Major Environmental Issues

Planet Earth is currently undergoing many changes caused by major environmental issues. Though gradual change is inevitable, these global issues are altering our planet at a shockingly rapid pace.

Global warming is a general warming of the earth that science estimates has been sped up over the past 10 years. This is happening so quickly because of the Greenhouse Effect—hot gasses are trapping heat in the atmosphere. These gasses allow light to come in, but they do not let that light’s heat out. The scientific community calls these gasses “greenhouse gases” as this trapping process is much like that which would be caused by the glass walls of a greenhouse. The heat that is being trapped in the atmosphere by these hot gasses is responsible for the making the Earth’s temperature rise. Ecosystems and biosystems exist symbiotically with their environments because of certain constants—temperature included. With the temperature changing so rapidly, the systems within it are struggling to evolve and adapt quick enough, causing the following to happen:

• sea levels are rising
• ice caps are melting
• agricultural yields are diminishing
• plants and animals are going extinct
• disease and famine are killing entire countries
• the forest is shrinking
• we are facing extreme weather events and conditions

Household chemicals, waste bi-products, pesticides, heavy metals—these are just some of the toxic chemicals we come across every day. Human exposure occurs from contact through the air, water, land, and other animal life. Very few of the chemicals easily found in our homes, towns, and countries are being adequately tested for their effects on the planet before being approved and distributed worldwide. There are some toxic chemicals, such as mercury, that don’t breakdown once they are consumed by a living organism. Instead, they multiply and grow stronger as they work their way up the food chain as that creature is devoured by another or the planet and nothing but death is the outcome.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element that is found in air, water and soil. Its frequent findings around the planet might make it seem harmless because it’s all around, except that humans have no natural way of breaking it down. Mercury is found on land and in the air because of the production of and in the final products of everyday items such as:

• paint
• thermometers
• switches
• light bulbs
• rocks containing coal and therefore coal burning power plants

Mercury, as is the case with many toxic elements in nature, does not lose strength when it is consumed. Rather, as that organism that first consumes it get consumed by the next creature on the food chain, the mercury level combines with the first animal’s making it stronger and more toxic. Because of the mercury gaining steam as it travels from one organism up the food web to the next, oceans, rivers and lakes are filling up with mercury-poisoned sea life and we are eating it.

Pesticides, as they were designed, kill and destroy that which is in their path. They are sprayed on food and then when the food is eaten, the pesticide is ingested and it is toxic. The threat is also that the pesticide, when sprayed on the food reaches the soil and because of runoff also reaches the waterways. This carries that single spraying of pesticide to many other organisms that weren’t intended to meet its doom. Storage and disposal of these deadly chemicals are also a problem to the environment mostly because, as simply as its stated above, they are designed to kill and destroy—and they do. Pesticides and similarly constructed chemical agents can cause cancer and can damage human endocrine and nervous systems, and they can be found in the soil, food, water, and in the air.

Sad to say, there are quite a few major environmental issues currently underway on our planet. Here is a list of some of the ones not mentioned above:

• Agribusiness and bioengineering
• Deforestation
• Depletion of natural resources
• Over fishing and poaching
• Overpopulation
• Waste management

It is possible that we familiarize ourselves with these issues we might change our ways whereby lessening the negative effects and shed some positive light on our planet.

by Joli Selten

• Ways to Prevent Global Warming
• 50 Specific Actions of Green Living
• Examples of Sustainable Development

• United States Recycling Statistics
• Types of Pollution
• Air Pollution Statistics
• Effects of Water Pollution
• Advantages and Disadvantages of Biofuels

• How to Build a Hydrogen Generator
• Carbon Cycle Steps
• Environmental Issues of Current Concern
• Air Pollution Statistics
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