Day Three: Climate

With the Climate March just passed, climate change and other environmental issues have been on people's minds and in their conversations.  The press that climate change has been receiving lately has increased, and I think it's for the good. In my honest opinion, I think that climate change is one of the most pressing issues we are dealing with. Unlike political, cultural, or religious conflicts, climate change effects every single person, animal, and plant in the globe. The issues of oil extraction and burning fossil fuels don't just impact the lives of the people taking part in those actions. The carbon dioxide doesn't just sit over them. It is everywhere in our atmosphere.
People have started to take notice and make a change. For a long time, the Amazon Rainforest has been a large site for oil extraction, but this has caused deforestation. It has changed the climate and the rain patterns there. The Amazon houses one third of the world's plant and animal species, and each day there are most species becoming endangered and extinct. This is all due to our thirst for oil, which is proving hard to quench.
Deforestation isn't just effecting the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest region; it is effecting the planet. One fifth of the fresh water in the world is housed there, and it is being contaminated each time we drill for oil. The Amazon is the largest carbon sink in the world, which means it is the single place on Earth which removes the most amount of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. Deforestation will effect the carbon dioxide levels in two ways. One, there will be fewer trees and other vegetation to absorb the carbon dioxide and release clean oxygen. Two, the Amazon is being deforested for oil, which, when burned, will release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is estimated that half of the oil in the world must remain in the ground, permanently, in order to not reach an irreversible climate catastrophe. That means no more deforestation of the Amazon, or any other forest (did you know that the forests in the Siberian tundra have been deforested more than the Amazon?); that means no more drilling for oil Amazon and no more searching for new locations to drill. This means we must find clean, renewable sources of energy, and find ways to make them accessible to the common folk. This will help us restore the fragile ecosystems, preserve cultures in areas effects by oil drilling, and keep the planet's climate under control, improving our lives and the lives of future generations.
For all of this to happen, we need to band together and make our voices heard. We need to reach out to the large oil companies and show that we will not stand for this before. They no longer have our support to ruin the environment and kill of hundreds of species all for their profit. The oil drilling isn't helping the economy significantly where it is extracted, and it is definitely hurting their culture and ecosystem. I took action and signed the pledge at http://amazonwatch.org/ and I'm hoping you will do the same as well.
-Libby Morehouse