Environment

The environment means surroundings in which people, animals and plants develop and exist. Ecology is a branch of biology which investigate relationships between living beings and their environment

The most serious ecological problems of today are the pollution of air, water and soil, the destruction of ecosystem, disappearance of many species of animals and plants, the weather changes, acid rains, the warming up of the Earth’s surface, the destruction of tropical rain forests and the breaking of the ozone layer. These damages are caused by the man himself and his technical progress. We need air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat, but there is a growing number of people in the Earth so that we have to share these everything with more people. Factories produce a large amount of carbon dioxide, lead poisons etc., which get into the air. Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in combination with water make sulphuric acid in the clouds. It later falls as acid rain, which kills trees, makes soil infertile or damages cultural remains. Factories also pollute rivers because they put there their chemical waste. Also farmers pollute the soil by using a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. These chemical matters can poison groundwater. The growing world population is producing vast of trash. The forests and meadows are transforming into big piles of waste. The cars are producing a lot of emissions too. For example carbon dioxide, which contributes on greenhouse effect. The Earth’s surface is constantly warming up. Increasing the average world temperature causes rendering of icebergs, which induces rising of the sea level. Some of today’s coastal states will be floated if we don’t stop contaminating of air. The growing population needs new places for buildings. We also need wood, so we work out rain forests. Then we’ll have new localities for our buildings. Who cares about thousands of species, which lives and grows there? And what a pity thing: the rain forests are producing most of oxygen in air, which we breathe. That’s irrelevant… Our actual commodities are more important. Other problem is ozone hole. The ozone gap is thinning at a rapid speed. It is a layer, which protects us from dangerous UV rays; these could damage the life on the Earth. The ultraviolet rays have possible effects on cataracts, blindness, skin cancer etc. The main destroyers are CFC and freons, which are used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

Scientists estimate that one atom of chlorine can destroy 100 000 ozone molecules. The areas of largest ozone hole are Antarctica, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. The best protection is to stop producing these gases and destroying rain forests. It is worth replacing old power plants with nuclear power, which reduce the damage. Also nuclear power has its disadvantages, in this case there are alternative sources of energy: hydropower, solar power, geothermal etc. I think that the best way how to reduce pollution is reducing, reusing and recycling. .