Environmental protection
But nowadays the
greenhouse gases absorb sunlight and infrared radiation which produces heat and
it increases continuously. In principle, the temperature of the earth also
increases. And this is so-called "Green House Effect".
At present, the
concentration of carbon dioxide doubles that before the Industrial Revolution .
And the global temperature has increased about 1.5~3.5¢J. Human beings
have altered the composition of the atmosphere. Coal-burning factories and
motorcycles release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than oceans and
forests can absorb. Consequently, the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere
could double the present level within the next fifty years.
People may ask: "Is
it a serious problem? " My answer is: "Yes!" The global warming
can effect us in many aspects, first of all, the level of the oceans has risen.
A rise of sea level may accompany global warming, possibly in the range of 0 to
60 cm. The part of some land will be covered. Strictly speaking, some islands
may disappear quietly and without leaving a trace. In addition, the global
warming causes crisis to the ecosystem and agriculture. Some animals and plants
suffer a lot of difficulties due to the global warming. To sum up, the
greenhouse effect not only affects human lives but also causes pecuniary
loss.
The global warming
affects our human daily lives. And we must find the strategies to decrease the
effect, which are caused by global warming. Indeed, human being have caused a
lot of harm to nature, but the final victims who will be badly hurt will also
be humans themselves.
The centrally
"planned" economies produce the most greenhouse gases per unit of
economic output. The United States-with the largest transportation needs of any
nation-produces approximately one-third, or 1.0 metric ton/$1,000 GNP, of the
centrally planned output of CO2. All of the nations that produce
less than the United States are smaller geographically. Japan, often cited for
its efficiency, is second from the bottom of the table, but almost all its
citizens live near each other, and the country is highly nuclear. France, the
cleanest of all, is also the most nuclear and emits .34 metric ton of CO2/$1,000
GNP[6].
Water pollution occurs
mostly when people overload the water environment with wastes. It’s defined as
contamination of streams, lakes, underground water, bays or oceans by
substances harmful to living things.
Water is necessary to
life on earth. All organisms contain it, some drink it, some live in it. Plants
and animals require water that is moderately pure, and they cannot survive if
their water is loaded with toxic chemicals or harmful microorganisms. If
severe, water pollution can kill large numbers of fish, birds, and other
animals, in some cases killing all members of a species in an affected area.
Pollution makes streams, lakes,
and coastal waters unpleasant to look at, to smell, and to swim in. Fish and
shellfish harvested from polluted waters may be unsafe to eat. People who
ingest polluted water can become ill and if they’re exposed for a long time,
may develop cancers, or have children with birth defects.
There are two types of
water pollution; point source and nonpoint source. Point sources of pollution
occur when harmful substances are put directly into a body of water (such as an
oil spill). A nonpoint source is when pollutants enter the water indirectly
through environmental changes (like when fertilizer is carried into a stream by
rain)
The major water
pollutants are chemical, biological, and physical materials that lessen the
water quality. Pollutants can be separated into eight different classes:
1. Petroleum Products - oil and
chemicals from oil are used for fuel, lubrication, plastics manufacturing, and
many other purposes. The petroleum products get into water by accidental spills
from ships, tanker trucks, and leaky underground storage tanks. Many petroleum
products are poisonous if ingested by animals and spilled oil damages the
feathers of birds and the fur of animals, often causing death.
2. Pesticides and Herbicides - chemicals
used to kill unwanted animals and plants may be carried into streams by
rainwater. The chemicals in these that are not biodegradable can remain
dangerous for a long time.
When an animal eats a
plant that’s been treated with certain non-degradable chemicals, the chemicals
are absorbed into the tissues or the organs of the animals. When other animals
feed on a contaminated animal, the chemicals are passed up to them. As it goes
up through the food chain, the chemical becomes more harmful, so animals at the
top of the food chains may suffer cancers, reproductive problems, and death.
