Man has major effects on the planet earth. These include litter, noise, traffic pollution and deforestation. All of these are increasing problems and if solutions are not found soon these problems will reach the point of no return.
Pollution is one of the main causes that I agree with the quote from TS Eliot. Pollution from millions of vehicles, waste from nuclear power stations and even as little a problem as noise pollution all are affecting the earths environment, atmosphere and disrupting the natural balance. Pollution is a very serious problem as it does not go away. It is building up and although we do not feel the effects of the change in climate and other effects caused by pollution we will in the not to distant future.
Where pollution does not have an instant effect, other things like deforestation do.Man overuses earth’s natural resources to the extent that it is damaging the planet. The subject of deforestation is a serious problem. Governments and large lumber companies see large profits in mass deforestation and state that their actions are having few, if any, harmful effects on the environment.
Most people disagree with this and think that the environmental effects are devastating and will become irreversibly disastrous in the very near future. Whether or not the pros outweigh the cons will be hotly debated for years to come but the fact is that deforestation is harmful to the environment and leads to declining wildlife populations, drastic changes in climate and loss of soil.The loss of forests means the loss of habitats for many species. A knock on effect is caused, these losses are easily shown as a chain; the trees are cut down, this takes away the animals homes, this also starves the predators of these areas as all their prey has been forced away.
Current statistics show that as many as 20 species become extinct every day with a large proportion being attributed to deforestation. This unnatural extinction of species endangers the world’s food supply and threatens many human resources.Another problem with the removal of trees is that it allows the soil to be exposed to the weather. This is a major problem in places like the rainforest and the dessert, where the soil is dried by the sun and washed away by the rain causing landslides and sand storms.
Although many trees are cut down, the tree felling companies aren’t all that bad. Millions of pounds are spent each year on reforestation and many experts agree that this is helping provided that the time between harvests is long enough for these areas to mature properly. If a balance can be found between the two and if reforestation efforts are continued, the negative environmental affects could be greatly reduced.There are many other aspects that have serious effects but are not as frequent occurrences.
Things like oil spills cause major damage to beaches, shore birds and fish in wide areas where spills occur. There is not necessarily one type of pollution that worse than other pollution. In fact, it has only been in the past thirty years that we have come to realize the effects that pollution is having on our oceans. In the past it was perceived that the world”s oceans had an infinite capacity for absorbing our waste.
Recently, we have come to realize that our waste, even in small quantities, have huge effects on ocean communities and species.Some major types of pollutants that have been the focus of recent research are oil, sewage, garbage, chemicals, radioactive waste, thermal pollution, and eutrophication. While the overall impact of pollution on the marine environment is unknown, contaminants introduced by rivers, coastal runoff, ocean dumping and various other activities are beginning to take their toll on the oceans. More than 80% of all marine pollution originates from land-based sources which are primarily industrial, agricultural and urban.
These are all reasons why I agree with TS Eliot’s statement. Scientists believe that in thousands of years time the sun will heat up so much it will expand and engulf the earth, many science fiction fans believe that the earth will be taken over by aliens, but me, I don’t believe in aliens and think that the world will end much sooner than scientists have predicted, it will end with a whimper because of pollution.
