In the U.S. we rely more on the burning of fossil fuels more than any other country. Retrieving such forms of fuel can be extremely detrimental to the land and animals that surround the site. Drilling for oil is one particular way that fuel is obtained that has caused severe damage to all types of living things. Due to the increasing demand for oil, there are plans to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refugee, which is the home of many different species. Burning fuels like oil and coal is also extremely dangerous and threatens all human life no matter how far they live from a power a plant. One major way we are all affected is by the extreme climate change from the release of green house gases. There are also more immediate harms to the health of the public when the air and water are polluted by the constant use of coal and oil burning power plants. Most asthma, some birth defects and even some fatalities are related to fossil fuel use. The best way to help this situation, or at least prevent it from escalating, is to replace some of our energy with clean, renewable resources.
[...] They developed the California Clean Energy Bill which would raise the state's reliance on clean energy to twenty percent. After getting the necessary funding and doing the research the Governor finally declared his support of the bill. Less than two years after the power outage, governor signed the California Clean Energy Bill, ensuring that by 2017 California will produce nearly as much clean energy as all 49 other states combined” (PIRG). As shown by the events in California, energy has become a crisis and renewable energy is a promising solution. [...]
[...] The Energy Efficiency Standards Bill is in several states and has been passed in Rhode Island already. This bill would take common appliances and make them more efficient; for example, replacing traffic light bulbs and exit sign bulbs with ones that use 90% less electricity than the current ones. These standards would also save energy consumers billions of dollars on their electricity bills. Using less power means less power plants so the Global Warming pollution would decrease. Passing bills like this creates a win win situation for all parties and atmospheres involved. [...]
[...] Even one contaminated fish can spread sickness through the food chain and effect everything else on the land. It is true the drilling would make hundreds of thousands of jobs available but, since the designated area is in the northern region of the refuge, all those people would have to live on the refuge causing a ripple affect of damage. It is not worth damaging such precious lands just to get oil that we should not be burning anyway. It may be hard for some people to relate to the issues in Alaska, but even in Massachusetts the affects of burning fossil fuels are evident. [...]
[...] There are differing views on climate change and green house gases, but the facts show that Carbon Dioxide levels this high should not be possible for the world to exist in its current state. In some places we can already see damage caused directly by this climate change. The Inupiaq Eskimo village is on an island 625 miles north of the coast of Alaska where thawing ice has swallowed over one hundred feet of coastline into the ocean. On the island, “Giant waves have washed away the school playground and destroyed $100,000 worth of boats, hunting gear and fish-drying racks . [...]
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