BIO 220 Science or Sensationalism

Choose an environmental issue from your textbook, or from your own personal experience, and explain how this environmental issue directly affects you. What is the role of environmental science in addressing this issue? What challenges do you believe are the obstacles that would hinder the recommendations of environmental scientists to address this environmental issue from being successfully implemented?

An environmental issue that I believe deserves to be brought up is the chemicals and preservatives that are sprayed on fruits and vegetables these days. They spray chemical on fruits and vegies to keep bugs off, they don’t last as long and rot quicker, they may be picked prior to being ripe and then a chemical may be sprayed on them to ripen them up so that when they get to grocery stores they are ripe. Insecticides can get into the soil and get into the water supply, and collaterally kills insects and animals that are beneficially to the eco system and disrupts many symbiotic relationships between plants and animals.

It affects me by not having fruits and vegetables rot quicker and have to buy them more often. It might cause me to be unknown on what I or my family is eating if we don’t cook the vegetables. It affects me by not knowing what type of chemicals are being leaked into my water supply in my local community.

Environmental science may address the issue by putting limiters on the types of chemicals that can be used on fruits and vegetables, they may require the food to be inspected more often, they may monitor the water supplies that surround farms that grow or harvest foods, they may monitor or review the effects on plants and animals that have been affected by insecticides used on food.

Some of the challenges may be getting the food and drug association to limit the types of insecticides used or allowed on trees and vegetables for consumption. It may require it to go through the political sector and get shot down since these are already being used by farmers. Other challenges may be trying to identify or monitor the effects on plants, animals or insects that are affected by the chemicals used. It may take many years of research and effects before there can be a substantive study done or reported on.