More than 14 million
Americans drink water contaminated by pesticides, and the EPA estimates that
ten percent of wells contain pesticides. Nitrates can cause a lethal form of
anemia called blue baby syndrome in infants.
3. Heavy Metals - heavy metals, such as
copper, lead, mercury, and selenium, get into the water from industries,
automovile exhaust, mines, and natural soil. Heavy metals also become more
harmful as they follow the food chain. When they reach high levels in the body,
they can be immediately poisonous, or can result in long-term health problems.
They can sometimes cause diarrhea and, over time, liver and kidney damage.
Children exposed to lead in water can suffer mental retardation.
4. Hazardous Wastes - chemical wastes
that are either toxic, reactive, corrosive, or ignitable. If not treated or
stored properly, they can pollute water supplies. They can reach toxic levels
when animals eat one another.
5. Excess Organic Matter - fertilizers
and other nutrients used to promote plant growth on farms and in gardens may
fine their way into water. At first the nutrients will help the plants and
algae in the water grow, but when they die and settle underwater,
microorganisms decompose them, while decomposing them the microorganisms take
in oxygen that is dissolved in the water. The oxygen levels in the water may
drop so low that fish and other oxygen-dependent animals in the water
suffocate, and die.
6. Sediment - soil particles carried to
a stream bed, lake, or ocean, if in large amounts, can also be a pollutant.
Soil erosion can damage a stream or lake by adding too much nutrient matter.
Sedimentation can also cover stream bed gravel where many fish lay their eggs.
7. Infectious Organisms - many disease
causing organisms that are present in small numbers in most natural waters are
considered pollutants when found in drinking water. These parasites can cause
illness, especially in people who are very young or very old, and in people who
are already suffering from other diseases.
8. Thermal Pollution - water is often
taken from rivers, lakes, or the ocean to be used in factories and power
plants. The water is usually returned to the source warmer than when it was
taken. Even a small temperature change in a body of water can drive away the
fish and other species that were originally there, and attract other species in
place of them. Thermal pollution can speed up the biological processes in
plants and animals or lower the oxygen level in the water. Fish and other
wildlife near the discharge source, may die.
Another cause of
pollution, pathogens (bacteria, viruses , and protozoan) can cause many
illnesses from typhoid and dysentery to minor repiratory and skin diseases.
They enter waterways through untreated sewage, storm drains, septic tanks,
runoff from farms, and boats that dump sewage.
To help, we need to learn
about ways for disposing harmful household wastes so they don’t end up in
sewage treatment plants or landfills. In our yards, we should determine whether
or not we need to add nutrients before fertilizers are applied, and look for
alternatives where fertilizers may run off into surface waters. We need to
preserve existing trees and plant new trees and shrubs to help prevent soil
erosion. Around the house we should we need to keep litter, pet waste, leaves,
and grass clippings out of gutters and storm drains, and buy as many heavily
packaged foods, certain boxes, cartons, bottles, etc that are made with
polluting dyes.
Another type of
pollution that is
definitely a threat to human safety is toxic waste pollution. This type
of contamination is caused when the byproducts of chemical reactions are
basically just dumped anywhere the company that produced them so pleases.
Although there are supposedly safe ways of disposing of these wastes, there is
no natural way of ridding the planet of them. Therefore, most toxic waste is
just left out to seep into water sources and into areas of human development.
Usually, the outcome is very serious. Toxic waste dumpsites near Toms River, NJ
have been under fire in recent years due to the unusually high cancer rates in
that town. According to John Whitestone, since these toxic waste disposal sites
have been abandoned, cancer among 12 to 16 year olds has almost quadrupled.
(196) Serious diseases have become a huge debate on the issue of toxic waste
disposal, and many people think there needs to be a safer way of disposing this
kind of waste or that alternatives to the chemical processes that produce these
chemicals need to be established.
