The Student News Site of Pella High School

Pelladium

The Student News Site of Pella High School

Pelladium

The Student News Site of Pella High School

Pelladium

A Penny For Your Thoughts

A+Penny+For+Your+Thoughts

If you care about your future, then you should care about the Earth. The Earth is what gives us all of our resources; it is where we live. As we don’t have the technology to colonize other planets, the Earth is all we have. Right now, however, the Earth is in danger. Global warming is tearing at the ozone and causing large environmental changes. The only way to help this is to actively avoid producing greenhouse gasses and to clean up what we have already made a mess of on this Earth. There are those in our government, however, who seem to be trying to avoid the responsibility of cleaning up our planet.

The EPA, or the Environmental Protection Program, was created in 1970 by President Nixon to protect the environment in order to protect human health. A few ways the EPA does this is by educating and encouraging work forces to practice sustainable energy uses and continuing research on creating and advancing these sustainability indicators, metrics, and tools.

The problem is, there was a bill proposed to disband the EPA. The bill most likely isn’t going to get passed; it was the first bill created by a freshman lawmaker and has just three co-sponsors, so there’s no real threat of this bill being passed. However, that doesn’t mean that the EPA is in the clear. The attorney general of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt, was put in charge of the EPA. This is the same attorney general who has been known to target the EPA with several lawsuits at a time. Many fear that Pruitt will dismantle the EPA from the inside. However, Pruitt has also led a historic water rights settlement that preserved the ecosystem of scenic lakes and rivers. He has also pledged to lead the EPA in a way that ensures our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment. I suppose the only way to tell if he will live up to his statements is to wait and see.

The EPA is very important to our country and the future of our people. The organization is being threatened, which could spell disaster for all of us. We must protect our future and the future of our children. Luckily, there are ways you can help out the planet while waiting to see if Pruit will do anything beneficiary for the environment. You can help protect our Earth by going to the EPA website to donate to their cause. You can also find information there about what you can specifically do in your community to help diminish the effects of climate change.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts