The
word environment
means simply what is around us. Some people live in a town environment;
for others, their environment is the countryside.
Nowadays
people understand how important it is to solve the environment problems that
endanger people’s lives. The most serious environmental problems are:
·
Pollution in
its many forms (water pollution, air pollution, nuclear pollution)
·
Noise from cars, buses,
planes, etc.
·
Destruction
of wildlife and countryside beauty
·
Shortage
of natural resources (metals, different kinds of fuel)
·
The
growth of population
Water Pollution.
There
is no ocean or sea, which is not used as a dump. Many seas are used for
dumping industrial and nuclear waste. This poisons and kills fish and sea
animals. “Nuclear-poisoned” fish can be eaten by people.
Many
rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can’t live in them.
There is not enough oxygen in the water. In such places all the birds leave
their habitats and many plants die. If people drink this water they can die
too. It happens so because factories produce a lot of waste and pour it into
rivers. So they poison water.
Air
pollution.
Most
of the pollution in big cities comes from cars and buses.
More
and more often people are told not to be in direct sunlight, because
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.
Nuclear
power stations can go wrong and cause nuclear pollution.
Both
clean air and clean water are necessary for our health. If people want to
survive they must solve these problems quickly. Man is beginning to understand
that his environment is not just his own town or country, but the whole earth.
That’s why people all over the world think and speak so much about ecology.