The health effects of air pollution are serious. one third of deaths from stroke, lung cancer and heart disease are due to air pollution. Microscopic pollutants in the air can slip past our body's defences, penetrating deep into our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our lungs, heart and brain.

Please follow the link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4516868/

Very often people think that the problem of protecting the environment is not directly related to them. Air, water and soil are polluted by factories and factories, animals are destroyed by poachers, and ordinary people seem to have nothing to do with these actions. In fact, this is not the case. Each of us daily commits actions that harm or help the cause of preserving the environment. A plastic bag left on a beach can cross the ocean and kill a seabird off the coast of another continent: she will swallow the bag, mistaking it for a fish. If you hand over the battery for recycling, you will save several cubic meters of soil from contamination. The use of public transport and car sharing can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Just pay attention to your daily habits and think about whether they are all safe for nature — this alone will make a significant contribution to the protection of the environment.

There is another way to help nature-to support any environmental organization. For example, WWF, like many other foundations, exists on private donations. And sometimes these are very modest amounts, but due to the fact that the Foundation has many supporters, these donations help to implement such large-scale projects as climate, marine, forest programs and other projects aimed at preserving biodiversity.

In order to avoid an environmental disaster, the fight against physical pollution should be a top priority. The problem must be solved at the international level, because nature has no national borders. To prevent pollution, it is necessary to impose sanctions on enterprises that emit waste into the environment, and impose large fines for placing garbage in the wrong place. Incentives to comply with environmental safety standards can also be implemented using financial methods. This approach has proven effective in some countries.

The use of alternative energy sources is a promising area for combating pollution. The use of solar panels, hydrogen fuel and other energy-saving technologies will reduce the release of toxic compounds into the atmosphere.

To other methods of pollution control include:

the construction of sewage treatment plants;

creation of national parks and reserves;

increasing the number of green spaces;

population control in third world countries;

attracting public attention to the problem.

Environmental pollution is a large-scale global problem that can be solved only with the active participation of everyone who calls the planet Earth their home, otherwise an environmental disaster will be imminent.

What is the main danger to human life? War? The eruption of the volcano? Collision with a comet?

The life of the average person today is filled with comfort. He travels long distances by car, plane or train, his diet consists of a variety of dishes, and his health is monitored by an army of doctors who make up a single health system. But this is only at first glance. In fact, each of us constantly faces serious risks that we may not even know about. We are talking about global environmental problems.

Global warming

The most serious threat is global climate warming, which causes active melting of glaciers and thinning of Arctic sea ice. As a result, many species of Arctic animals, birds and plants were on the verge of extinction. Rains in low and high latitudes become more frequent and abundant, and in tropical and subtropical — on the contrary, the climate becomes more arid. The balance in ecosystems is being disrupted, with frequent floods, droughts and hurricanes all over the world. And in 2018, American scientists proved a direct link between global climate warming and a sharp increase in the number of suicides. There is only one way to prevent this: to drastically reduce greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Ozone depletion

Another problem faced by humanity is the destruction of the ozone layer. Since ozone, located at an altitude of 20-25 km above the Earth's surface, is a kind of filter that absorbs aggressive ultraviolet rays of the Sun, when the ozone layer thinns, people massively lose their vision, get sunburn, which subsequently lead to the development of malignant skin tumors. In addition, marine ecosystems are at risk, since phytoplankton, which acts as the main link in the food chain, cannot develop normally under excessive exposure to harsh UV radiation. The solution to this problem is based on the rejection of the use of freon gases, which most actively destroy the ozone layer.

Pollution of the world's oceans

For several years, the scientific environmental community has been searching for technologies to solve such problems as pollution of the world's oceans with plastic waste. At the moment, five huge garbage Islands have been discovered, which are drifting in the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and create huge risks for all their inhabitants. Some animals and fish mistake microparticles of plastic for phytoplankton and mistakenly eat them. Baby seabirds are attracted to larger plastic pieces of bright colors, and young birds swallow them, dooming themselves to a painful death. At the moment, no effective ways out of this situation have been found yet. However, new concepts and ideas are constantly being offered to experts.

