The Ecological Crisis: a Myth or Reality

The planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but it's the only place where human beings can live. People always polluted their surroundings. But until now pollution was not such a serious problem. People lived in uncrowded rural areas and did not have pollution – caused by machines. With the development of crowded industrial cities, which created huge amounts of pollutants, the problem has become more important. Today our planet is in serious danger. Acid rains, global warming, air and water pollution, and overpopulation are the problems that threaten human life on Earth. Our forests are disappearing because they are cut down or burnt. If this trend continues, one day we won't have enough oxygen to breathe.

The seas are in danger. They are filled with poison: industrial and nuclear wastes, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The Mediterranean is already nearly dead; the North Sea is following its fate. The Aral Sea is about to disappear. Every ten minutes one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out forever. If nothing is done about it, one million species that are alive today may soon become extinct. Air pollution is another serious problem. In Cairo just breathing the air is dangerous – equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. The same holds true for many Russian cites.

At the present time the Earth accomodates more than 5 billion people. Half of which are undernourished. A total of 4 million deaths occur each year from starvation. Mankind has finally realised the threat of increasing population and has faced the fact that something must be done. The food-supply increase lags considerably behind the immense growth of population. And worst of all, today's man consistently contributes to his own deadly crisis. We have got too many cars, too many factories, too much wastes and carbon dioxide, too little water and food deficiency - all that can be easily traced to abundant human population. That is why many western scientists say that our world is going through an ecological crisis which will mean the gradual destruction of the human race. Our scientists are not that pessimistic, although they do think that man's increased influence on the planet is posing a growing threat to the biosphere.

Factories emit tons of harmful chemicals. These emissions have disastrous consequences for our planet. They are the main reason for the greenhouse effect and acid rains.

And even greater threat are nuclear power stations. We all know how tragic the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are.

Fortunately, it's not too late to solve these problems. We have the time, the money and even the technology to make our planet a better, cleaner and safer place. We can plant trees and create parks for endangered species. We can recycle litter. Individuals and groups of people can work together to persuade enterprises to stop polluting activities.

People are beginning to realise that environmental problems are not somebody else's. They join and support various international organisation and green parties. If governments wake up to what is happening- perhaps we'll be able to avoid the disaster that threatens the natural world and all of us with it.