I am far from an expert on environmental issues, and if I am being honest, before this class I didn’t really know much about what issues our Earth is actually facing. After watching the documentary about overpopulation, it made me want to do some research on my own and find out more about what is going on. After doing some research online, one problem that I saw our environment is losing is biodiversity. This basically means that because of actions that are being performed by humans, species are going extinct. This is happening mainly because of pollution and also because we are taking some of their important resources. This really stuck out to me because I am always hearing about how different species are going extinct all over the world but I never really sit down and think about why they are actually going extinct. I’ve never thought that environmental problems that are being caused by humans had that big of an impact on different species.
Another environmental hazard that we as humans are causing is tobacco waste. According to the World’s Health Organization, “the manufacturing of tobacco products also produces an immense amount of waste. In 1995, the global tobacco industry produced an estimated 2.3 billion kilograms of manufacturing waste and 209 million kilograms of chemical waste.” I have always been taught that smoking is bad, but never for the environmental reasons. When I have been told before not to smoke, the reason behind it is because it is bad for my health, not bad for the environment. After reading about tobacco waste and how bad it is for our environmental environment, it made me really think about other things we do that are hazardous to our environment without even thinking about it.
I think it is neat how you related the overuse of hazardous products to the overuse of resources and how that is harmfully impacting the environment and causing animals to go extinct. Humans really do need to start living more sustainable lives and realizing how much effect we as humans have on this earth.
Lately I have been trying to get better about where and how I dispose of my cigarette butts when I’m finished in order to avoid littering and possibly harming animals like birds and dogs who could choke on them.
Thank-you for sharing your thoughts, Summer. I honestly never thought much about tobacco waste before.
There are interesting parallels with lobbying done by the tobacco industry and lobbying done by gas and oil industries (denial of the adverse health effects from smoking; denial of climate change).