Modern environmental problems

Environmental problems are a number of factors that mean degradation of the natural environment. Most often, they are caused by human activities: with the development of industry and technology, problems have started to arise related to the violation of balanced conditions in the ecological environment, which are very difficult to compensate.

One of the most destructive factors in human activities is pollution. It is manifested in an increased level of smog, the emergence of dead lakes, industrial water, saturated with harmful elements and unsuitable for consumption, and is also associated with the extinction of certain species of animals.

Thus, a person, on the one hand, creates conditions for comfort, and on the other - ruins nature and harms himself, ultimately, to himself. Therefore, in recent years, special attention has been paid to the main environmental problems among scientists and is aimed at finding alternatives.

Main environmental problems

Initially, the problems of ecology are divided according to the scale conditions: they can be regional, local and global.

An example of a local environmental problem is a plant that does not purify industrial wastewater before dropping it into the river. This leads to the death of fish and harms a person.

As an example of a regional problem, one can take Chernobyl, to be more exact, the soils that adhere to it: they are radioactive and pose a threat to any biological organisms that are located on this territory.

Next we will pay attention to global environmental problems.

Global environmental problems of mankind: a characteristic

This series of environmental problems is of enormous proportions and directly affects all ecological systems, in contrast to local and regional ones.

Environmental problems: climate warming and ozone holes

Warming is felt by the inhabitants of the Earth on mild winters, which used to be a rarity. Since the first international year of geophysics was conducted, the temperature of the squat air layer has increased by 0.7 ° C. At the North Pole, the lower layers of ice began to melt due to the fact that the water warmed by 1 ° C.

Some scientists are of the opinion that the cause of this phenomenon is the so-called "greenhouse effect", which arose from the large amount of fuel combustion and the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmospheric layers. Because of it, the heat output is disturbed and the air cools more slowly.

Others believe that warming is associated with solar activity and the human factor here does not play a significant role.

Ozone holes - another problem of mankind, related to technological progress. It is known that life originated on Earth only after the emergence of a protective ozone layer, which protects organisms from strong UV radiation.

But at the end of the 20th century, scientists discovered that there is an extremely low ozone content over Antarctica. This situation persists and still, the damaged area at the same time is equal to the size of North America. Such anomalies are found in other areas, in particular, there is an ozone hole over Voronezh.

The reason for this is active launches of missiles and satellites, as well as aircraft.

Environmental problems: desertification and death of forests

Acid rain, the cause of which is the work of power plants, contributes to the spread of yet another global problem - the destruction of forests. For example, in Czechoslovakia, more than 70% of forests are destroyed by such rains, and in Great Britain and Greece - more than 60%. Because of this, whole ecosystems are violated, however, mankind is trying to deal with these artificially planted trees.

Desertification is also a global problem at present. It consists in impoverishment of the soil: large areas are unsuitable for use in agriculture.

Man contributes to the emergence of such areas, carrying not only the soil layer, but also the parent rock.

Environmental problems caused by water pollution

Stocks of fresh clean water that can be consumed, also significantly reduced in recent times. This is due to the fact that a person pollutes it with industrial and other wastes.

Today, one and a half billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and two billion live without filters to clean up contaminated water.

Thus, one can say that in present and many future environmental problems, humanity is guilty itself and it will have to deal with some of them in the next 200-300 years.