Further areas of
environmental contamination are nuclear waste, nuclear disaster, and nuclear
war. All three of
these are directly related to each other in that all can result in immediate
death and death well after contamination. Nuclear wastes are the byproducts of
nuclear reactions in power plants. There is a very safe way to dispose of
nuclear waste, but it has been proven in the past that many of these techniques
can be harmful to human beings if they are not properly completed. Nuclear
waste contains high levels of radiation. Radiation, in levels of that height,
can kill a person within hours. At lower levels, such as levels of radiation
that someone would encounter over long periods of time, radiation can cause
cancer and leukemia. Radiation is used advantageously in X-rays and cancer
treatment, but it has not truly been proven if these tactics are actually safe,
due to the short period of time of their use.
Nuclear disaster is just
that: a disaster. This can occur at any nuclear power plant, and it is usually
due to a system error in the plant’s computer. A nuclear disaster will release
radioactive gas into the air, threatening the lives of the people living in
that area. The most notable nuclear disaster occurred in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in
April 1986. An error in the nuclear reactor’s core released radioactive gas
into the air, immediately killing 30 people and raising the radiation levels of
areas as far away as 31 miles to 148 times higher than normal. “Radiation
released by this accident is expected to cause about 1000 deaths in Europe over
the next 40 years.” (Whitestone, 320) Nuclear disaster can be avoided if a
different energy source is found, but since nuclear energy is a big money
maker, some companies are reluctant to research cheaper and safer ways to
receive energy.
Nuclear weaponry is not
necessarily a form of pollution, but it is definitely a wasteful, contaminating
threat to our environment and well being. Nuclear weapons use the same type of
energy as nuclear power plants, but that energy is used for mass destruction.
Although many countries in the world have nuclear arsenals, only two atomic
bombs have actually been dropped on human beings, both during World War II on
Japanese soil. The first one was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the
second on Nagasaki almost a month later. Obviously, these bombs were meant to
kill people, but it is not clear if anyone knew the long-lasting effects of
their damage.
One reason nuclear
weapons are so useless is that their sheer power can be detrimental for years
afterwards, and cannot bring peace, only death. “Besides the actual number of
people killed by the immediate impact of the two atomic bombs, it is estimated
that almost 100,000 people a year feel the effects of these bombs through
cancer and other radiation-linked diseases.”[7]
Nuclear weaponry is just as damaging to advancement in human development as any
other type of pollution.
This paper should have made it obvious that human beings are directly
responsible for violating their own human rights. Since most people have no say
in the pollution that is silently killing them, there is no way for them to
know how to change that. Only education and power taken from Big Business can
result in a turnaround for the people of the world. If everyone becomes more
involved in curbing pollution, one day we will live in a pollution free
society. There are many ways to begin that. Children should learn more and more
about recycling and pollution from an early age, and adults should learn how to
prevent pollution in their community. Research needs to be done to come up with
less dangerous ways of disposing of waste and even producing less waste in the
first place. If alternatives to artificial processes are used, pollution may no
longer be a problem in the future; we will live in a pollution free society,
filled with healthy, happy people. Of course, if we keep polluting like this,
then there may not be a future. Our rights as humans are simply that: our
rights. If we keep polluting, then we will no longer have a choice in how
healthy our lives are. These rights are ours to lose, and we have to push our
governments to create laws that will enable us to keep those rights forever.
Environmental movement is
a term used for any social or political movement directed towards the preservation,
restoration, or enhancement of the natural environment. Most environmental
movements have similar value systems and moral codes, although they often
diverge in details such as emphasis, priorities, means of action, and specific
goals. They often share the notion that the perception of one's environment is
strongly connected with that of one's self. In this regard, some
environmentalists distinguish themselves from conservationists. Environmental
movements often interact or are linked with other social movements with similar
moral view.
The earliest major
environmental issue in New Zealand was the raising of Lake Manapouri[8]
for a hydro-electricity scheme. The campaign was successful in preventing the
lake level from being raised. Other major issues were nuclear energy,
preventing native forest logging on the West Coast and halting the growing of
GE[9] food crops.
