With the globalization of the world and the rapid development of the economy, the global environmental problems are becoming more and more serious, which affect us all the time. As the common home of mankind, the earth has been full of holes. Human beings must be aware of the seriousness of global environmental problems. Since the industrial revolution, the ability of human beings to transform nature has been improved unprecedentedly. Science and technology have brought humans due to material civilization. Two centuries have passed in a twinkling of an eye. Now, the industrial revolution is still marching forward and developing rapidly. All kinds of factories are all over the earth. While science and technology bring civilization to human beings, human beings are also facing unprecedented severe tests and challenges. People’s living environment is getting worse and worse, and the environmental disasters that human beings suffer are becoming more and more frequent. At present, various environmental problems are mainly shown in the below aspects:
Global Warming:
Climatological records show that the global average surface temperature has shown an obvious upward trend in the past 100 years. Overall, the global average temperature in the 1980s was about 0.6 ° C higher than that in the second half of the last century. This trend is likely to continue unless effective measures are taken to control it. Preliminary studies show that global warming will cause the northward movement of the temperature zone, which will lead to the corresponding changes in atmospheric movement and global precipitation. In general, the precipitation of the existing lands in low latitudes will increase, the snowfall in winter in high latitudes will increase, and the precipitation in summer in mid-latitudes will decrease. For most arid and semi-arid areas, the increase in precipitation is favorable. However, in areas with less rainfall, such as central North America and Northwest China, water resources will be tenser due to the reduction of summer rainfall. The rise of sea level will undoubtedly change the coastline and bring great influence on the coastal areas. At present, the coastal areas with low altitudes will face the danger of being submerged. (Climate Change Evidence)
Air Pollution:
At present, the main sources of air pollution are the exhaust gas from coal combustion and automobile exhaust. Coal is an indispensable mineral fuel in our life, but at the same time, the environmental problems caused by coal-burning are becoming increasingly prominent, and disastrous weather such as acid rain is more and more frequent. The family car is now a more and more common means of travel, it can not only save people’s travel time but also bring great convenience to people. However, it not only brings convenience to people but also causes great environmental pollution and waste of resources. Apart from the bad impact on the environment, the impact of air pollution on human health cannot be ignored. Pollutants in the air can enter the human body through the respiratory tract, causing direct damage to the nose, pharynx, larynx, and lungs. If the concentration of air pollutants increases sharply in a short period of time due to extreme weather or abnormal accidents, which makes the surrounding people inhale a large number of pollutants, it will cause acute harm to the human body and can be directly fatal in serious cases. Air pollution can also cause many other secondary environmental problems, such as sulfur oxides in the atmosphere can cause sulfuric acid smoke and acid deposition pollution, nitrogen oxides can cause photochemical smoke pollution, and so on. (Jillian, 2006)
Causes and Solutions of the environmental crisis:
In my opinion, there are two fundamental reasons for the emergence of the environmental crisis. One is that modern human society moves a lot of material from nature in order to meet its own material and cultural needs. For the rapid development of our society, this kind of move is often regardless of the consequences and costs; second, after using the materials obtained from nature, the same amount of waste, including human inventions and creations, returns to the ecosystem. In this way, the ruthless plunder of ecosystem resources and the wanton discharge of waste are bound to break the fragile ecological balance, so various environmental problems appear. (Al-Attili, 2020)
In recent years, we have paid enough attention to the latter and tried our best to control the environmental pollution caused by these wastes. However, this is a way to treat the symptoms rather than the root causes. There are two reasons: on the one hand, the amount of material moved by human beings from the environment is far greater than the amount actually used; on the other hand, in order to control environmental pollution, human beings have to use more natural resources (including energy). Every time human beings obtain or make a use of value from nature, the amount of material moved in the ecological environment is generally tens or hundreds. If this continues, it will inevitably lead to the depletion of global resources. Human beings should find a more thorough solution as soon as possible. The first step in doing so is to reform the current material production technology and design new products to replace the goods on which human beings depend, namely the so-called alternative technology and alternative products. Finally, human society should find a way of life and development mode in harmony with the natural ecosystem, that is, the sustainable development model.
References
- Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know? (2020, May 27). Retrieved July 26, 2020, from https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
- Jillian Mackenzie, November 01, 2006. Air Pollution: Everything You Need to Know. Retrieved July 26, 2020, from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/air-pollution-everything-you-need-know
- Al-Attili, A. (n.d.). Unit 1 The Earth System and its Components. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from
