In the modern life, man faces countless problems and issues that do not let peace and prosperity to grow. The difficult and scare environment made through Covid19 and Bird Flu makes the life of common person hard and unsustainable. Man is very anxious and fearful about the consequences of the said biological disasters. Although, man had technological advancements, still unable to live in peace. Do you wonder about how and why man trapped with problems? A simple answer is here. Man has polluted his own nest (Environment) due to various anthropogenic activities. Due to anthropogenic activities, the quality of environment is deteriorating at an unexpected pace. Due to various pollutions in our environment, man is unable to get progress and peace. At present, modern man is unable to breathe pure air in atmosphere, drink pure water in hydrosphere and live on unpolluted lithosphere. From the source of Wikipedia, the space around us in which we as a biotic component interacts with abiotic component is called environment. Modern man wants to have more luxuries of life and deteriorates the environment then and now. Through various development projects, man makes his environment degraded and polluted. The environmental degradation not only affects the man only but also affects other living organisms on mother earth. Some of the eminent environmental organisations reveal that the deterioration of environment is occurring at an alarming rate. Environmental degradation is a result of the dynamic socio- economic, institutional and technological activities. Most of the resources on mother earth are vulnerable to depletion and the rates at which we are exploiting them, have already brought some of them to the brink of exhaustion. Large-scale exploitation has depleted the fossil fuel resources across the world. Due to such trend of depletion of fossil fuel resources, man is bound to find an alternate source of energy. Other human activities that have been contributing to environmental degradation include urbanisation, population explosion, deforestation, pollution etc. Things like overconsumption, overfishing and deforestation are dramatically affecting our earth. Pollution is polluting environment everywhere and is increasing annually. Millions of metric tons of pollutants add up into the atmosphere every year. The plastic which modern man uses daily are polluting the environment and such pollution known as plastic pollution. Plastic is seen everywhere from supermarkets to households. It is non-biodegradable in nature and thus affects the whole earth including humankind, wildlife and aquatic life. It is spreading like a disease that has no cure. Waste plastic bags are the main reason for trapping the drains and sewers, especially during rains, which led to the occurrence of flood like situation and disrupt the normal life of people.
The role of every individual in preventing environmental pollution is of paramount importance because if every individual contributes substantially, the effect will be visible at not only the community, city, state or national level but also at the global level. Each individual should change his/her lifestyle in such a way as to reduce environmental pollution. Let we all contribute positively towards the environment and reduce the occurrence of environmental degradation further.
Plastic pollution causes harm to humans, animals, plants and microorganisms through toxic pollutants. It can take more years for plastic to breakdown so the environmental damage due to plastic pollution is long lasting. It affects all organisms in the food chain from tiny plankton up to huge blue whales. The technological inventions in the form of Smart phones and data centres are also causing damage to the environment. According to researchers, smart phones and data centres will have the biggest carbon footprint in the tech industry by 2040. It is an environmental disaster because building every smart phone requires the polluting extraction of irreplaceable elements like gold, cobalt or lithium. To make matters worse, the average user switches phone every two years without recycling the retired device, generating toxic waste and polluting the environment. In this era of globalisation, our mother earth is facing serious environmental pollution resulted from inconsiderable deeds of humankind. Man can reduce pollution on earth through four main ways.
(1) To practice 3R concept
(2) Reduce usage of vehicles on roads
(3) Environmental awareness among the citizens
(4) Environmental laws
3R concept stands for reduce, reuse and recycle. Reducing the usage of air conditioners in our homes and work places can help us to reduce the release of ozone depleting harmful chlorofluorocarbons. Reducing the release of said gases could save us from the ozone layer depletion in the stratosphere. The next way to reduce pollution is to recycle the items like glass, cans and newspapers. The recycled newspapers can be reproduced as toilet papers that will reduce extra waste on earth, indirectly contributing in reducing land pollution. Usage of public transport like buses or trains than to run vehicles that are more private will reduce air and noise pollution. Creating environmental awareness through public meetings, or print media can solve the problem of environmental pollution to some extent. An environmental law ensures that individuals and governments do not cause any sort of harm to the environment or its ecosystems. The enforcing and obligation with such environmental laws protects the environment from pollution further. The role of every individual in preventing environmental pollution is of paramount importance because if every individual contributes substantially, the effect will be visible at not only the community, city, state or national level but also at the global level. Each individual should change his/her lifestyle in such a way as to reduce environmental pollution. Let we all contribute positively towards the environment and reduce the occurrence of environmental degradation further.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own)
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