article “Coal Boss

Takes Climate Change Denial to the Extreme”. Lavelle uses Murray’s comments on how he

believes climate change is a hoax and that the Earth is actually getting colder despite the

overwhelming facts that the actual opposite is occuring. Murray is a big supporter of President

Donald Trump as well as the fossil fuel methods of energy. President Donald Trump is also a big

supporter of the idea that global warming is a hoax as he has said so to the public via television

and social media. Murray has backed up President Trump’s allegations by saying that “The Earth

has cooled for the last 19 years” which is an inaccurate statement according to 97% of the

scientists who believe that climate change truly is real. Murray also says that carbon dioxide

should be repealed as a pollutant, “My standing is that the endangerment finding needs to be

repealed, that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant”. According to Murray, the world should do

nothing about climate change and global warming. Murray was indeed one of President Trump’s

biggest supporters in his decision to pull out of the Paris accord, which was a chance for the

world to reduce its carbon emissions and help with this crisis. In fact, he says that we should

increase the production of coal and other carbon rich ways of fuel and energy. Murray’s energy
 Pashales 4

company is not only skyrocketing their coal productions but it is at an all time high at 65 million

tons of coal per year.

Donald Trump is not a supporter of the idea of global warming. He aligns himself with people

who also believe the same ideas as him. Another large part of the world that is increasing rapidly

in heat is the oceans, and there is a graph to depict the increase in heat over the past 70 years and

the temperature of the ocean has nearly doubled very quickly. By Murray continuing his actions

and continuing to mine more coal than ever, not only are natural gases emerging but the coal is

being burned at an exponential rate. The way we can stop this trend of coal being burned is by

using solar power fuel the energy needs of society. By using solar power, not only the will the

solar power industry rise, but the coal industry will decrease until there is no more need for coal

to be mined at all. For this reason, Murray is probably scared of the future bankruptcy that may

come if more and more people go solar over time and the need for coal is diminished to nothing.

Murray isn’t just saying that he doesn’t believe in global warming because he doesn’t, he is

saying it so that his business can thrive and produce more and more income every single year for

a long time. Murray also denied the claim that carbon emissions harm the human body and that

unless there was overwhelming and real evidence that he would continue to disagree with the

claims that global warming is real. In fact, he said that he will dismiss mainstream assessments

of global warming as a hoax. Murray and Trump are two example of men who are teaming

together against the ideas that 97% of scientists have claimed in order to keep business booming.