Protection of the Environment

The protection of the environment is now the question of life or death on the Earth. Life on our planet needs special conditions such as tempera­ture, the composition of the ground, air and water, the level of radiation and so on. If these conditions are broken, there will be no life in a few decades. The problem of pollution started being discussed in our country some twenty years ago. Then a wonderful film called "Per Aspera ad Astram" ("Through Thorns to Stars") was shot. This film represents a planet whose ecological balance was broken. It is a terrible sight. There peo­ple could not walk without special masks and had to buy air to breathe. The food was poisonous and most of children were born with mental or physical defects. The nation was on the brink of extinction. If the mankind does not want to cease existing, it should pay more attention to the problems of the environment.

Polluted air and water now causes poor health of babies and children, many people have bad teeth and weak bones, they are weak and often fall ill. So we can say that to hurt the Earth is to hurt ourselves.

The problems of the environment are now deeply studied all over the world and in Russia as well. Pollution is mainly caused by the human activities. People dig the ground to get ores, oil, gas, coal and other mineral resources. But the ores contain a small percent of the needed metals which are ex­tracted with the help of many machines and complex technological processes.

When the metal is extracted, other substances are left on the ground and can get into the soil, water and air. If oil gets into the water, it makes the water poisonous for both people and animals. The feathers of birds and the hair of sea-animals get glued and birds cannot fly, animals cannot breathe and so they die. During many processes poisonous gases (carbon dioxide, for example) are thrown out in the air. These gases and substances not only make the air dirty and unsuitable for breathing but also destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere. It is very dangerous, because this ozone layer protects the Earth against the space radiation which can be harmful to both people and wild nature.

The atmosphere pollution also causes the greenhouse effect. If there is much dirt in the air, it becomes thicker and does not let out the sunrays which have come through it down on the Earth. It means that the climate becomes warmer and warmer every year. It can be measured by the growth of the average summer and winter temperatures. The danger is that a warmer climate causes the melting of the Arctic ice and the rise in the level of the World Ocean. So, water will cover some land and probably most fertile land. In its turn, it will cause great hunger because the rest of the land won't be good enough to feed the hungry. Another factor of risk is that polluted air is dangerous not only for the humans and animals but also for the trees and other plants which produce oxygen.

Water pollution is another great problem. Factories and plants produce water polluted with poisons or oils and let that water into rivers and seas. That is dangerous for the wildlife and for people, who need clean water to drink. There are also acid rains harming forests which produce oxygen necessary for the life on the Earth. Only few organisms (some bacteria) can live without oxygen. Many species of flora and fauna have died out because of wasteful use and pollution, many are dying out now. Dirty waters and fertilizers cause land pollution. Plants cannot grow on the polluted land.

The problem is people cannot stop most of technological processes and procedures because we cannot live without the products produced. On the other hand, if the pollution is not stopped we'll die out anyway. The only reasonable decision is to invent new, waste-free and nature-friendly technologies. People now do a lot of things. They develop and pro­duce special water and air purifiers and filters. They organize National parks and Wildlife reservations. People organize new technologies of forest usage - they cut old, the so-called "ripe" trees and at the same time plant young trees which in forty or fifty years become ready for usage. People breed wild animals (sables, marsh-otters, hares, European bisons, crocodiles, ostriches, many kinds of fish and others) on special farms so there is no need for hunting. It is interesting to know that polar foxes from farms are more beautiful than the wild ones because they are cared after, cured and well-fed. There is an international organization called Green Peace which fights against pollution and protects Nature. Its ship the Rainbow Warrior helps control air and water pollution.

It seems that to stop pollution is very difficult and all countries must work together to solve this problem. But there every one can help nature. I believe there should be an environmental programme at Russian school. This programme should include lessons about pollution and how chil­dren can help the Earth.

There are alternatives to cleaners, pesticides and other substances which we can use, soda, for example. We should not cut trees and other plants, we should help animals. We must collect waste properly so it does not get into water or soil. There is a good formula of RRR. It is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

We can reduce the usage of electricity and drinking water. For example, when you clean your teeth and let the water run, you lose two or three liters of water. Now multiply 3 liters by the number of people in our city and you will see that it is a lot. But we can stop it if we switch off the water. We can reduce the usage of packing and buying things in plastic packs. It is important, because it is very difficult to recycle plastic.

We should reuse everything we can. For example, we can reuse plastic bags. If people reuse plastic bags, the factories will produce less of them and will harm Nature less.

We also should recycle what we can. We can recycle paper, aluminium cans, glass and plastic bottles and fabrics. I think throwing away and not recycling is a crime against our Nature. These things are very easy and every man can help a lot.