Letter to the President of the United States

Letter to the President of the United States:

Concerning Environmental Conditions

Dear Mr. President,

As you well know, there are many concerns in our society today regarding the environment. Environmental degradation is a pressing issue, for it affects the things that we will pass on to generations to come. Many speak about the damaging effects of pollution to the ozone layer, or the deforestation of the world as a similar catastrophe; I would like to speak, in this letter, about a small living being: the tadpole.

At first glance, studying tadpoles may not seem very important; however, their lives can tell us about the lives of other amphibians, as they are often used as models for this kind of prediction. Even though studying a reptile's life may seem futile, tadpoles and other such reptiles are vital components to our environment, and should not go unnoticed, for they help keep the balance of our living world. This paper will, therefore, discuss the effects of environmental degradation on tadpoles and will present evidence of this from a study conducted by researchers at the University of South Florida.

This study has found that a widely used pesticide named Chlorothalonil (this fungicide is utilized by humans to kill fungi on golf courses, lawns and crops), may actually contribute to the declines of amphibian populations. According to the research, the tadpoles exposed to higher levels of this pesticide, died within hours, while others, who were exposed to lower levels died within days. Only those tadpoles raised in a natural, pesticide-free environment survived. Thus, the study concluded that high mortality, in this case, directly correlates to use of Chlorothalonil. [1: Referenced from the study conducted at USF, retrieved from the website: .]

Clearly, our society will not stop utilizing this pesticide, for it is utilized in almost all agricultural and some recreational settings. However, it is our priority to stop using this pesticide, for, again, although the tadpole issue does not seem very catastrophic, it can and will, if not controlled, affect the environment at large in a negative way. This letter will thus continue by offering recommendations as to how to solve this problem.

My first recommendation would be to control the use of this pesticide, and thus diminish amphibian deaths. One could do this by only allowing a certain amount of Chlorothalonil to be bought at a time, which can, hopefully, eventually deter those from buying it to buy it at all. This should then leads to a substitution of Chlorothalonil with another, more environmentally safe ingredient, just as effective, that could then better address this issue and help alleviate these concerns.

As one can never be sure as to how humans will react to this substitute, which may very well be more expensive, Chlorothalonil should be outlawed, so that those who utilize it still can be prosecuted. It is only in this way that we can actually have a positive impact on this small segment of the earth's population, and affect our environment in a positive way.