Man is polluting his environment
Ever since the first atom bomb was burst in the Arizona desert, scientists have become aware of the radioactive fallouts from the bursting of megaton bombs by Nuclear nations and subsequently the pollution of water by nuclear reactors. But this is not the first time that air and water are being polluted. For quite a long time it has been going on, especially, since the coming of the petroleum to be used in the internal combustion engines. Oil in whatever form consumes the life-giving oxygen of the air and the end products mainly carbon dioxide fills up the atmosphere. The green parts of plants clear up this debris, consume the carbon in the process of photosynthesis and bring back the oxygen. There it a limit to this reaction. When the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grows beyond tome tolerance level even all the green plants of the world will not be up to the task. Add to it the careless denudation of forest and wooded areas which are destroyed for the take of industries.
The results of such pollution are something like this. The atmosphere gets heated and the average temperature may go beyond what it is; at a result ice in the oceans may melt increasing the level of the teat and to the low lying areas may be submerged. The water in the teat get evaporated sooner and upset the balance.
Another thing that pollutes the air it dust particles. Dust particles and smoke in the air act at nucleus for the water vapor in the atmosphere to condense and form what it called ‘smog’. This causes poor visibility to the motor car drivers and it a great handicap for airplanes to land and take off.
The pollution of water it equally serious, still it growing at a rapid pace. Chemical wastes from factories and nuclear reactors are drained into rivers, lakes and teat. At first the water becomes unfit for drinking. Where the water has not been properly sterilized, it has led to serious epidemics like jaundice. Furthermore it tells on the aquatic life, both plants and animals. Fishes die or they carry small doses of radioactive elements in them that those who consume them may die; so too in the case of plants.
This has caught the eye of the public in the U.S.A. that recently the Americans observed what is called the Earth Day or Environment Control Day. They have become aware of it and the government, the labor force, students and artist’s arc involved in fighting against such pollution. In many of the States, they raised loud voices that the government has come forward to do something. For instance, in his State of the Union address once President Nixon said: “The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, land and water.”
There was much talk on Earth Day about closing the loop. The terms will have much significance in the future as science and technology turn more attention to progress that will take man’s waste and recycle it into the system thereby making better use of what already had been taken from the earth and conserving the resources that are left.
If man does not act now, the ecological systems will breakdown creating diseases man cannot resist, loss of food supplies from lakes and seas, the necessity of gas masks whenever one goes outside. Can it happen? Obviously, it can and will, if man fails to act right from now.
