The Fumes are Real

Written by Shreya Venkatachalam, 14

Texas, USA

We are surrounded by fumes. Fumes of toxic chemicals and burning fossil fuels. A once luscious and green Earth now decays into nothing more than imperishable plastic and harmful pollution. The technical and most fundamental meaning of global warming simply lays out this problem as a gradual increase in temperature and carbon dioxide levels. However, the reality of it is much more serious. People are being harmed by the acidical and chemical smokes of factories. The homes, families and safety of animals across the globe are being heavily impacted by this. Life underwater also struggles to cope with the pollution dumped into oceans. One side of this debate is that people benefit from burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. On the other hand, CO2 levels are increasing and glaciers are slowly melting. We humans have turned our ultimate gift, this wonderful land, into nothing much, just a trash can. Overflowing with plastic wastage, the landfills tarnishing the soil now spread to soaking into the waters of the Earth. A few scientists recognize this as a problem that should not be overlooked and are trying to reduce the amount of fossil fuels in factory use, urging us to adopt renewable energy forms. However, the full extent of global warming’s harmful impact is shunned and dismissed by many. What they fail to understand is that by ignoring the mistakes of mankind, they harm themselves, their families, and they play a role in dooming the entire world. The human race has made many mistakes- now it's up to the next generation to learn from these errors and try to restore Earth to its green glory.