In North America the early
environmentalists encouraged emulation of indigenous peoples and enriching the
natural ecology with slow patient effort. For example, Chapman, also known as
“Johnny Appleseed” alone planted millions of apple trees throughout the United
States. The movement had little or no explicit political character. It was
mostly aesthetic. It had no central doctrine. Most of its proponents did not
know each other, but created a powerful discourse that influenced people
strongly at the time.
The Conservation movement was an
American invention of John Audubon and others who invoked Christian reverence
for the Creation to protect natural habitat from man in the 19th century. They
lobbied consistently for parks and human exclusion from "the wild".
They saw humans as apart from nature, in line with
Judeo-Christian ethics of the time, and believed that an awe of biodiversity
(as we call it today), would inspire religious piety.
By contrast with the
Conservation movement, early enviromentalists did not lobby for parks or human
exclusion from "the wild". They did not see humans as apart from
nature.
The harshest
critic of the environmental movement in the 20th century was probably Ayn Rand,
who considered it to be the opponent of human morality, creativity and
industry.
Largely due to the
political critique and confusion, and a growing concern with the environmental
health problems caused by pesticides, some serious biologists and
ecologists created the scientific ecology movement which would not confuse
empirical data with visions of a desirable future world.
Today it is the science
of ecology, rather than any aesthetic goals, that provide the basis of unity to
most environmentalists. All
would accept some level of scientific input into decisions about
biodiversity or forest use. Most would generally deny that there is such a
thing as “enviromentalism” and consider that phrase an invention of enemies.
The environmental movement today persists in
many smaller local groups, usually within ecoregions. Some resemble the U.S. conservation
movement - whose modern expression is the Sierra Club, National Geographic
Society and other American organizations with a worldwide influence.
These "politically
neutral" groups tend to avoid global conflicts and view the settlement of
inter-human conflict as separate from regard for nature - in direct
contradiction to the ecology movement and peace movement which have
increasingly close links: While Greenpeace, and other Green Parties for
example, regard ecology, biodiversity and an end to non-human
extinction as absolutely basic to peace, the local groups may not, and may
see a high degree of global competition and conflict as justifiable if it lets
them preserve their own local uniqueness.
There are
different types of environmental organizations. Four of them, I want to mention
in my paper. They are:
·
Government
Organizations
·
Intergovernmental
Organizations
·
Private
Organizations (Environmental NGO[10])
·
International
Organizations
The government
organizations are the government departments or agencies devoted to monitoring
and protecting the environment. In Canada, the most known federal environmental
agency is the Environment Canada. It is responsible for weather forecasting,
managing and administration of National and conservation parks, water and
forest protection and so on. The English Heritage is a United Kingdom
government body with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of
England. Its major responsibilities are the conservation, advising, registering
and protecting the historic environment. The mission of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to protect human health and to
safeguard the natural environment: water, air, land.
Intergovernmental
organizations, such as the European Environment Agency, are devoted to
establishing a monitoring network for monitoring the European environment.
The Environmental NGO
include only social and cultural groups, whose primary goal is not commercial.
These organizations are involved in lobbying, advocacy, or conservation
efforts.
The international
organizations, like Greenpeace, Green Cross International and Friends of Earth,
use direct actions to stop the destruction of the natural environment. At this
part I would like to describe the Greenpeace organization and its action.
Greenpeace
is an independent, campaigning organization which uses non-violent, creative
confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions
for a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace's goal is to ensure the ability of
the earth to nurture life in all its diversity. Greenpeace has national and regional
offices in 41 countries worldwide.
