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How Have Humans Affected the Environment? - Coggle Diagram
How Have Humans Affected the Environment?
Evidence 1: How Does My Lifestyle Affect the Earth?
My current lifestyle is not great for the earth. Most of my ecological footprint is from the food I consume. My personal overshoot day is May 12th and if everyone lived like me we would need 2.7 earths. This doesn't seem very good but in the U.S. the average is 5. My carbon emissions were estimated as around 6.6 tonnes per year. Even though I think I need to work on my lifestyle( because it is bad for the earth), it is very important to help other people lower their emissions as well.
The big problem in The Summer I Turned Pretty is that the main character Belly has always loved Conrad. But he doesn't pay much attention to her and she is actually a lot closer to his brother Jeremiah. As she grows up they are both very protective of her and they both eventually realize how much they care. Conrad ends up thinking he's not as good as Jeremiah so he breaks Belly's heart and she ends up falling for Jeremiah since he has always been there for her and they are best friends. But the real problem is that Conrad still loves Belly and she still has some feelings for him.
Claim
Humans have greatly increased the number of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and have decreased the number of naturally occurring things that would have a stabilizing effect. We have surpassed the amount of resources we use in a year that the earth can still regenerate.
My connection is to The Summer I Turned Pretty because I recently read it and because there is conflict, things that happen that change the perspective of the characters, and a happy ending.
Conclusion
I knew a lot about how humans are changing the environment but I didn't know how exactly I was effecting the world or how we can help fix it.
I liked The Summer I Turned Pretty because even though there we some clichés there were a lot of realistic emotions to balancing loss and love and fighting with family.
Resources
Carbon Cycle
Climate Solution Debate
Carbon Footprint
Evidence 2: What Does Carbon Tell Us?
We have learned a lot from how carbon is affecting things in the environment. We know that the increase in greenhouse gases from human emissions is different for the environment because of the change in the carbon cycle and in the climate. The climate has changed a lot in the past, especially with life having such a big impact. Something as simple as the number of whales can change the entire climate and humans using up lots of resources and burning fossil fuels is changing a lot of things. The global temperature is rising because of the increased amounts of things like carbon and methane in the air. We are also changing the carbon cycle by burning fossil fuels. Most relationships within the carbon cycle are exchanges humans aren't really exchanging with anything.
Jeremiah and Belly are planning on getting married but when she finds out that Conrad still loves her she really struggle with her feelings. When Conrad himself confesses to her, things change but she still wants to marry Jeremiah. Jeremiah is very mad with Conrad because he has always been second to him and Belly finally saw him as more than a friend and because he hates Conrad for how many times he hurt Belly. But Jeremiah also knows that Conrad and Belly both love each other so he doesn't think he can go through with the wedding.
Evidence 3: What Solutions Do We Have?
After the failed wedding Belly spends a lot of time on herself and figuring out what she wants to do with her life. She spends some time studying abroad. She still talks to Jeremiah and after a long time she makes contact with Conrad. He got his life back on track again(it was kinda messed up after he broke Belly's heart and he lost someone close to him) and they eventually end up together and get married.
We have a lot of solutions but we will have to work together to make them successful. We can work to create greener transportation by going electric and making public transportation more common. By protecting and restoring the natural areas on our planet as well as eating more sustainably we can lower our emissions and help to reverse some of the negative effects. Reducing waste, reusing items (like clothing), recycling plastic and paper, and just simply sourcing our energy from renewable sources. There isn't a solution that is a clear best option, but instead using a combination of all of these can really help out our planet.