An Empty Earth

A child wakes up to a world with no grass to lounge in and no trees to climb. He looks out his window to find a horizon filled with buildings, cars and smog filled air to breathe. He has never seen an animal in a zoo or in the wild, for he has only seen animals through photos, sculptures, and stories told by his parents and grandparents. This is the image future generations will see if humans continue to make the decisions they make today. Humans are the dominant species on this planet that is called home, and they can be blind in their decisions. Their decisions act as a catalyst to the earth’s health. As their population increases, the environment is diminishing and being consumed by buildings and cars. The human population dramatically affects the state the planet is in. It is a domino effect that begins with humans. Animals, forests, pollution, and global warming are just some of the results of the ever growing human population.
Animals are becoming extinct faster than ever before. There are many factors which bring about this diminishing diversity. As humans expand their habitat, animals lose theirs. This is because humans are expanding so rapidly that animals have no time to adapt to the changes. The human cities are rapidly expanding to make room for the sprouting population.   The population in Oregon has more than doubled in the last fifty years as has Washington’s; Oregon’s population in 1950 was 1,521,341 and in 2000 it grew to 3,421,399 while in 1950 Washington’s population was 2,378,963 and fifty years later it had become 5,894,121. (World Almanac 592-593) With these growing numbers the forests were cut down, so there were enough homes for the people. Although the lush forests of northwestern America are prime territory for many animals, they were still cut down endangering thousands of animals.   According to the 2008 World Almanac, “The International Union for Conservation of Nature and National Resources (IUCN) announced Sept. 13 that there were... [continues]

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