The origins of Greenpeace
lie in the formation of the Don't Make A
Wave Committee. Taking its name from a slogan used during protests
against United States nuclear testing in late 1969, the Committee came together
with the objective of stopping a second underground nuclear bomb test codnamed
"Cannikin" by the United States military beneath the island of
Amchitka, Alaska. In September 1971, a fishing vessel skippered by John
Cormack. was named the Greenpeace,
and set sail for the island of Amchitka with the intention of disrupting the
scheduled second nuclear test. Upon their return to Alaska, the crew learned
that protests had taken place in all major Canadian cities, and that the United
States had postponed the second underground test until November. Although
attempts to sail into the test zone using a second chartered vessel also
failed, no further nuclear tests took place at Amchitka. Following Stowe's
departure from the chairmanship of the Don't
Make A Wave Committee, the fledgling environmental group officially
changed its name to the "Greenpeace Foundation".
By the late 1970s,
spurred by the global reach of what Robert Hunter called "mind bombs”,
more than 20 groups across North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia had
adopted the name "Greenpeace".
In 1979, however, the
original Vancouver-based Greenpeace Foundation had encountered financial
difficulties, and disputes between offices over fundraising and organisational
direction split the global movement. David McTaggart lobbied the Canadian
Greenpeace Foundation to accept a new structure which would bring the scattered
Greenpeace offices under the auspices of a single global organisation, and on
October 14, 1979, Greenpeace International came into existence. Greenpeace's
transformation from a loose international network — united by style more than by
focus — to a global organisation able to apply the full force of its resources
to a small number of environmental issues deemed of global significance.
In 1978, Greenpeace
launched the Rainbow Warrior, a
40-metre, former fishing trawler named for the Creek legend that
inspired early activist Robert Hunter on the first voyage to Amchitka.
Greenpeace purchased the Rainbow Warrior
(originally launched as the Sir William
Hardy in 1955) at a cost of £40,000, and volunteers restored
and refitted her over a period of four months.
The Rainbow Warrior would quickly become a
mainstay of Greenpeace campaigns. Between 1978 to 1985, crew members also
engaged in non-violent direct action against the ocean-dumping of toxic and
radioactive waste, the Grey Seal hunt in the Orkneys and nuclear testing in the
Pacific.
Greenpeace's continued
protest against nuclear testing at Moruroa atoll prompted the government of
France to order the bombing of the Rainbow
Warrior, in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985.
The Warrior had sailed from the North
Pacific, where it assisted the evacuation of the inhabitants of Rongelap in the
Marshall Islands, who continued to suffer health effects attributed to the
fallout from American nuclear testing during the 1950s and 1960s.
The organization currently
actively addresses many environmental issues, with primary focus on efforts to
stop global warming and to preserve the biodiversity of the world's oceans and
ancient forests. In addition to the more conventional environmental
organization methods, such as lobbying politicians and attendance at
international conferences, Greenpeace has a stated methodology of engaging in
nonviolent direct action.
Greenpeace uses direct
action to attract attention to particular environmental causes, whether by
placing themselves between the whaler's harpoon and their prey, or by invading
nuclear facilities dressed as barrels of radioactive waste.
Some of Greenpeace's most
notable successes include the ending of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons,
a permanent moratorium on international commercial whaling, and the declaration
by treaty of Antarctica as a global park, forbidding possession by individual
nations or commercial interests. To back up this latter point, World Park Base
was established in Antarctica.
Despite its founding in
North America, Greenpeace achieved much more success in Europe, where it has
more members and gets most of its money. The vast majority of Greenpeace's
donations come from private individual members.
During its history,
Greenpeace has weathered criticism from government and industry, and on
occasion, from other environmental groups. While critics have often focused on
undermining the scientific or factual basis of particular campaigns, the
organisation's system of governance and its use of nonviolent direct action
have also been sources of controversy.
So, pollution is one of the most burning problems
of nowadays. Now millions of chimneys, cars, buses, trucks all over the world
exhaust fumes and harmful substances into the atmosphere. These poisoned
substances pollute everything: air, land, water, birds and animals. So, it is
usually hard to breathe in the large cities where there are lots of plants.
