Argumentative Essay On Recycling

People inhale oil fumes and suffer with asthma. There are a million ways that oil is destroying human lives, but if we get off land and go underwater, oil’s damaging effect on the oceans’ habitats adds the more reasons to strive for the use of alternative energy sources. Since oil began to be used widely as a fuel, there hasn’t been a year without a copious number of oil spill incidents. In the US alone, the Office of Response and Restoration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) responds to over a hundred oil spills each year (NOAA). While spills happen on both land and water, ocean spills are much more difficult to contain and recover from.

Gulf Deep-water Oil Spill The Gulf oil spill is considered the worst oil spill and one of the worst environmental disasters in the U.S. history. It was April 20th, 2010, that the Deepwater BP oil rig exploded and penetrated in the Gulf of Mexico sea. The Gulf oil explosion killed 11 workers but most of the impact was on marine species such as turtles, herons, gulls, birds, fishes, and sea mammals. Moreover, 16,000 total miles of coastline have been affected, including the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida due to the release of about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the sea.

In San Francisco on April 18, 1906 at about 5:13 am a HUGE earthquake hit recorded as a 7.7-7.9 . Damaging buildings from left to right. Many poorly structured buildings collapsed causing 500 million dollars in total damage (1906 money) translated to about 8.2 billion dollars today. It was recorded that most buildings immediately caught fire which trapped the victims, about 25,000 buildings were burnt down from the fire, a total of about 490 blocks.

Oceans are threatened daily by both natural and manmade pollution, as the largest factor affecting them is plastic. Over the last decade, there has been more plastic produced compared to the last 100 years (“How Ocean Pollution Impacts Marine Life-and All of Us”). Around 100 millions tons of plastic is produced every year and 10 percent of that plastic ends up in the sea. Many sources are the cause of ocean litter including trash that washes off city streets, waste blown in from landfills, and containers that fall off ships during heavy storms. Many marine mammals mistake these for food (Greer, Abigail).

Massive tons of deadly chemical weapons had been produced for Soviet Union in the secret city of Dzerzhinsk during the periods of Cold War. Accompanying with the fall of Soviet Union, many chemical based factories had been abandoned and over 300,000 tons of chemical waste was not properly disposed and thoroughly cleared. The water is not safe for consumption as the levels of phenol and dioxin are 17 million times above the recommended safer levels. On average, a woman can live to 47 years while a male’s average life expectancy is no more than 42 years

Abstract The Deepwater Horizon Rig explosion that occurred on 20th April, 2010 resulted in approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil been released into the Gulf of Mexico for months and will go down in history as the biggest and most catastrophic oil spill to ever to occur. This research discusses the underlying issues that caused the explosion. The effect on the stakeholders, BP’s response to the crisis and the different approaches they could have taken before and after the accident.

According to the World Economic Forum, it was the second most expensive volcanic eruption in the world costing approximately $860 million US dollars (Figure 4). Repairs include the removal of 900 thousand tons of ash, rebuilding homes and businesses, repairing damaged bridges roads and railways (Mount St. Helens: Effects on people and economy). Another negative impact was that most of the trees were destroyed, blown to the ground or covered in mud from the landslide during the eruption loosing lots of valuable timber (Figure 5), this meant that people working in the lumber industry around the area of the volcano lost their jobs and had to move (United States Trade Commission report to Congress 1980). In areas with thick fall of ash, farming lands were covered, destroying crops such as wheat, apples, potatoes and alfalfa (United States Geological Survey,

Water Pollution Since Cuba is a primary tourist state with many industries , it creates tons of waste annually. In a year, roughly about 113.5 gallons of seawater are subject to the dumping of agricultural, industrial, and urban waste. Furthermore, 864 gallons of water in lakes and rivers throughout the country is also contaminated. A large part of the contamination comes from the ground after plants and trees have been soaked in fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides.

And India has the world's highest number of people without access to clean water, imposing a major financial burden for some of the country's poorest people. (World Water Day 2016) The effects of water pollution are Harm to the blood, damage to the brain, long-term buildup, and insidious uptake. (Sanburn, Josh, Sean Gregory, and Alexandra Sifferlin) Some 3.6 million people - including 1.5 million children - are estimated to die each year from those water-related diseases, including diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and dysentery.

Chromium pollution has a major impact on the environment and restoring contaminated soil is difficult. In August 2011, ” a factory called Luliang Chemicals in Yunnan had dumped 5,000 tonnes of toxic chromium tailings on a hillside in the township of Yuezhou. The resulting water pollution killed fish and livestock, endangered the drinking water of tens of millions of people”[1].

Is there a better way to dispose of waste? Pollution is one of the biggest killers, affecting more than 100 million worldwide. The garbage dumped in the ocean every year is roughly around 14 billion pounds. Approximately 46% of the lakes in America are extremely polluted and risky for swimming, that is almost half the lakes in America.

In San Diego the world’s largest desalination plant is being built, this has cost over $1 billion and is allegedly going to be able to desalinate over 50 million gallons of water a day. This is an extremely expensive endeavour and will supposedly only supply San Diego with 7% of the water it needs. However not everyone is behind this solution. Many people claim that desalination is an energy wasteful process, is extremely expensive and can damage the environment, particularly marine life. When the seawater is sucked in to be desalinated, plankton and fish and even birds can be sucked in and killed as well.

Hurricane Katrina and previous Hurricane Rita, destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, damaged 457 oil and gas pipelines, and spilled nearly as much oil as the Exxon Valdez oil disaster” (useconomy.about.com). Katrina was said to have knocked out 95% of oil production in the Gulf, which is a key supplier for the U.S. economy. Oil prices at one point jumped to $70 dollars a barrel and gas prices in some areas reached nearly $5 dollars a gallon. In an attempt to alleviate the shortage the U.S. government released 30 million gallons of oil from the county’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), trying to keep up with the high

The 1977 eruption raised awareness of the unique dangers posed by Nyiragongo, and because of this it was designated a Decade Volcano, worthy of particular study, in 1991. About 147 people died in a 2002 eruption from asphyxiation by carbon dioxide and buildings collapsing due to the lava and earthquakes. At least 15% of Goma comprising 4,500 buildings were destroyed, leaving about 120,000 people homeless. The eruption was the most destructive effusive eruption in modern

In Yakima alone, it took 10 weeks to remove all the ash that had fallen. The volcano continued to erupt for 6 years after the initial blast. Violently at first, then slowly leaking lava that has now formed a lava dome that is 920 feet high (USGS). The eruption and secondary natural disasters served as hazards as they harmed and affected the people living nearby. This affliction to human health and well being has enabled policy change to better protect people living near this massive natural hazard.