The world is currently facing numerous environmental challenges that are threatening the lives of humans and other living organisms on earth. Various movements and efforts have been started by government-and non-government organizations around the globe to either to mitigate these challenges or at least lessen their impact to humanity. Addressing these concerns is very important because everybody is affected by these problems. It is not only the country directly hit by these challenges.
The biggest problem among these challenges is the global warming and climate change. This phenomenon is a result of the activities of human that leads to the rising of the temperature of the earth surface and the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted cannot be absorbed anymore thus affecting the ozone layer that protects us from the heat of the sun. The activities include the emission of greenhouses gases, and other carbon dioxide emitting activities and other air pollutants. Its effect contributes to the climate change because it leads to the melting of the polar ice caps, rising of the sea level and changes in the pattern of precipitation around the world. All of these affect the activities of people as well as the biodiversity that surrounds them. Farmers, for example have scheduled the crops they plant on a particular time of the year, however, because of the changes in the behavior of the environment, they experience phenomenon’s such as the La Nina (excessive Rainfall) or El Nino (lack of rain) that affects the yield of the farmers. This in turn affects the way they live because economically they will be affected. Their income will go down. A chain reaction goes because employment will be affected or the percentage of citizens living below the poverty line increases. The government for which these people belong will likewise be affected. A greater attention will be needed to meet the basic needs of the people instead of giving attention to other developmental needs. (National Geographic, 2014)
Although, several nations have been struggling to find ways of mitigating the sources of global warming, an agreement among the nations has not been fully met because of some political and economic interests. Countries like China do not conform to the suggestion to close out factories that are emitting carbon dioxide because their economy can be greatly affected. Burning gasses from transport vehicles are also one of the sources of carbon dioxide emission, but could we stop the transporting of goods? What will happen to the economy? What will happen to nations who do not produce a specific good? Will countries that cannot produce apple be able to taste apples? Deforestation is another major cause of global warming because less and less wood will absorb the carbon dioxide. However, we are currently experiencing increasing population, that’s why more and more forest are being deforested to become communities and farms to meet both shelter and food needs of the community.
Efforts to boost energy efficiency, green transportation programs, using renewable energy resources, phase-out the use of fossil fuel, and the development of low-carbon r zero-carbon technology have been done by some countries and organizations, however, if we want to see results from our mitigation effectors, it must be a big step. International effort must be done because small efforts may just be overpowered by the countries that are continuously emitting the dangerous gasses. Some things needed to be sacrificed to see our efforts.
Loss of biodiversity is another growing environmental concern that affects nations around the world. Biodiversity consists of all life forms and their interaction with other specifies in the different ecosystems round the world like desserts, forests, oceans and in the communities where we live. It has been observed that due to some natural and man-made activities, we experience loss of biodiversity. This came to the point that some species are slowly experiencing extinction. Ecological balance needs to be maintained, however, politics, greet and power has contributed a lot in the disturbance.
In a balance biodiversity, everyone, no matter how small has a role to play. Mankind should help maintain biodiversity because its effect could be disastrous. The more the number of plant species, for example the more variety of crops we can have to sustain life on earth. The more fish species we have could mean a more variety of choices for us to choose from. Life forms are interdependent with each other; however, they have been experiencing human-intervention for some time which has affected the way they live. Some causes of the loss of biodiversity could also be related to the pollution and climate change.
Pollution does not only pose problems to the health of animals and other living things but to us, humans as well. It brings about health problems which in turn would be an additional burden to the government and to the health industry.
Marine life for example is deteriorating and coral experiencing coral bleaching. Water pollution is one of the causes of the loss of marine biodiversity. Overpopulation is another contributor. It has become harder for fisherman to catch fish. You can hear them complain of the lack of catch. They cannot catch the amount of fish they usually catch anymore and you could also hear them say that the variety of fishes they catch has become fewer.
The ecological challenges that surround us today are interconnected with each other. We can say that overpopulation is one of the root causes of all of these challenges. Their greed is also another cause of the ecological challenges we are experiencing. A little give and take may be needed to reduce the effects of these challenges to us.
It has been admitted by environmentalist that our planet is on the brink of a serious environmental crisis. Our situation puts adds up to our susceptibility to all kinds of tragedies and disasters. Actions has to be made to made and these actions has to be done by all nations. Remember what happen to the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan stroke killing thousands of people and leaving the survivors helpless? We may not the control over that natural disaster but studies show that somehow, this has something to do with the changing behavior of our climate. The world witnessed that it was possible for nations of different races to work as one to help revived the community. Let us not wait for some tragedies like this to wake up and realized the actions that must be taken to save us and our environment. If it was possible for nations then it must also be possible to for the nations to make the necessary steps in saving the world.
References:
Anup, Shah (2014). Why I Biodiversity Important? Who cares?. Retrieved on November 20, 2014 from http://www.globalissues.org/article/170/why-is-biodiversity-important-who-cares
National Geographic (2014). Causes of Global Warming. Retrieved on November 20, 2014 from http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes/
