Save the World Starting at Home
Crystal Meeks
SCI207: Dependence of Man on the Environment (GSM1135A)
Instructor: Jeff Kingsbury
August 29, 2011

Save the World Starting at Home There are many different resources that the human population took for granted for many years and now we see so many of the destructive results that have to be dealt with. Habits of whole populations have to be changed in order to thwart a steady decline of our eco-system. These changes will involve educating people about the land and air around them. Urban and Suburban development is an area that needs to be addressed as it one of the main cause for the loss of land. Farm land is being destroyed in the United States and from 1982 to 1992, just ten years; the United States lost 4,000,000 acres to urban and suburban development land that was considered to “prime” farmland. This type of land is the land that is used for growing most crops because of its enriched soils and climate. To make matters worse the United States lost another 266,000 acres of “unique” during the same time period; land that is used for growing uncommon or rare crops. Once this land is gone it would take a miracle to ever regain its usage so essentially it is just lost forever. There are several ways to combat the loss of land so that we retain what we have for survival purposes. One way would first have to address population growth. If families were limited to having two children per family the impact to living space would be reduced in some families as well as the usage of other resources such as water, electricity and natural gases. People of all economic backgrounds should also consider living in smaller more efficient housing rather than squandering money on houses with more space than is needed and further from places of employment. By addressing these two areas of land loss there would be a stabilization of land and decrease in erosion of land and natural water ways that are cause by urban and suburban development; more land would be saved for farming and the use of natural resources would be reduced by using more efficient housing with appliances that are eco friendly. By losing our land to the urban and suburban developments it also affects other areas of the eco- system. As people seek to get further away from cities and smog to wide open spaces, they use more gasoline. There have been recent laws that have been passed that require vehicles have emission controls installed to help reduce the air pollutants. This is great but this could be further addressed by the people themselves by educating themselves about their environment and then by using other methods of transportation. In big cities everyday there is an emersion of vehicles on the roadways filled with people trying to get to work. If at least half of these people were to start riding bikes or walking short distances not only would they lesson the emissions that pollute our air but they would also find that they benefit from the exercise as well. Finding housing closer to places of employment would decrease the usage of vehicles as well. Another way to decrease the emissions is by using public transportation whenever possible or creating car pools. Moving further from places of employment, schools, places of worship and shopping centers may be prettier on the eyes and smell better but it increases the amount of pollutants that are being put into our atmosphere therefore creating a temporary fix. We need to learn the basics and break the habits that we have gotten so use to in order to break the constant abuse and strain that we have been increasingly put on our planet and the atmosphere surround it. If we fail to recognize the devastating habits we have formed then we may continue to grow and deplete our resources until there is not enough to sustain human life.

References
Chetty, M., Tran, D., & Grinter, R. (n.d.). Understanding Resource Consumption. Getting to Green, 1-10. Abstract retrieved August 2011,from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ ~marshini/files/getting_to_green.pdf
Turk, J., & Bensel, T. (2011). Land Use Change and Biodiversity Loss. In E. Evans, P. Galuardi, C. Kreger-Boaz, & J. Anderson (Eds.), Contemporary Environmental Issues (pp. 4.1-4.5). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUSCI207.11.1/sections/copyright