Sunday, May 20, 2007
Why is the environment important and how does it affect plants and humans?
As we dump harmful materials out to the environment, we do not really know what and how does it affect the planet. As we know, the environment is the world we live in. We need to keep it healthy and in shape to provide us a better life. If our environment is not taken care of properly, our lives will be shortening by a big portion.
Where do all the harmful causes come from? Many come from industrial areas. These factories make a living by producing products to sell in the market, but on the other hand, do they really know that at the same time, they are harming the environment. Like in Europe, the releasing of toxic fumes causes acid rain. Acid rain damage building and plants, and if unlucky, humans will be affected too. Another example is the e-recycling in India. Taken from the BBC news (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3307815.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3307815.stm ), up to thirty million computers are thrown from the US and dumped in India and China. These old computers have a lot of toxic materials hidden in them, such as mercury, lead, flame retardants, and PVC-coated copper wire. When these materials are being extracted, heavy metals and chemicals are released into the environment, which is of course, an unfortunate thing of the environment. The process of extraction uses all kinds of chemicals such as acids, which gets dumped into the soil and go into the groundwater. As it happens, it also affects the economy. Acids flow into the sea, killing the marine life. As a result, fishermen do not get as much harvest as they do normally. The pollution in Baltic Sea is an example. Untreated sewage flows into the Neva river from St. Petersburg then to the Baltic Sea. The Swedish is concerned because fishing is important to their economy. It would take a long time to clean the sea before they could fish again. The greenhouse effect affects the environment ecologically. The huge amount of ice in South Pole will cause sea levels will rise and people will drown.
How healthy is the environment today? No! The environment isn’t as healthy as before. With the amount of harmful gases released into the air, we do not breathe in fresh air anymore. Adding to that, the waters contain chemicals. Living beings find it hard to get fresh environment to live in. This is specially referred to the marine life where they find it hard to live in a chemical polluted environment.
What are the biggest threats to the environment? Pollution that is! The amounts of harmful wastes are killing the Earth! Something must be done to it!
How do we save the environment? Reduce pollution. Control the amount of wastes being dumped each day. Save electricity generation by using solar panels.
