Have you ever seen an example of how fast our environment is degrading?  I have.  I have seen the CO pouring out into the air, the huge clear-cut areas, our natural resources lessening, and many, many more.  After spending my life looking at these I know we need to do something fast.  (Or have mass extinction fall upon us.

   I believe we need to do something fast because factories and cars are putting pollution into the air.  Did you know:

1.    The CO trend changed in mid-1980s from ~1% increase per year increase to stability or decline. Boundary layer concentration was observed to diminish faster (up to a few % per year) than CO total column. The latter may be an artifact associated with a sparse network or limited periods of GC measurements.

2.    About half of the change in CO long-term trend (~0.6% per year) can be explained by a growth of CO sink (OH concentration) caused by ozone decline and increase of UV.

3.    The rest of the change in CO trend may be attributed to a change in CO sources (human-induced emissions, biomass burning or photochemical conversion of hydrocarbons).

.  In case you were wondering carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that can cause sudden illness and death if inhaled. Carbon monoxide is produced by gasoline engines, stoves, generators, lanterns and gas ranges, or by burning charcoal and wood.   Another time I got well acquainted with pollution is whenever we on our way to downtown Seattle.  We always pass right by the cement and paper factories.  If you’ve been down there you can smell the pollution in the air, and see harmful pollutants pouring out in the form of black smoke.  Have you ever thought “gee, I’m breathing that?”  

   Also, I believe we need to do something quick because our fossil fuels are running out faster than they are filling.  For example, oil went from 20$ per barrel in 1990 to   40$ per barrel in 2005.  On the other hand coal prices in 2007 were 42$ and in 2008 were 96$.  This means that we have less coal and oil left, because price rises are caused by low supply.

   I believe we need to do something quick because our coal and nuclear power plants are polluting the earth.  For instance in the whole US 5 million tons of that “smoke” into the air each year, while our nuclear power plants put approx. 1600 tons of radioactive material into the ground annually.   While it may be true that we need this power there are other ways to get it.

   I believe we need to do something quick because our natural resources are rapidly diminishing.   Frequently you will be hiking or driving and will see a huge clear-cut area.  I saw one and the thought that struck my mind was how much less oxygen each of those trees where producing now.  Doing some research I found out that each of those trees produced, if sold, 120,000 dollars of oxygen a year.  A 50 year old tree might net 5,000 in wood.  At present date natural gas is ~$13.07 per thousand cubic feet, in 1995 it was 2.26   Again the supply is diminishing and the demand increasing.

   Now that you have read about the horrors we are causing daily hopefully you’ll do something for the environment.  It could be something as installing an energy efficient fluorescent bulb, to buying a hybrid, to installing a renewable energy source power system to power the neighbor hood.  If you don’t do something the question is when, not will.