Your congressional representatives make decisions nearly every day that affect t

Question

Your congressional representatives make decisions nearly every day that affect the environment (and thereby your health and your future world). Using the themes of this class( ecology 2)decide what you feel is the most important environmental issue facing us today. It can be a specic issue (such as industrial and auto emissions) or an inclusive issue (such as the human population crisis),or a theme you feel needs most attention. Write a letter to your elected ofcials in the U.S. Congress. Explain to them why you feel that this issue is the most important one and give them an educated recommendation regarding what should be done to solve the problem. Limit your letter to two double-spaced, typed pages. Include the addresses or websites you can use to send your letter to Congress.This midterm paper should cite at minimum 5 sources/prompt.
"Please could you make sure its plagiarism proof using your own words" Thank you very much !

Explanation / Answer

Dear Sir,

I (Your Name), is a citizen of your constituency and I am much impressed by your consistent addressing of relevant issues concerning environmental degradation. In this regard I feel it’s worth to draw your attention to the issue of one of the most pressing environmental issues.

One of the most pertinent causes of environmental degradation these days is related to our energy needs. It has been proved by numerous studies that burning from fossil fuels is one of the major contributor of greenhouse gas emission and related environmental degradation. I wish to mention that in past we were mostly looking for non renewable energy sources to meet the growing demand of energy, this trend has been slowed down to some extent in recent days, but we must understand if it is good enough to make a balance between environment and our requirement. I would like to present you some facts in this regard:

In 2015 the total energy requirement of US stands at 97.7 quadrillion Btu, out of which the contribution of renewable energy stands at 10% only i.e. 9.7 quadrillion Bthu and nuclear power contribution is only 9% of total energy demand. The majority of demand is met out by petroleum (36%), Coal (16%) and natural gas (29%). The highlight of the issue is that petroleum and coal contribute to more than half of energy demand, which is one of the major causes of pollution. These energy sources contribute to environmental problems starting from the production stage upto their processing to generate electricity. Coal is not only one of the major sources of air pollution contributing to the SO2 and NO2 gases in the atmosphere it also contribute to environmental degradation as coal mining itself involves removal of mountain top to clearing of vegetation cover and in this process leaving a huge dent on the face of the earth. Similarly the lust for petroleum products have resulted in releasing of oil in the ocean and this has a disastrous effect on the biodiversity of concerned areas. Likewise production of natural gas has similar disastrous effect on the environment.

In addition we have to remind ourselves that about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US is contributed to emissions from vehicular pollutants. This is complicated with the fact that every year a millions of new vehicles are being added. This has a multiplying effect on the environment and causing a huge dent in atmosphere by way of air pollution and ozone layer depletion.

We may be able to create a better environment for our future generations if we can work on some of the remedial measures as outlined in underlined paragraph.

It has been established that the least Hydroelectricity produces least CO2 emission followed by wind, solar and nuclear. In view of above fact We must take measures to reduce our dependency on coal generated power. If we look at the contribution of renewable energy to the total energy demand of US we came to an interesting fact, the contribution of solar and wind energy is only 6% and 19% respectively i.e. out of total energy demand of 97.7 qBthu solar and wind energy contribution is only 2.134 qBthu. With more emphasis on these energy sources we can reduce our dependency on these non renewable sources of energy moreover we have a very huge opportunity in the form of hydro energy as we are endowed with vast sources of water capable of generating a major chunk of our energy requirement. We need to create awareness among the masses for conservation of energy as it can greatly reduce the total energy demand. Nowadays many energy efficient devices are being produced we should give emphasis on use of these energy efficient devices. In this regard it is important to promote the use of LED bulbs as this itself can reduce the one third of energy demand.

With regard to vehicular pollution we should promote bicycles and means of mass transportation. In recent times we have seen a lot of technical advancement in the form of fuel efficient vehicles to hybrid vehicles thereby reducing emissions from the vehicles considerably. However we should give more focus to the development of fuel efficient technology and modifications in urban transportation infrastructure.

References:

http://inhabitat.com/why-we-need-earth-day-7-most-pressing-environmental-problems-we-need-to-solve/

http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_home

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_the_energy_industry

https://www.epa.gov/energy

https://www.whitehouse.gov/energy

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