For centuries, the manufacturing industry has depended on fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, as a main source of energy to drive economic development and power everything from homes to cars. Despite the positive influences of fossil fuels, society is beginning to solely depend on them as an energy source and as a result, irrevocable damage is being done on the environment in forms of pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, acid rain, and oil spills. Because of this, humans are forced to endure life-threatening and unavoidable tragedies that originate from obstructions of the environment. Energy is essential in a functioning society, but in order to restrict these detrimental effects, the industry must implement cleaner and more
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According to an article that discusses the consumption of fossil fuels in relation to anthropogenic climate change, “global warming and climate change caused by GHG emissions are strongly linked to fossil energy production and utilization” (Hook, 800). There have recently been new technological developments to efficiently burn fossil fuels, such as “fracking,” which is the process of injecting sand, water, and chemicals at high pressures “in order to blast open shale rock, releasing the trapped gas inside” (Easton, 174). This process causes toxic pollution by “contaminating water supplies and affecting wastewater treatment not designed to cope with such hazards” (174). This ultimately leads to methane leakages that cannot be sufficiently contained or prevented; they are also known to produce earthquakes in regions that utilize fracking. As a result, the Arctic Sea ice has melted to its lowest level ever, “reced[ing] to less than half the average level of the 1970s” (Easton, 174). Furthermore, past research shows that in November 2012, Greenland and West Antarctica “lost more than 4 trillion metric tons of ice over the last two decades, contributing to sea level rise” (174). This serves as a shock to scientists because these events suggest that the “sensitivity of the earth system to small increases in global average temperatures is greater than was previously thought” (174). Overall, this reflects the rising rates of global warming, which is beginning to produce extreme and unstable weather worldwide. If this continues to occur, the environment will be pushed to a “redline of 2°C and beyond -- to a world in which climate change is increasingly beyond our control” (177). Simply put, climate scientists are predicting that at this rate, the negative effects of climate change will eventually become irreparable. This
According to an article that discusses the consumption of fossil fuels in relation to anthropogenic climate change, “global warming and climate change caused by GHG emissions are strongly linked to fossil energy production and utilization” (Hook, 800). There have recently been new technological developments to efficiently burn fossil fuels, such as “fracking,” which is the process of injecting sand, water, and chemicals at high pressures “in order to blast open shale rock, releasing the trapped gas inside” (Easton, 174). This process causes toxic pollution by “contaminating water supplies and affecting wastewater treatment not designed to cope with such hazards” (174). This ultimately leads to methane leakages that cannot be sufficiently contained or prevented; they are also known to produce earthquakes in regions that utilize fracking. As a result, the Arctic Sea ice has melted to its lowest level ever, “reced[ing] to less than half the average level of the 1970s” (Easton, 174). Furthermore, past research shows that in November 2012, Greenland and West Antarctica “lost more than 4 trillion metric tons of ice over the last two decades, contributing to sea level rise” (174). This serves as a shock to scientists because these events suggest that the “sensitivity of the earth system to small increases in global average temperatures is greater than was previously thought” (174). Overall, this reflects the rising rates of global warming, which is beginning to produce extreme and unstable weather worldwide. If this continues to occur, the environment will be pushed to a “redline of 2°C and beyond -- to a world in which climate change is increasingly beyond our control” (177). Simply put, climate scientists are predicting that at this rate, the negative effects of climate change will eventually become irreparable. This