Environmental problems
The poisoning of the world's land, air, and water is
the fastest-spreading disease of civilization. It probably produces fewer
headlines than wars, earthquakes and floods, but it is potentially one of
history's greatest dangers to human life on earth. If present trends continue
for the next several decades, our planet will become uninhabitable.
Overpopulation, pollution and energy consumption have
created such planet-wide problems as massive deforestation, ozone depletion,
acid rains and the global warming that is believed to be caused by the
greenhouse effect.
The seas are in danger. They are filled with poison:
industrial and nuclear waste, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The
Mediterranean is already nearly dead; the North Sea is following. The Aral Sea
is on the brink of extinction. If nothing is done about it, one day nothing
will be able to live in the seas.
Every ten minutes one kind of animal, plant or insect
dies out for ever. If nothing is done about it, one million species that are
alive today will have become extinct twenty years from now.
Air population is a very serious problem. In Cairo
just breathing the air is life threatening-equivalent to smoking two packs of
cigarettes/a day. The same holds true for Mexico City and 600 cities of the former
Soviet Union.
Industrial enterprises emit tons of harmful
substances. These emissions have disastrous consequences for our planet. They
are the main reason for the greenhouse effect and acid rains.
An even greater environmental threat are nuclear power
stations. We all know how tragic the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster
are.
People are beginning to realize that environmental
problems are not somebody else's. They join and support various international
organizations and green parties. If governments wake up to what is happening -
perhaps we'll be able to avoid the disaster that threatens the natural world
and all of us with it.
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