Want to know more about the environment? You’ve come to the
right place. Here are some of the most pressing and talked-about environmental
issues of this day and age. For more information about how you can help the
environment, visit the Action page.
Global Warming
Made famous most recently by former vice president Al Gore’s
Oscar-winning movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, global warming threatens to
change the earth’s climate in a dangerous way. Human beings create certain
chemicals, called greenhouse gases, when we burn fossil fuels like oil and
natural gas. These gases accumulate in the Earth’s atmosphere and cause a
warming trend over time. They hold in heat near the earth’s surface, much in
the way a greenhouse stays warm inside. If emissions of greenhouse gases are
not reduced, scientists predict that the earth may warm dangerously, causing
the ice caps to melt and raising the levels of oceans so far that they destroy
human settlements.
Recycling
Everyone can recycle. It’s as easy as throwing trash away.
All that’s required is a little information. Recycling is typically quite easy
for residents in the north Dallas/Richardson area. Most cities offer simple,
convenient, curbside pickup of recyclables. Check with your city to see what
you can do.
Recycling takes discarded materials (like plastic bottles,
aluminum cans, and cardboard) and converts them into new, raw materials.
Generally, the old material is shredded and melted at a recycling facility.
Then it can be transported or sold to a factory that will use the new material
to make products. So, when you recycle an aluminum can, instead of sitting in a
landfill, it becomes a new can, with as much as a 90% reduction in waste.
Water Conservation
Water is a precious resource that all living things need to
survive. Since all the water in the earth continually moves and circulates, it
is everyone’s responsibility to share it. You can conserve water every day, in
small things that you might not even think about, such as leaving the faucet
off while you brush your teeth or by taking shorter showers. Saving water means
that there is more for everyone. There is only so much to go around.
