Apes has changed my life.

This year, I took APES (AP Environmental Science). I didn't think it would be a significant class. I just wanted to avoid chemistry because I'm afraid to take it. Something about chemistry kind of frightens me. So, I avoided chemistry and opted to take APES this year and then take physics the following year. I didn't realize how much APES would change my perspective about the earth and pollution. As the year went on, I started to notice that I would feel guilty about not recycling, driving instead of walking, buying from companies that rely on child labor, etc. I think APES should be a required class because it makes you care about the environment. Humans have always altered their environment to satisfy their needs. These alterations were at first negligible, like small scale agriculture and chopping down trees for homes. However, we began to believe that we could do whatever we wanted with the earth. As technology has progressed, our ability to do real damage to the earth has increased. We, as a society, should care about the environment because once a certain point of pollution and environmental degradation is reached; we can’t reverse what we have done. Fresh water is something everyone needs to survive. 98% of the world’s water is found in oceans, meaning only 2% is fresh water. Of that fresh water, 70% is frozen in glaciers,only about 0.024% of the earth’s water supply is readily available to us as liquid freshwater. Fresh water is not a renewable resource when used unsustainably. Some places, like the United States, have plenty of fresh water for people to sue. The poorest people are the ones who suffer the most from shortages of fresh water. According to a study by the UN, 1.1 Billion people don’t have access to water for cooking, cleaning and drinking and 2.6 billion don’t have access to basic sanitation. This imbalance in water use between social classes is because of corporate monopolization of water use. Big companies, like Coca Cola, for example, take water from aquifers in poor areas of India where citizens themselves struggle to afford drinking water and use it in their bottling plants. The irresponsible use of fresh water is an environmental problem and a moral responsibility. The increasing human population is the biggest problem with degrading out environment. This is because the larger the population, the more resources necessary to support it.Many question whether an adequate standard of living for everyone is possible with 7 billion people on this earth.   The earth’s population started out small, as a whole not much was affected. As technology has increased our ability to pollute has as well. A growing population only makes this worse, with billions of people consuming nonrenewable resources daily, leaving an ever increasing ecological footprint. The largest problem is that more people create a larger demand for more space. This demand is satisfied by clearing trees for places to live and most often farmland to feed our growing population. Rapid deforestation is especially devastating to the environment. The burning of trees releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a gas largely responsible for global climate change. These trees were once preventing extra carbon dioxide to enter the atmosphere by absorbing it via respiration. When these forests are gone, habitats are destroyed. Habitat loss is the number one cause of species extinction. Many people believe that the best way to protect endangered species is protecting them from poachers and exotic pet trades, but protection from these businesses only goes so far. The majority of species loss occurs when an animal loses its native habitat and is forced to compete for resources in a foreign environment. While there are many negative aspects about the environment that we should without question care about, there are new technologies that will help improve our situation. Renewable energy is quickly becoming part of our daily lives. Using water for power isn’t a new idea. Windmills, which have been around for centuries, use the energy from a flowing river to crush grain. Today, hydroelectric power is generated by building dams on large bodies of water. We can use the wind to turn a turbine and generate electricity without any pollutants or external resources. The sun is the supreme energy source for all life on earth. Photovoltaic cells convert solar energy directly into electric energy. These cells can be incorporated into glass windows and stored on the roofs of virtually any building. Although solar energy is only 1% of the world’s current energy supply, by 2040 photovoltaic cells could potentially account for 25%. We should care about the environment because it affects all of us where we live. As humans, we are responsible for the care of the earth, and we know we haven’t been doing a great job. Now is a crucial time for environmental awareness. If we do nothing and continue a life of irresponsible resource use and pollution causing our climate change, we will soon reach a point where our negative contributions cannot be stopped. At the same time, technologies to support responsible resource use are being developed, presenting a great opportunity to become environmentally responsible. We should care about the environment to preserve life for our future generations and because it is what’s right. I think that some form of environmental science should be required for any student, kind of like how government and econ are required to graduate. Not everyone has to take AP, but maybe an easier version where everyone watches lots of documentaries.