Air pollution

Residents of megacities are particularly concerned about the problem of air pollution. Huge volumes of exhaust gases and emissions from enterprises envelop cities in a thick layer of smog, which sometimes becomes impossible to breathe in. Hence, numerous health problems in adults and children. It is possible to clean the air from impurities by reducing road transport, using multi-stage cleaning systems in industrial enterprises, as well as through the widespread use of energy-saving technologies.

Lack of drinking water

The population of arid regions suffers acutely from a lack of drinking water. Endless epidemics, chronic diseases, social tensions and territorial conflicts over water sources are plaguing people, forcing them to leave their Homeland and go in search of a better life. The consequences of water scarcity have already been felt by Europeans, when the streets of their cities were filled with migrants from Africa and the Middle East.

Destruction of tropical forests

Another problem, the consequences of which will soon be felt by all mankind, is the destruction of tropical forests. Tropical forests are not called the lungs of the planet for nothing. They process carbon dioxide, whose concentration in the atmosphere is constantly increasing, into oxygen, which is necessary for the respiration of living organisms. In addition, deforestation and burning of forest stands leads to risks such as soil desertification and loss of biodiversity on Earth. It is extremely difficult to stop these processes, because it requires a comprehensive approach that involves solving a lot of economic, social and political problems.

Desertification

As a result of global climate change, deforestation, freshwater scarcity, and intensive use of fertile land, they are being depleted and turned into deserts.

As a result, there is a risk of starvation, and lack of water manifests itself in the growth of infectious diseases. People are forced to migrate to more affluent areas, which leads to social conflicts and the spread of epidemics.

Reduction of biodiversity

In nature, everything is interconnected. The existing diversity of species of living beings on the planet is not a whim of nature, but an urgent necessity. The disappearance of one species causes disruption of the entire ecosystem.

As a clear example, we can cite the campaign to destroy sparrows in China in the late 50s of the last century. As a result, the ecological balance was disrupted, and the breeding insects destroyed not only the crops, but also the foliage on the trees. This led to a large-scale famine in the country and the death of more than 30 million people.

The process of extinction of species and the emergence of new ones is constantly going on in nature. However, with the participation of humans, the decrease in species diversity occurs at a catastrophic rate. Since the beginning of the 17th century, more than 800 species of plants and animals have disappeared on the planet.

Depletion of natural resources

The problem of depletion of natural resources is no less acute. The rapid growth of industry leads to the consumption of an incredible amount of natural resources, and their reserves on the planet are very limited. According to scientists, oil, coal and other minerals will last for the next 40-50 years. The prospects for further survival for humanity are very dim. Only the rejection of fossil fuels, a reasonable approach to the consumption of goods and services, and saving water and electricity at home will help.

Overpopulation

Over the past 200 years, the World's population has grown from 1 to 7.5 billion people and is increasing by 80-90 million annually. It is projected to reach more than 10 billion by 2100

However, according to some estimates, the Earth is not so overpopulated. After all, 70% of the existing population lives on only 7% of the land. In this scenario, it was calculated that our planet, taking into account places unsuitable for life, can safely accommodate up to 25 billion people.

However, this assessment is not very correct, since today more than half of the population is concentrated in cities. As a result, we are already facing the problem of relative overpopulation, when crowding together with an imperfect mechanism for the distribution of material goods leads to serious consequences.

Conclusion or environmental awareness

As you can see, the risks faced by our world are quite a lot. However, the reason for them is the same. This is the consumer attitude of a person to the planet, its resources, other living creatures that inhabit it, and, moreover, to each other.

None of the above problems can be solved in isolation. They can only be solved comprehensively if the vector of our consciousness changes towards the perception of the Earth as our common home, as a single living organism, whose cells we all are.

La pollution industrielle peut donner une grande catastrophe, si le problème n'est pas pas étudié de façon sérieuse.