Topic Ecology (Топик Экология)

Topic «Ecology» (Топик на английском языке «Экология»)

As the first engines were created, people’s lives were changed dramatically. Certainly, everyone was amazed at the pluses of technological development: it saved a lot of time and simplified daily routine. People were hypnotized by the opportunities new technological advances can give them. More and more goods were produced each year. But, as we know, nothing could be created from nothing — various kinds of fuels and raw materials have to be used. And only in some decades, when it became hard to breathe in big cities and when acid rains started to destroy forests, man asked himself: am I to blame?

Actually, yes. Man was used to taking everything from the Earth. Dazzled by its riches, he destroyed the fragile ecological balance. Let’s take, for example, CO, emissions. Before thousands of factories were built, forests had been able to cope with carbon dioxide. They even needed this carbon dioxide — the constant processes of photosynthesis and breathing are the key to life. But then we started to burn fuel and the level of CO, in the atmosphere rose drastically. And why are people so afraid of it? Well, firstly, we can notice there are less shiny days — the atmosphere is foggy, the Earth is getting less solar energy (don’t forget that the Sun is integral to life). Secondly, it can happen that we simply won’t be able to breathe — fortunately, it’s unlikely to happen right now, people still have time to change this dangerous situation. But what we can observe nowadays is so-called «the greenhouse effect».

The ozone layer prevents carbon dioxide from going back to space and, consequently, our Earth is warming up. At first sight there is nothing wrong with it — there are even some advantages of global warming: it’s good for agriculture, for example. But all of us have heard about ice starting to melt. It means that lots of small islands will disappear under water, as well as some kind of fish will be unable to live in sweet water. And all this can lead to further consequences: the extinction of penguins and polar bears, weird weather conditions, outbreaks of malaria, etc.

Anyway, CO², is not the most dangerous substance in the world. Just think about some chemicals which cannot be recycled by the Earth or it takes hundreds of years to do it. We live in the era of high-tech pollution. When we throw away old TV-sets, radios, computers, they just lie in piles somewhere not far from cities. They cannot dissolve, evaporate or rot. If to start to destroy them, for instance, to incinerate them, it could cause even more problems: very often these substances are poisonous. It seems to be a situation without way-out! We can’t stop producing technological devices, but when they are obsolete, we don’t know how to destroy them. Some governments are trying to find solutions to this situation, e.g, not to sell some devices but just to lease them, but it’s obvious many people won’t be satisfied with this decision. I think the best solution will be to find a way to recycle these chemicals. Probably it’s impossible nowadays, but chemistry is developing, in some years it could be real. Earlier we couldn’t even imagine that it would be possible to reuse paper and glass, nowadays it’s great help.

Recycling itself is a great way to save raw materials. Simply by collecting and giving away old newspapers you can save dozens of trees. In Western countries all garbage is sorted out in order to be recycled; we, unfortunately, are still not used to it. In the USA people are even making big money out of recycling: e.g. there is a brand of shoes made completely of recycled materials. These shoes are very popular — people like to be environmentally friendly. Lots of metals are recycled — almost all Japanese cars are made of materials once been used.

When speaking about environmental problems it’s impossible not to mention deforestation. It passes my understanding why people are doing it. Now, when every tree must be sacred due to its ability to absorb carbon dioxide, people are cutting down large areas of rainforests, sometimes burning them (again, releasing plenty of CO²). And why? Because they need land for farming, and because timber industry is developing.

This cruelty and carelessness really strike me. Not only are rainforests «the lungs of the planet», they also provide numerous species of animals with places to live. ‘

Animals are also victims of man’s impact on the planet. As T have already mentioned they can die because of deforestation or global warming. But they can also be killed on purpose. Poachers kill whales, fish, elephants, snakes for money and these people are not in the least worried about ecological balance or natural heritage.

Something has to be done.

Lots of people are not going to put up with the destruction of the Earth. And if one person is unlikely to change the policy of a big corporation, a group of people can do it. Lots of people today «go green» — become environmentally friendly, enrol for the organisations which are trying to protect nature. Perhaps the most famous one is «Greenpeace». It tries to put pressure on government to pass new laws, to close down the most harmful factories. Sometimes, if everything else doesn’t work, they try to stop vandals physically: «Greenpeace» members make poachers’ boats stop, gather together and don’t allow woodcutters to do their job, save hurt animals and birds.

Another item «greens» support is, certainly, alternative energy. As we see, getting energy from coal, oil and gas is not the best solution: it is harmful, expensive, it makes some countries depend on others. Anyway, it has been proved that very soon we’ll run out of these resources and, consequently, we will have to find other ways of getting energy. It’s very surprising that we don’t use other, cheaper and safer, resources now.

Let’s take, for instance, solar power. If to use special devices which capture solar energy in southern countries, it will enable them to do without electric power stations! Wind farms can be very useful too, though they produce less electricity. And the real treasury of power on our planet is water. We can use the power of mountainous rivers, or the power of sea tides. The latter has been proved to be very efficient — if to built some stations near Great Britain, they will be producing up to 80 % of energy required in Britain.

As we see, ecological problems are very acute nowadays. Man has already done harm to the Earth: it’s high time we stopped destroying our own home! One day our planet will cease tolerating people’s ingratitude. Look around! We still have time to save this beauty — everyone is capable of following the simplest rules: not to litter, not to spoil and not to break. All of us have to understand that the Earth is actually our home and, when saving it, you are doing it for yourself, for your children, for the generations which will come after us.