If you're like most people, than you prefer to take a car when it comes to getting around, as many teenagers are getting their licenses and beginning to drive; they see the benefits of owning a car, but what most people don't consider is that one gallon of gas creates 22 pounds of carbon dioxide. It's small things like this that people seem to neglect that are affecting the environment at a continuous and dangerous rate, and the problems are only going to get worse. That's why i and many other people realize it is too late to change the damage we have done to the environment.

It doesn't seem like the environment is changing, or does it? Not only is the environment changing, but it's changing at a dangerous level. Scientist have already documented shrinking of glaciers along with lakes and rivers, our global temperature has increased by 1 degree fahrenheit in the 20th century - which doesn't seem like much, but in fact it's a large jump over a short period of time, evidence from tree rings and ice cores shows that the average temperature has been stable for a long period of time before the existence of humans, and many scientist are confident that the temperature will continue to rise due to greenhouse gasses produced by human activities. 1,300 scientist from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have confidently forecasted the temperature to be 2.5 to 10 degrees higher by the next century. To put that in perspective, the last ice age, which covered the United States with more than 3,000 feet of ice, was only 5 to 9 degrees cooler than today.We humans are the main reason for the increase in global temperatures, because we are industrialized and burn many of our fossil fuels, we emit 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Not only are we polluting our atmosphere at a dangerous rate, we are cutting down trees that are cleaning the air and producing oxygen at a scary 3 - 6 billion each year.

Cutting down trees is just one example of how we humans are modifying the environment in such a harmful way that many organisms are paying for it irreversibly. One study in nature shows that in the next 50 years, a quarter of the world's animals and plants could become extinct. that's around a million species. This is all due to us taking over many natural habitats like swamps, forests, lakes and other habitats that are home to many species. It's no coincidence that one of the largest polluting countries is experiencing evident changes to its environment, right now in China, droughts are becoming significantly longer and much more frequent, some 28,000 rivers have already vanished, and on the coast, harsh rainfall and rising sea levels threaten floods to the cities like Shanghai. We produce a ton of garbage and pollution, in fact we produce over 2.6 trillion pounds of garbage each year. This is a huge problem because many animals and plants are coming into contact with hazardous objects and the land needed to store the garbage is taking over many habitats. Ocean biomes are also affected by human activities, according to scientific studies, many different fish and water organisms are declining around the world, this is due to global pollution and fishing by humans.

But why do we do all this? Why do we pollute so much and take over many habitats? One tremendous reason is the fact that human population growth requires more of everything, and ultimately affects the environment. The human population is growing at around 76 million each year and is expected to continue increasing. The United Nations global report shows that by the end of the century the world's population will be 10 billion people. Because our population is growing, we will require more natural resources, James Lovelock - an expert on global environment issues and a scientist, agrees that we will see a dramatic struggle for water, food, and other everyday needs increase everywhere. In order to supply the increasing humans population with food, farmers need to produce more, much more. "In order to feed ourselves in the next 40 years, we will need to produce more food than the entire agricultural output of the past 10,000 years combined". We will need to produce 70 percent more food by 2050, that's more than 200 billion tons of everything. Because we need this much more food, we will need much more water to support it. Today, farmers are using 4.2 million liters of water each year, and will require much more by 2050 and the end of the century.

The root of all pollution is industry, it is no coincidence that since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we have seen a great change in the environment. Industrial pollution causes many problems as it affects our drinking water, air, land, and has even caused major environmental disasters. Industries are a huge threat to the environment, they take over habitats, use extensive amounts of natural resources and for the first time in history has emitted more than 400 million ppm of co2 into the atmosphere. This is why scientist like James LoveLock are seeing evidence of global temperature change, with rising emissions, temperatures could rise as much as 10 degrees by the end of the century. The problem isn't just on the wildlife, but also us. "The air smelled like a dead body" that was just one of the many complaints that the residents of River North had against industries in the area. The problem only gets worse as these companies that are responsible for the large pollution won't change the way they function, they deny responsibility to any of the pollution, even when presented with evidence. It goes to show how people are not willing to change the damage on the environment.

The problem isn't just large industries, the problem is also the average person. We are continuing to use more natural resources at a high rate. The average household uses 5400 kilowatts of electricity each year, keep in mind that a light bulb uses .1 kilowatts of energy per hour. Along with using large amounts of energy, Americans use a large amount of plastic, it takes about 1.5 billion barrels of oil to produce plastic water bottles, and just 23 percent of all bottles are recycled, meaning that 52 billion bottles end up in landfills or are littered. U.S costumers also used 91 billion plastic bags in 2006, which required 12 million barrels of oil, and only 7 percent were recycled, meaning that 93 percent ended up in oceans, trees, homes of animals and landfills. Remember how one gallon of gas creates 22 pounds of co2? In the U.S, we have bought over 200 million cars, that's a total of 4.4 billion pounds of co2. It's fair to say that industries are not the only problem the environment faces. But let's not forget that industries depend on people like you, they need to produce whatever society wants, and most of the time it's damaging the environment.

Many people believe that it's not too late to change the damage we have done to the environment, and others believe that global warming and other problems that we have caused are not evident today, despite all the evidence showing it is. President Barack Obama wanted to make a statement at at the Coast Guard Academy this May, "I know there are still some folks back in Washington who refuse to admit that climate change is real, and on a day like today, it's hard to get too worried about it, the science is indisputable, the planet is getting warmer". Some people have come to the realization of the issue and are willing to do their part by recycling and using energy more wisely. Nations like the U.S and Japan, who have made a pledge to reduce their greenhouse gasses, are among the few who have realized the impact we have on the environment. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said that the nation would push to reduce their greenhouse gasses by 26 percent, that's a great goal as Japan is one of the top five polluting countries in the world. The facts is that unless we get the majority of people on earth to get active on the issue, nothing is going to change, in fact, the damage is going to continue. It is true that recycling can save us 1,665 gallons of gas and planting trees and seeds can help future environments, and with many schools and the general public being more open to the issue, they are willing to take a stand and do their part. But the sad truth is that not enough people are involved and industries along with growing populations that require more natural resources are growing and making the problem worse.

Because of the industrial revolution we have developed some of the greatest inventions and innovations that are harming the environment. And if it weren't for the industrial revolution our population wouldn't be so large, a large population is both good and bad. Depending on how that population acts and treats the environment. As we see today, not many people are doing anything for this growing problem, and along with all the other issues that are taking place, it seems as if it's too late to change the damage we have done to the environment. It's important to understand that we can change this issue, but by the time we realize how bad it really is, it would be too late to do anything affective.