In recent years, the environment has become an issue on many people’s minds. When we watch documentaries telling us this world doesn’t have much time if things carry on as they are, or we watch the news and politicians are desperately trying to come up with solutions, it can make us question what is causing all this damage to the environment.
There are many areas that contribute to our troubling environment. One area that has become a fast-increasing problem in the last couple of years is hospital waste disposal. With hospitals filled to capacity and beyond, there has been a sharp increase in hospital waste and the waste of other medical facilities. If this isn’t disposed of correctly, it can cause severe environmental problems, sometimes even being dumped in the oceans.
Another problem for the environment is overpopulation. This could seem strange as we know there are many beautiful places on earth with vast amounts of space. And yet, we see such problems as lack of food, water and fuel in many parts of the world because of the rising population. Even the desperate efforts to increase food supply with intensive agricultural farming, make the problem worse. This is because of the use of insecticides, chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
An obvious issue and a term we have heard many times is global warming. The increase in population and human activity has led to increases in the emission of greenhouse gasses. This then increases the temperature, which, in turn, melts the polar ice caps, causing rising sea levels and flash floods. New deserts appear and existing ones increase in size.
Still another reason for desert areas is deforestation. Trees are being cut down at alarming rates to make room for growing populations and businesses but has the true cost been considered? Without the same number of trees, oxygen levels are significantly decreased. The temperature is also affected and of course, the water cycle too, meaning less rainfall, leading to dryer conditions.
Pollution is a huge factor in our environmental problems. Everything around us in polluted, from the air we breathe, to the water we drink, to the soil we grow our food in. All the industrial waste from factories, the fossil fuels, oil spills, and acid rain, all add to the mounting pollution problem we face.
The environment really is reaching crisis point so it is vital that we educate ourselves on the different causes for the problems and how we can do our bit to minimise the dangers.