Alex Miller
Lutz
English 151
English 151
Multimodal Essay
5/9/2011
The Conservation of Natural Resources
The conservation of natural resources has been a growing concern throughout the years since global warming is increasing. The result is a severe climate change but there are ways to help this problem. There are opportunities to greatly reduce energy intensity through gains in efficiency. These gains could be made by both technological advances and price induced substitution (Reilly and Crimmins 28). Even though this is an important issue people are still careless with our environment and do not realize how important it is to take care of it. This might be because people do not really know what it is all about.
The Earth is not running out of fossil fuels but the continued reliance on fossil fuels is altering Earth’s energy balance. The risks of extreme temperature changes and subsequent impacts will grow substantially unless concrete actions are taken (Reilly and Crimmins). Fossil fuels are used for gas, airplane fuel, heating homes, electricity and cooking food (Fossil Fuels).

People refer to what is happening to the Earth as the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect is the idea that even the smallest action can initiate a big change (Olmsted 42). Even just turning on a light bulb emits more carbon into the atmosphere adding to global warming (Olmsted 43). This is just one person but everyday billions of people in the world turn on a light bulb and that turn the little amount of carbon into a giant amount being released into the atmosphere.

Recycling is a big part in conserving resources and could really help slow down or even stop the negative things happening to our environment. More and more people have started recycling but still not enough people are doing it. I think the reason most people don’t is because it may take more time than just throwing everything in a trash can where it is sent to a land fill. More places around the United States are providing people with recycling units. Colleges, for example, have started doing this and I think it is a step in the right direction to getting other people to join in on recycling. My roommate and I both recycle but other people I know at college don’t. Some of the reasons I have heard for choosing not to recycling is that “it doesn’t matter” and “nothing bad is going to happen if we keep doing things the way we always have.” Both of these statements are completely wrong. Recycling does matter and could have a huge impact on global warming. For the second reason I think I have provided more than enough information to prove this statement to be false.
One of my biggest concerns of people not recycling enough are plastic bottles. So many people use plastic water bottles and then just throw them away when they are done with them. Fifty-one billion plastic bottles go into landfills annually and it takes seven hundred years for a bottle to start to decompose (Foss Manufacturing Company, LLC). Fifty-one billion water bottles could wrap around the Earth five times (Foss Manufacturing Company, LLC).


I’m hoping that more people will start becoming more concerned with our planets future and make changes in what they do to help stop global warming. This is something that will effect everyone and even the small contributions will make a difference.
Works Cited
“A Guide to Alternative Sources of Energy.” Sourcing3 Buyer & Supplier Magazine. 06 May 2011. <http://sourcing3.com/blog/a-guide-to-alternative-sources-of-energy/>.
“Conservation of Natural Resources.” Natural Conservation. Land Conservancy, 01 March 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.clslc.org/4/conservation-of-natural-resoucres>.
“Ecospun is now Eco-fi.” Foss Manufacturing Company, LLC. Foss Manufacturing Company, LLC, n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.fossmfg.com/bu_ecospun.cfm>.
“Fossil Fuels.” Fossil Fuels. Conservation: Protecting our Natural Resources, Web. 9 May 2011. <http://conservationunit.wordpress.com/process/fossil-fuels/>.
"Green Living Made Cheap." The Action Blog. The Action Blog, 16 Mar 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.theactionblog.com/>.
"Green Living Made Cheap." The Action Blog. The Action Blog, 16 Mar 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.theactionblog.com/>.
OLMSTED, JAMES L. “THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT: CONSERVATION EASEMENTS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND INVASIVE SPECIES.” Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 38.1(2011): 41-76. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. 9 May 2011.
REILLY, JOHN and ALLISON CRIMMINS. “MYTH v. FACT.” Mechanical Engineering 133.1 (2011): 24-29. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. 9 May 2011.
“Water Conservation.” What-When-How. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://what-when-how.com/water-science/water-conservation/>.
Yeager, Linda. “You can practice natural resource conservation just about anywhere.” Farm and Dairy. Farm and Dairy, 14 Arp 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://farmanddairy.com/columns/you-can-practice-natural-resource-conservation-just-about-anywhere/23856.html>.