Genius Hour

Genius Hour:
How Humans are

Destroying Earth
By: Matthew Lee
Introduction
We’ve all heard of problems
like global warming, overfishing,
or water pollution before. People
have said to recycle to help the
planet and to be more energy
efficient. But how bad are these
problems getting, and how would
our earth be like if we continued
to trash it, throwing plastic and
trash wherever we wanted,
killing species for food and
money, polluting the skies. This
is what my Genius Hour project
is about.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC.
First, how does global warming happen? In our atmosphere, there are
gases called greenhouse gases. These gasses include methane, nitrous
oxide, tropospheric ozone, CFCs, and the most commonly known one,
carbon dioxide. These gases allow heat from the sun to pass through the
ozone layer easily. They then trap this heat, warming the Earth’s oceans
Global Warming
and land. This is called the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases aren’t
necessarily a bad thing. Usually, natural processes destroy these gases. But
since the late 1800’s, people began to use fossil fuels. These include oil,
(Air Pollution)
natural gas, and coal. When these fuels are burned for energy, they release
huge amounts of greenhouse gases, the worst and most plentiful of them
being carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases are produced far quicker
than they can be destroyed by natural processes. Humans have produced
so many greenhouse gases that these gasses that had first made life
possible on Earth now might be the cause of the end of it.
Global Warming
cont.
What negative effects could global warming bring?
How does it affect our lives so crucially, that it might
even end it? First, the added greenhouse gases allow
much more heat into our atmosphere. These added
temperatures have added almost 40 degrees Fahrenheit
to our Earth in the past 100 years! This added heat has
been the cause of various icebergs melting, many in
Antarctica. Since 1979, the melting of icebergs have
gotten six times worse. Yearly, around 250 billion tons
of ice is being lost. What problem could this bring?
Icebergs are big pieces of ice, and ice is frozen water. So
lots and lots of ice is being melted into hundreds of
thousands of tons of water. This makes the water level
rise drastically. Over the past century, the water level
has risen about 19 cm. Currently water level rises 3.2
mm. per year. This could mean various landmasses
around the world would become covered in water.
Millions of people would be affected by this and this
would cause many problems.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.

Plastic Pollution
Another problem that is destroying Earth, this time its
oceans, is careless plastic usage and disposal. Over 5.25 trillion
pieces of plastic lie in our ocean. To put this into perspective,
the amount of plastic deposited into the ocean each minute is
equivalent to a garbage truck full of plastic being dumped into
the ocean. Studies in 2018 showed that for every person on
earth, about 150 plastic bags are in the ocean. That’s about
500 billion plastic bags! Added up, there’s around 16 billion
pounds of plastic thrown into the ocean yearly! To add to this,
though humans can, many animals can’t tell the difference
between plastic and food. Some eggs and specific plastics look
alike, meaning birds and other animals looking for food would
accidentally eat plastic. There is also something in plastic called
dimethyl sulfide (DML) that makes certain animals think plastic
smells like algae, so they eat the plastic. Animal’s eyesight’s
don’t help either. For example, turtles have bad eyesight so they
might mistake a plastic bag for a jellyfish, and in turn become
poisoned. Careless plastic usage and disposal kills hundreds of
thousands of animals each year, and there is only humans to
blame.
Deforestation
As the human population grows, so does our
achievements and breakthroughs. Human knowledge
in the health department has drastically improved
over the years, meaning the average life expectancy
of humans are higher, and the chances of dying to
colds or the flu has grown slimmer. This means that
humans are populating Earth much more than we
die. Very soon, our planet will reach its “carrying
capacity”, or amount of life it can sustain with the
resources it has. Humans are overpopulating this
Earth, and with a big population you need an even
bigger amount of space. Humans have resorted to
cutting down forests inhabiting land for more space
for houses and buildings. According to data, over 15
billion trees are cut yearly. Data shows 46% of all
trees on Earth since the dawn of time have been
felled. To add to this, trees are the major producers
of oxygen, and forests provide shelter to many
different animals.
Overfishing and
Poaching
Overfishing can be the cause of various fish extinctions,
because endangered species might accidentally be caught. Some
fish that have gone extinct mainly due to overfishing include the
Blackfin Cisco, the Blue Walleye, and the Thick tail Chub. These
fish will never be seen again because of overfishing. Humans also
poach animals for various items, and others buy these items for
decorations, clothing, or superstitious medicines. Not only this,
but many animals that are nearly extinct are being poached.
Elephants are hunted for their ivory from their tusks. Data shows
that poachers kill 1 of every 12 elephants. Rhino’s horns have
become more expensive than diamond and gold by pound. People
believe that consuming Rhino horns will heal everything from
cancer to the common cold or flu. The western black rhinos went
extinct in 2011, and the white rhinos have lost all hope of
survival when the last male rhino, Sudan, died in 2018. Tigers
are hunted for everything from their skins, bones, teeth, tails, and
even whiskers. There is an estimated 2,500 tigers remaining in
the wild, formerly being 5,000 to 7,500 just a few years earlier.
Certain sea turtles are being killed at an alarming rate for their
shells and their meat. Lemurs are being poached for almost no
reason but possibly their meat, yet over 90 percent of the species
of lemur are endangered. If Harambe’s death wasn’t enough for
humans to stop, the signs of extinction for the gorilla population
should be. They are poached for nothing more but meat and their
heads, hands, and feet as trophies. These animals are killed by
humans even when they are nearing extinction.
Other Problems
Ozone depletion, when the three bonded oxygen’s that make up
the ozone layer, a layer that helps filter out lots of the sun's
harmful UV rays, lose one of the oxygen’s because of ozone-
depleting substances, or ODS, mainly being chlorine and
bromine. This kills many UV sensitive crops like wheat and barley
that are necessary for human life.
Ocean Acidification. As humans burn fossil fuels, carbon

dioxide is released. When carbon dioxide dissolves into the ocean,
this creates carbonic acid. This reduces the oceans pH levels,
resulting in the ocean becoming 30% more acidic in the last 200
years, more acidic than it has ever been in 20 million years. This
acidity depletes calcium concentrates which make it extremely
hard for crustaceans to create shells for protection. This has
made over 25% of all of the Earth coral reefs damaged beyond
repair, and around 2/3 of the remaining coral reefs under
jeopardy. Coral reefs are home to around 25% of aquatic life, and
now they are being destroyed. Humans are not only destroying
habitats for animals above and on land, but underwater as well.
Conclusion
We as humans have received this
incredible gift called Earth- and torn
it to shreds, stomped on it, and
thrown it away. Humans have
stripped Earth of its resources, killed
off many of its animals, and polluted
it. Humans are the biggest threat to
life on Earth, there is no doubt about
it. What happened to humanity? All
these problems that can be solved by
simple fixes like recycling, not
throwing trash into the ocean, and
most of all, not killing animals like
Harambe.
Thank You for
Listening to my
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Genius Hour:

How Humans are

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.

Ocean Acidification. As humans burn fossil fuels, carbon

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