Miller 1
Samantha Miller
Mrs. Stockton
English 1500
October 19, 2015
Effect Paper
“Extra, Extra, Read all about it!” yells the boy from his news stand post. Locals pick up
the newly published paper that headlines, “POLLUTION!” and quickly flip to the next page.
Scanning the classifieds, reading the specks in sports, and finishing up with silly comics, the
reader finds no more use for the paper. What started as an educational piece has now become the
very headline it displayed. Cups, plastic bags, and other debris join in with the local paper
littered on the ground leaving the Earth responsible for the waste. Unfortunately, the beautiful
vegetated lands, forests, and majestic oceans imagined on Earth only mask the rising decline in
wildlife and their habitats. Knowledge of pollution in our land, water, and air is essential for
maintaining animal and human life; as well as, preventing planet Earth from consuming
unnatural substances and destroying itself with its own natural cycle.
As the soil attempts to do its natural job of creating a platform for life on Earth, it
unintentionally pumps increasing volumes of manmade impurities into the very ground that
nourishes it. Glorious green grapes, juicy oranges, and delicious peaches flourishing from natural
organic matter in the Earth’s top soil is saturated in herbicides and insecticides, used to reduce
weeds and bugs. Large spans of land holding rich and healthy plants are plowed through to make
way for garbage and human waste dump sites, ultimately killing organic matter in the lands top
soil. “Destruction of top soil…can turn a productive landscape into a barren one” (Woodward).
As land becomes desolate and unusable, plant life adapts and takes on a whole new form of its
Miller 2
own in order to survive. Trustingly, animals and humans, ingest the succulent fruits and
vegetables allowing dangerous chemicals; including but not limited to, acephate and
chlopyriphos, to infect their bodies kick starting an evil cycle of unnatural genetic defects or
ultimately irreversible extinction. Once these chemicals are no longer serving its purpose above
ground, they seep into the water table under the soil, taking on a new journey into main water
supplies and oceans.
Big beautiful bodies of blue seas with living corals, flourishing green kelp forests, and
free swimming marine life such as sea turtles, dolphins, abounding schools of fish of all sizes
with brilliant colors, are taken for granted daily. The mass kelp forests and clusters of coral are
being devastated by overwhelming pollutants; such as, oil slicks, pesticides, and chemical filled
soil, which blankets the bottom of the ocean. When land is being cleared, “…for agriculture,