Everything there is covered with soot and dirt. All these affect harmfully.
Every year the atmosphere is polluted by about 1000 tons of industrial dust and
other harmful substances. Big cities suffer from smog. Cars with their engine
have become the main source of pollution in industrial countries. Vast forests
are being cut down for the need of industries in Europe and USA. The loss of
the forests upsets the oxygen balance of the new wastelands. As the result some
species of animals, birds, fish and plants have disappeared and keep
disappearing. To slow down the rate of pollution many environmental
organizations engage in nonviolent actions. But it is surely not enough to stop
the processes that have already began in nature, and that had been caused by
the way we all live. To protect our environment we all should care and do
everything possible to save the nature for our kids.
Country
|
Emissions
(metric tons CO2/year
|
GNP
(billions of $/year)
|
Emissions/GNP
Ratio (metric tons CO2/year)
|
China
|
2,236.3
|
372.3a
|
6.01b
|
South
Africa
|
284.2
|
79.0
|
3.60
|
Romania
|
220.7
|
79.8a
|
2.77b
|
Poland
|
459.4
|
172.4
|
2.66
|
India
|
600.6
|
237.9
|
2.52
|
East
Germany
|
327.4
|
159.5a
|
2.05a
|
Czechoslovakia
|
233.6
|
123.2a
|
1.90b
|
Mexico
|
306.9
|
176.7
|
1.74
|
U.S.S.R.
|
3,982.0
|
2,659.5a
|
1.50b
|
South
Korea
|
204.6
|
171.3
|
1.19
|
Canada
|
437.8
|
435.9
|
1.00
|
United
States
|
4,804.1
|
4,880.1
|
.98
|
Australia
|
241.3
|
246.0
|
.98
|
United
Kingdom
|
559.2
|
702.4
|
.80
|
Brazil
|
202.4
|
323.6
|
.63
|
West
Germany
|
669.9
|
1,201.8
|
.56
|
Spain
|
187.7
|
340.3
|
.55
|
Italy
|
359.7
|
828.9
|
.43
|
Japan
|
989.3
|
2,843.7
|
.35
|
France
|
320.1
|
949.4
|
.34
|
a Estimates of GNP for
centrally planned economies are subject to large margins of error. These
estimates are as much 100 times larger than those from other sources that
correct for availability of goods or use free-market exchange rates.
b The emissions/GNP is also likely to be underestimated for
centrally planned economies.
Source: National Academy of Sciences, Policy Implications of Global
Warming (Washington, D.C.: 1991).
|
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Экология (учебник), М.1995г.
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Multimedia Editions
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(Multimedia Edition)
Internet data:
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www.greenpeace.com
9.
www.world-ecology.com
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Advances in Environmental
Research www.elsevier.com
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National Academy of Sciences,
Policy Implications of Global Warming (Washington, D.C.: 1991)
12. Jeannie
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Observatory. 10.02.2004. #"#">#"#">#"#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1] Styrofoam - пенопласт
[2]
Advances in Environmental Research www.elsevier.com
[3]
Advances in Environmental Research www.elsevier.com
[4] А.Д. Яншин “Научные проблемы охраны природы и экологии” Экология и
жизнь, № 3, 1999 г.
[5] Валерий Павлович Алексеев “ПРИРОДА И ОБЩЕСТВО: ЭТАПЫ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ”
Экология и жизнь,№ 2, 2002г.
[6]
National Academy of Sciences, Policy Implications of Global Warming
(Washington, D.C.: 1991)
[7] Валерий Павлович
Алексеев “ПРИРОДА И ОБЩЕСТВО: ЭТАПЫ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ” Экология и жизнь,№ 2,
2002г.
[8]
Lake Manapouri is a lake in the South Island of New Zealand
[9] Genetic engineering
[10]
A non-government organization
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