What will happen if we continue to pollute and exploit the Earth in an uncontrolled way?

Must we still discuss this topic?!

Maybe you’ve read the topic of this presentation and you’ve thought: “Gosh, how long must I hear about world’s pollution? I’ve enough!”. And you’ve left the computer turned on, tried to watch something in TV, but you’ve seen Obama speaking about Gulf oil spill area, you’ve irritated more, left the room (TV turned on also), switched on the lights and took a newspaper. But then you’ve looked at an article concerning energy’s economy- and you’ve flied into a rage. Can’t we glance off the subject?

Unfortunately, we can’t. It is not for pleasure that everybody talk about it. If every day we are forced to follow the news about pollution, if more and more campaigns are lanced by countless organization, we can be sure that the problem is really important. Maybe we should try to imagine what are possible consequences of our destructive action. Let’s see….

Different human actions and it’s consequences

Air pollution

When you go out of town, you can finally take a deep breath and smell a fresh air. In a city, it’s impossible: too many cars, too many factories, power plants, too much exhaust fumes… It’s true, however, air pollution is present everywhere: because of using aerosol sprays, hair sprays, dry cleaners and others. Consequences? According to the researchers, the ozone depletion increases about 1% by year. What does it mean? The ozone layer protect us from harmful UVB ultraviolet light which lead to skin cancer, intoxication, ocular diseases. The EPA estimates that 60 million Americans born by the year 2075 will get skin cancer because of ozone depletion. About one million of these people will die. Concerning the environment, the most basic microscopic organisms such as plankton may not be able to survive. If that happened, it would mean that all of the other animals that are above plankton in the food chain would also die out. Other ecosystems such as forests and deserts will also be harmed.

Water pollution

Well, you know that the problem is very actual- there is more and more sewages in our rivers and the treatment of it is still insufficient. Every year, 14 billions pounds of sewage, sludge, and garbage are dumped into the world's oceans, 19 trillion gallons of waste enter the water also. What’s more, incidences of disasters, like the mentioned oil spill in the Gulf Coast in Mexico, are enormous and very difficult or even impossible to control. What are the possible results of still increasing water pollution? The death of milliards of fish and other animals and human food poisoning, skin diseases…

Noise pollution

Noise is among the most pervasive pollutants today. It negatively affects human health and well-being. Problems related to noise include hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, sleep loss, distraction and lost productivity, and a general reduction in the quality of life and opportunities for tranquility. Animals also suffer from an excessive noise emission: they are often more susceptible to loud sounds and evidently don’t know what’s happening so are also very stressed and must to change their migration patterns.

Littering

It is one of the most current bad customs of today’s society. 75% of Americans admit to littering within the last 5 years. Every year there are numerous vehicle accidents caused by litter. People in these accidents are injured and sometimes even killed in their attempts to avoid litter in the roadways. Young children fall on litter in playgrounds, get cut and need medical attention. Many small animals crawl into bottles or jars and get stuck and slowly starve to death. Animals get caught in plastic six pack rings, plastic bags, fishing line and a multitude of throwaways. Birds that are stuck, can’t fly away from danger. Sometimes animals caught in six pack rings are strangled as they grow too big for the opening. Animals get cut, infected and die. Every year, millions of birds, fish and animals die from litter.

Energy waste

The consumption habits of modern consumer lifestyles are causing a huge worldwide waste problem. Having overfilled local landfill capacities, many first world nations are now exporting their refuse to third world countries. This is having a devastating impact on ecosystems and cultures throughout the world.

Global warming

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane and ozone. According to scientist, by the year 2100, temperature will have increased by about 3° to 5° C (5.4° to 9° Fahrenheit). Results? Sea levels will rise by at least 25 meters (82 feet). Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes. Other effects of global warming include higher or lower agricultural yields, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions. As a further effect of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier.

I like green, I buy the ecological bags, I’m not concerned

Probably you do something to protect the environment. Yes, it’s quite sure, because nowadays you have to be a little green if you don’t want to be frowned upon. Recently in Poland a new rule have been introduced: you can’ take a plastic bag from a grocer’s shop without paying for it. There is also a kind of fashion for green “ecological bags” (it’s ecological, because it’s green). We can also segregate rubbish using specially designed containers (which content is often loaded in a common place). Am I ironic? Maybe a little. But it isn’t because I feel superior or I want to criticize Poles or any other nation. Quite the contrary, I believe in our sensibility. We need only to realize that all that jazz about Earth’s pollution is really well-founded.

Do you think the alarm is exaggerated? How do you imagine the world in the future if we continue to pollute it? What can we do to protect the environment- what are you doing personally?