Our environment faces many problems. This is becoming more and more evident every day. Inflation on essential items such as gasoline and electricity has increased ridiculously over the past half-century, and population growth and the demands placed on the worldwide agricultural system contributes to this. The global population has increased so dramatically that there is increasing pressure from the less affluent majority on available resources. As the population increases so do the demand for more land for people to live on. The more people there are in a given area requires all the more land be used for human habitation. This means that people are cutting down more trees to build houses on and taking up more land that may have been used for farming. The loss of trees is a factor in the increase in levels of carbon dioxide, which in turn contributes to global warming. Trees consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, which makes for cleaner air.
             Our society today is more and more dependent on vehicle transportation. Our country is more than capable of decreasing gasoline prices to a more appropriate price level, but in choosing not to take from our reserves, and with cooling of foreign relations with other oil-producing nations, fuel prices at the gas pump are increasing to record highs. I work at an Ethanol Alcohol plant and know that if vehicle manufacturers would produce vehicles that can run on fuel with a higher ethanol percentage (for example E85 or 85% ethanol), it could reduce some of the price pressures from rising oil costs. The reason for this is because it would cut down on the United States buying gasoline from overseas. Ethanol is made from corn, which is a significant crop in the US. More Ethanol plants would create more jobs. Saving money on the cost of purchasing more overseas oil would enable gas prices at the pump to be kept lower. However, some professionals are currently predicting that within five years tha...