Ecological Problems

1. Ecological Problems If you don’t think about the future, you will not have it John Galsworthy • Man is the destroyer, man is the creator. • Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and their environment. • I am going to discus the global ecological problems. I want to see my town and the environment clean and tidy as ecological problems are the most important problems of the Earth. They are: • water( air and nuclear) pollution, • noise from cars and planes, • destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty, • shortage of natural resources • the growth of population. • global warming

3. In recent years the environmental problems have become extremely urgent and received a great publicity. In some way they are the result of scientific and technological progress of the 20-th century. But people also do a lot of harm to nature because they don't understand that the man is the part of environment. The relationship between man and nature has become one of the most vital problems facing civilization today. Pollution of water and air is one of the problems millions of people are concerned today. Acid rains, unsafe of nuclear and hydraulic power stations, radioactive and other poisonous materials, disposal of wastes became the global disasters. Cars are one of the most harmful and dangerous polluters of air. In more than a hundred towns and cities the concentration of harmful substances in the air and water is over 10 times the admissible level. Archangelsk is one of the most "dirty" towns of the country. The Northern Dvina - our main water source is fully polluted with industrial and communal wastes - the result of side-effect in the work of three giant pulp and paper mills. Water is not suitable for drinking. Another problem is presence of dangerous radioactive military objects and kosmodrom "Plesetsk". Besides we must remember about ozone holes over our heads. The ozone layer doesn't protect us from dangerous ultraviolet rays any more. They get through the atmosphere causing skin cancer and other diseases. All these facts make us become more sensitive towards the environment. The trouble is that our local powers don't realize enough the danger of the situation and don't pay much attention and money for construction of cleansing enterprises. Various public organizations and unofficial movement make their best to change official and public opinion on the environmental problems. One of the most famous and strong organizations nowadays is "Green peace". I suppose the solution of the problem requires the cooperation the people's efforts in nature conservation.

4. Water pollution is very dangerous because water is life for the whole planet. Life appeared in the water and depends on its quality. We drink only fresh water ,but the circulation of the water on the Earth is such that the quality of fresh water and the quality of salted water of the World Ocean are closely connected. The next reason is that sea products, such as crabs and lobsters are rich in vitamins, good for health , delicious. Water weeds are used as food by both people and animals. They also take part in oxygen restoring. If water is polluted, we will run out of such good food and there will be less oxygen produced which can be very harmful for the planet and mankind. How does water get polluted? Ships let trash into it, sometimes oil flows from broken ships. The temperature of the world Ocean grows slightly but it results in enormous growth of some water which absorb oxygen and pollute the water with trash of the vital activity.

5. Air pollution is a common problem. Cars, trucks, buses and airplanes are the worst polluters. They send partly burned gases into the air. Air can be also polluted by smoke and gases from factories. Dust, smoke, and gases in the air may be carried away by wind and by air currents, or settle over as a blanket of smog. Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with about 1000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. People of many cities suffer from smog. Forests are disappearing and this upsets the oxygen balance. The pollution of the air of the world’s oceans and the destruction of the ozone layer could lead our planet to a global catastrophe. That’s why serious measures to protect our environment should be undertaken. The role of the public in solution of ecological problems should be increased.

6. Nuclear power stations can go wrong and cause nuclear pollution. This happened in Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union in 1986. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effects can be terrible. About 18 percent of the territory of Belarus were also polluted with radioactive substances. A great damage has been done to the agriculture, forests and people’s health. The consequences of this explosion at the nuclear power –station are tragic for the Ukrainian, Byelorussian and other nations.

7. Our investigation has highlighted an issue of concern for a significant minority of Londoners; mobile noise caused by mini motos and car stereos. And shows that, at least in the case of car stereos, authorities do not appear to be addressing mobile noise effectively. A survey of residents who live near several busy roads in London was carried out during the investigation and found that: • the vast majority of respondents hear noise from car stereos more than once a week, with 42 per cent hearing it several times a day • hearing car stereo noise causes stress or extreme stress for almost a third of people surveyed and hearing the noise irritates a further 40 per cent. • It is hard to be sure of the numbers of Londoners affected by mobile noise. Nevertheless, from submissions gathered it is clear that the issue has a significant impact on quality of life for some of those who are affected. There is growing evidence that not only does nuisance noise cause annoyance, stress and sleep disruption, it can also lead to some serious health problems. The annoyance caused by mobile noise seems to be compounded by frustration at feeling that authorities are unable to address the issue. This is far more pronounced in the case of noisy car stereos..

