As my generation reaches adulthood and enters a time of our lives when we are more conscious of our surroundings, we are more aware of the issues that are of concern to us because they directly affect our future. Elections are no longer boring and irrelevant to our existence. We are keenly tuned into what is important to us. One of the major issues that is affecting my generation is the environment and lack of care for it. While environmental issues are certainly not new to my generation or yours, they do affect my generation more because we are the future of this country. It's our responsibility to make sure steps are taken to ensure a better environmental future for all generations to come. It will take a person with conviction and tremendous courage to take a stand and be forceful enough to put into place policies and laws that will ensure the proper care of the environment. In the past, administrations have hesitated to take a stand and companies have been allowed to continue business in a reckless and irresponsible manner. The time has come to look beyond the campaign donations from major corporations. The time is now to look at the young adults, teens, and children of America and say enough is enough. It is time to be specific on what is meant by a company being environmentally friendly.
There are a lot of companies that are becoming more environmentally friendly by changing the way products are made and what they're made of. There are a lot of people that are doing things to help the environment, but what about the rest of the people? The one's who aren't doing a thing. They can't just sit there and we can't just let them keep adding more and more to the landfills. There needs to be more policies and laws that require people to do more. Put in more recycling programs. Make it easier to recycle things besides paper and plastic. According to CampaignEarth, over one trillion bags are thrown away each year instead of being recycled. On the website called 20 shocking facts on the environment, it was stated that every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil and 50 million tons of paper are consumed annually by Americans, more than 850 million trees being cut down. Just by recycling we are doing so much for the environment. Make a better effort to fight deforestation. According to 20 Shocking Facts on the Environment, tens of thousands of species go extinct, some that haven't been discovered because of deforestation. Also, on 20 shocking facts on the environment, it said that more than half of the world’s tropical forests have been lost. Each year, over 63,000 square miles are destroyed. Do something bigger about global warming. There is so much we can do, but it's not being done.
Very few presidents have done things to save our planet and right now is the most important time to really make a voice. We can make such an effort to fight deforestation, plant more trees, set up recycling systems and make more parks. We can inform people of products to buy and not to buy, things that are better on the environment and better in the landfills. For example, people should stop buying things that don't decompose, things that sit on our planet forever such as styra-foam or stop buying aresol cans. Fuel efficient cars are another way of helping. We can make such an impact on the fuel emissions that go in our atmosphere that are harmful. If we reach out to the public more and more and tell them the sad facts, they will want to make a difference and help our environment. People can turn their lights off when they're not using them, they can turn their cars off instead of idoling, they can recycle more, and they can do so much more. According to 20 Shocking facts on the environment, it said to recycle paper and for every tone of paper you save 17 trees. Every little thing will help, but we need to push the idea that those little things will truely help and those little efforts will turn into big efforts.
With the help of you, our nations new leader, my generation really can make a difference and truly help the environment and get the next generation to be involved even more. We need to respect this planet because it's the only one we have. We only have one chance, so let's make sure we take care of it. It's time my generation and yours start to pave a new path. We can do something about global warming, landfills, deforestation and much more. We are the future, so help us make it bright and green.
