The environment and natural world are taken for granted, both by the individual and the population at large.
Gone are the days when ordinary people could simply make like an ostrich and bury their heads in the sand. Now it’s every single person’s burning responsibility to help protect the world and the wildlife around them.
With this in mind, here are four of the most serious environmental issues affecting the planet today.
Melting Ice Caps
One of the most worrying signs that the natural environment is taking huge losses in terms of strength and longevity is the melting of large ice caps in the oceans.
To give you an idea of just how large an area of ice is being lost to the water, in just fifty-five years (from 1961 to 2016), planet Earth’s ice glaciers lost an astounding nine trillion tons. As you would expect, human beings are entirely to blame for this catastrophe since the rising temperatures of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide started with the development of the industrial revolution.
Global Warming
The vast majority of people have heard the phrase “global warming”, but not nearly enough people truly understand what this actually means for the planet.
Global warming is, basically, the situation humanity now finds itself in whereby the planet is warmer than it has ever been before and is continuing to get hotter and hotter, which is why you often hear that year after year, this is the “hottest summer on record”.
The cause of global warming is, again, entirely man-made and is essentially a build-up of air pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide, and methane in the Earth’s atmosphere, which absorb the solar radiation and keep it trapped inside the atmosphere.
Deforestation
Essentially, the term deforestation encompasses any purposeful and willful act of clearing wide areas of woodland or forest and is an entirely man-made issue that needs to be addressed right now.
Not only are hundreds of different species of animals losing their homes and natural habitats, but the climate and the natural ecosystems of the planet are also affected.
The alarming and devastatingly negative effects of deforestation are simply too numerous to list here. However, without woods, jungles, and rainforests, human beings and, indeed, most other animals wouldn’t be able to breathe.
Biodiversity Loss
Biodiversity is the foundation of everything around you, from the earth under your feet to the sky above your head and of course, absolutely everything in between. Without biodiversity, it would be impossible for humans to live, as nature provides air to breathe, clean water to drink, food, and natural materials for medicines.
The biodiversity crisis is serious and exceedingly large, with environmentalists having spent the last few years honing on ways to slow down the impact of global warming, yet without biodiversity, the climate is a moot point. One key method of looking to protect and recuperate biodiversity loss would be to redirect public funding from industries that damage the environment to those that protect it.
