With Earth Day having just occurred this past Friday, I feel that it is important that we touch on important environmental issues facing our world today that need to be solved in order to create a healthier, greener, and more sustainable society in the future. Some of these issues include water pollution, agricultural infrastructure, deforestation, overpopulation, waste disposal, climate change, and lack of biodiversity.
To start off, the issue of water pollution is a huge one because most living things on Earth rely on water to sustain themselves. With the growing industrial business and urban life, there have been impacts on the quality of our water, “whether it’s through storm water runoff from cities or farms, dumping from industry, or ill-regulated efforts to drill for yet more oil, we’re increasingly filling our rivers, seas and oceans with toxic pollutants” (Cameron). These pollutants especially have drastic effects oceanic life. These toxins infecting their ecosystems are weakening and killing tons of marine species, some to the point of near extinction. For example, there is an area in the Gulf of Mexico which is “a dead zone resulting from the travels of farmland fertilizers down the Mississippi River” (Cameron).
This leads us to another problem, the issue of food in the world currently. Food production and farming has a heavy impact on our environment because of all of the pesticides, chemicals and fertilizer used. Also the genetic engineering has caused major impacts since “an engineered gene may prove toxic to wildlife” and the modification “results in increased toxins and diseases” (Rinkesh). With the increase in food demand, these problems are becoming even worse as the years go by and production is not being regulated as much as it should be to maintain a healthy society.
Another impact that we have on the environment is the deforestation. “Forests cover 30 percent of the planet’s land… yet every single year we lose an area the size of Panama” (Cameron). For reference, the area of Panama is 28,640 mi². Every single year, we lose 28,640 mi² of forest area. All of that loss just to satisfy the “growing population demand for more food, shelter and cloth” (Rinkesh) by creating more available land for residential, industry and commercial purposes. These forests are essential to not only human life but also the lives of all the animals whose habitats are located in these forested areas. Forests are also “one of our greatest resources for offsetting some of our outrageous carbon emissions and without the canopy we leave areas vulnerable to intense heat, further driving climate change” (Cameron).
Overpopulation is also a major issue because we are reaching unsustainable levels and facing shortages of resources such as water, fuel and food. As we struggle to keep up with the needs of a rapidly growing population, we also have to deal with the rapid increase in waste as a result. There are so many things in our society that are “made using finite resources, with environmentally destructive practices only to be used for a relatively short amount of time before being tossed into landfill” (Cameron). This cycle cannot go on, as it will only get worse as population and demand increases.
All of these issues lead into two more big problems: climate change and lack of biodiversity. Every one of the things listed above are contributing factors to these issues. Our impact on the world as humans is leading to rapid climate change and the extinction of many species and habitats. The Earth creates a perfect balance and our activities are throwing it out of its equilibrium and harming the very environment that keeps us alive. We need to be more aware of our actions and impact on the Earth if we ever hope of rectifying the problems that we have created. We cannot continue to ignore these issues. They need to be confronted and dealt with so that we can leave future generations with a greener, healthier and more sustainable world to live in.
Sources:
Cameron, Charley. “The World’s 6 Most Pressing Environmental Issues.” Inhabitat: Design for a Better World! Inhabitat, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <http://inhabitat.com/why-we-need-earth-day-7-most-pressing-environmental-problems-we-need-to-solve/>.
Rinkesh. “15 Current Environmental Problems.” Conserve Energy Future. Conserve Energy Future, 27 June 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-current-environmental-problems.php>.
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