Dust Bowl paper

The Dust Bowl/Oil Spill

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People need to start rationing natural resources.

We need to use fossil fuels only when necessary.

We need to start driving electric cars and stop making pollution. The books/movies (Deep trouble, To Drill or Not to Drill, Crude, and so on) talk about how people don’t think about the consequences of their actions and they pollute or make a disaster.

The Dust Bowl, otherwise known as the Dirty Thirties, was a time period from the late 20s to the early 30s. It was a bunch of dust storms that were caused by a drought and farmers plowing up all the cover crops. They should have thought about what effect it would have on the environment before they did it.

During the Dust Bowl, tons of soil blew away. This happened because farmers plowed up all the cover crops and replaced them with wheat. With no prairie plant roots to hold it down, the dirt blew away and made dust storms. So the farmers made wind erosion. This was terrible because the soil that blew away took a long time to form. A centimeter of dirt takes from 100 to 1,000 years to form. Soil is made by parent material over time. So the soil that blew away during the dust bowl was enough soil to fill half of the Grand Canyon. If farmers would have not plowed up the cover crops, then the dust bowl wouldn’t have happened.

The books Science Time Anytime and To Drill or Not to Drill talk about people affecting the environment by trying to get oil. Pumping oil leaves a foot print and destroys animals’ habitats and oil rigs can explode, harm wildlife, kill workers, and pollute beaches and the ocean. These two books connect to the Dust Bowl because people aren’t thinking about the environment and then do something for themselves, but end up harming it.

The movies Wall-E and The Lorax (the old one) are both about people polluting a clean place and not realizing it nor thinking about their effect on the environment. These movies connect to The Dust Bowl and Deep Trouble because they are about people who make decisions without thinking about their consequences and they make a disaster or pollute.

Easter Island is an island that has been stripped bare of its trees and resources. The islanders used all the trees to move the giant statues and then when all the trees were gone, they had a war. Eventually, there were no tree roots to hold in all the soil and it washed away. The animals all left and after that, the islanders disappeared. This connects to the oil spill and the Dust Bowl because they are about people harming the environment for resources.

Conclusion

A lesson can be learned from these books/movies-

Think about the consequences of your actions.

A lot of things need to change to prevent future disasters. We need to stop using fossil fuels before we fight over them. We need to start driving electric cars again. Also, we need to stop using slash-and burn.