Climate change today is a major issue around the world. Not being able to keep up with the day to day changes within the world leads to destruction of wildlife and human species entirely as we know it. Think about the recurring forest fires or the ice caps melting because of global warming which is killing off our marine life. The United States as a whole, needs to do better in order to prevent such matters from happening. A big contribution to climate change is Landfills! Landfills are disposable locations in which years of garbage, dump, and waste are to be accrued. Imagine your house garbage times three trillion others! According to scientists, “piled up trash releases methane gas which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change” (Worland,2015). As of 2012, Americans dumped 262 million tons of garbage that year into a landfill! Now think about this, methane is the most dangerous gas aside from carbon dioxide.
Methane gases are “25% more damaging to the environment” (Worland, 2015), which can lead to pollution of oil and natural gases, trees, and marine life. These are all parts of life in which human and non-human species need to survive. These specific economic necessities also control our futures like how will we have oil trade in the US, will we be able to drive cars, or if we will have more extinction of our wildlife; most humans do still hunt to live! If the EPA knows it as well as the United States Government we need to come up with a plan to reduce landfill build up. We have plenty of other disclosed locations in which US territory does own. Why can’t landfill be taken away from its original dump and placed elsewhere to be fully decomposed or make it somewhat biodegradable? Reduce, reuse and recycle goes a long way, but clearly not as far as it needs to!
Worland, J. (2015, September 22). How Your Trash Is Contributing To Climate Change. Retrieved from
