Many people are not able to draw differences
between these two words ‘environment’ and ‘ecology’. Environment is the
combination of the air, land and water where people, animals and plants live.
But ecology refers to the relationship between living things and their
environments, or the scientific study between living things and the environment.
Change in ideology, life and culture are
natural. But modern life has been a great threat to the environment. Many educated
and the environmentalists believe that the way we live our lives today is
having an extremely bad effect on the environment. Pollution and pollutants are
mainly responsible for the degradation of the environment. Pollution is damaging air, sea, rivers, or land caused by chemicals, waste and harmful gases,
whereas pollutants include toxic waste, pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers,
etc.
It’s time to worry about the world’s welfare not individual gains.
The biggest polluters today are vehicles.
Exhaust fumes are the main cause of bad air quality, which can make people feel
ill and have difficulty breathing. The problem is especially bad in cities. The
number of vehicles despite heavy tax is on the increase in Kathmandu. And this
has caused serious congestion. In order to expand the ring road and some other
streets, many trees at the side of the roads have been cut down.
Another grave concern for mankind is the
greenhouse effect which is caused by harmful gases known as greenhouse gases.
Burned fuels contribute to it. These gases go up into the Earth’s atmosphere and
stop heat from leaving the Earth. As the heat is trapped, the Earth gets warmer
and warmer. This is called global warming. Global warming is likely to cause
the ice at the North Pole and South Pole to melt and sea levels to rise,
leading to serious flooding in many parts of the world, high temperatures in
different places, less rain, transformation of fertile soil into desert.
As pollution continues to exist, many holes
appear in the ozone layer. As a result, ultraviolet lights from the sun
directly fall on Earth and affect adversely animals and causes skin cancer in
humans. Ozone layer is being destroyed day by day by chemicals, especially
chlorofluorocarbons. It is used by humans in refrigerators and in some
aerosols.
Acid rain has to be faced by humans. It
contains acid from factory smoke. It is dangerous to trees, rivers and
buildings. Time has come to ponder over the minimization of ecological
footprints and start the action for environmental conservation. Ecological, in
simple term, is an amount of the earth’s energy that someone or something uses.
Environmentally friendly public transport, car pools, electric vehicles,
renewable energy sources, green products, recycling and public awareness,
watertight plans of the government are possible solution. Thin is to be borne
in mind is that the government alone is helpless to implement all plans if the
public do not decide to work hand in hand. It’s time to worry about the world’s
welfare not individual gains. So, the public are required to be supportive in
this regard.
Writer: Amar
Bahadur Sherma (Limbu)
Teacher/Practitioner (GEMS - Graded English Medium School)
Vice-President (Sustainable
Education Group - Nepal)
