The World Environment

Some hundreds of years ago people lived in harmony with nature, because industry was not much developed. Today, however, the contradictions between man and nature are dramatic. 

Nowadays, environmental problems are the most burning for the society.

The world environment means simply what is around us. Some people live in towns, other in the country.  And it is obvious that all people need a healthy environment.

 But there are a lot of ecological problems.

For example water pollution: water is everywhere, but there is no ocean or sea which is not used as a dump. Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can’t live in them. People can't drink this water. So we have to clean the water environment. But it is not the only problem with pollution.

 Another problem is air pollution. Air pollution influents the health of people. There are a lot of dangerous. For example: ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer. Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from such radiation, but if there are holes in the ozone layer ultraviolet radiation can get to the earth. Many scientists think that these holes are the result of air pollution. And, of course, acid rain - rain that contains dangerous chemicals; this is caused by smoke from factories.

Also one of the most serious problems is greenhouse effect. It works like this: sunlight gives us heat. Some of the heat warms the atmosphere and some of the heat goes back into space. Nowadays the heat can’t go into space because of car exhaust fumes. That’s why winter and summer temperatures in many places have become higher. If the temperature continue growing up the snow on the mountains and ice will melt, so the most of the earth will be under water. So every person has to understand how important it is to solve this problems, that endanger people’s life.

Also we have problem with nuclear pollution. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effect can be terrible. To make air clear clean again we need good filters at nuclear power stations, at factories, in cars and buses.

Another problem is growth of population. They don’t have enough places to live. They need more water, more food. So it is the reason of the shortage of the natural resources. It is very difficult to solve this problem.

The next one is damage to wildlife: numerous species of animals and plants can disappear. At last, the most serious danger arising from damaging the environment is the result of the abovementioned consequences. This is the danger for the life and health of the man.

If we are unable to learn to use the environment carefully and protect it from damage caused by man’s activities, very soon we’ll have no world to live in.

The protection of the environment is a universal concern. Some progress has been made in this direction. Many people belong to Green organizations in countries all over the world. Groups like "Green Peace" have already helped to stop some animals hunting but there are so many things to be done on our planet and our life on the Earth depends only on ourselves.

How we can help.

Don’t be indifferent. Everyone can do many simple things to protect our home.

• Don't throw away bottles, newspapers, etc. Take them to a bottle bank or newspaper bank, and then they can be recycled (used again).
• Avoid to use aerosol cans.
• Plant more trees.
• Don't waste (use badly) resources, e.g. water, gas.  Try to save them.
• Take care of animals.