8. Since the last Dodo bird died in about 1681, thousands of other species of animals and plants have become extinct or endangered. The Blue Whale, the Panda, the California Big Tree are on the verge of extinction. Gone forever are dinosaurs, passenger pigeons, California grizzly bears. Elephants , jungle cats and Asian rhinoceroses are being killed of for their ivory tusks, furs, or horns. Many animals have gone forever, as their habitats have been destroyed at an alarming rate: 340 miles a day! These are the rainforests which are in Central and South America, Africa, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, India and Madagascar. While rain forests are disappearing, so are animals and plants which live there. That means we are losing medicines which people can get from these plants and animals. For example, thanks to a little rosy periwinkle found in Madagascar, nearly all children recover from the blood disease, leukaemia.

9. At the moment,94% of the world’s energy comes from oil, gas and coal. But these ‘fossil fuels’ won’t last for ever. There’s only enough oil and gas for the next 50 years. Coal will last longer- perhaps about 300 years. And then? Well, one answer is nuclear energy. But, today, after Chernobyl, many people think it’s too dangerous. There are four solutions . They all use natural energy in the environment:. Wind energy , solar energy, wave energy (from the sea),geothermal energy(from hot rocks under the ground).It’s clean and natural, there’s another problem: they all are rather expensive. By the year 2030, they say, 25% of all animals , birds, fish and insects may be extinct. Every year man cuts down more trees to provide paper wood, medicines, , mineral fuel. But it’s not only trees which are disappearing. Every rain-forest also contains millions of animals, insects and flowers. These are destroyed , too. Is there any solution? Governments in rain- forest countries need to plan and work together. They should protect certain areas and plant new forests.

10. Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of anyspecies in a population using "per unit time" for measurement. In biology, the term population growth is likely to refer to any knownorganism, but this article deals mostly with the application of the term to human populations in demography. In demography, population growth is used informally for the more specific term population growth rate (see below), and is often used to refer specifically to the growth of the human population of the world. Simple models of population growth include the Malthusian Growth Model and the logistic model. Population growth 1800-2011: from 1 billion to 7 billion estimated in 31.10.2011. During the year 2011 according to estimates: • 135 million people will be born • 57 million people will die and • 78 million people will increase the world population.

13. Every day we burn gasoline, oil, coal, or other natural gases, more carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is what causing the temperature of the Earth to rise, and creating many problems that will begin to take place in the coming decades. However by burning fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and cutting down forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperature are rising fast. What will happen if our planet continues to get warmer? Sea levels will rise and cities on coasts will disappear under the water. Polar bears and many other animals will die out. There will be more floods, especially near coasts and rivers. Places that usually get lots of rain and snowfall will get hotter and drier. Many rivers and lakes will dry up. There will be more heat waves, draughts and wildfires. Hurricanes, tornados and other storms will become more common. 1900 2000

14. What rules people must learn. • Don’t waste water, gas, energy, natural resources. • Don’t put poisons into the water , air and soil. • Don’t dump or pour industrial waste into rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. • Don’t turn the planet into the pile of rubbish. • Follow the laws to help to clean up our land, water and air. • Take care of our Earth,stop doing harmful things to our land, water and air. • Protect trees and plants in parks and yards. • Grow vegetables and fruit without chemicals. • Protect animals and birds. • Do not use sprays. • Reuse bags, containers, paper, boxes and other items. • Buy reusable products. • Select products with the least wasteful packaging. • Buy products that can be recycled and make sure to recycle them. • Buy products that can be recycled and make sure to recycle them. There is a good formula of RRR Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Let us set up our CCSCand save our common home, the Earth for the future generations solving ecological problems.