Humans cannot exist without the natural environment. The trees and the oceans supply us with oxygen. Dams and rivers provide us with water. The soil allows us to grow all of our crops and feed all of our livestock and poultry. With June celebrated as Environment Month, it’s time to think about how you can help to protect Mother Nature.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
With the human population growing rapidly, our natural environment is being destroyed at an alarming rate. One of the biggest issues facing the world is global warming, a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels produced through human activities such as burning coal to make electricity. The earth’s climate has changed dramatically over the past 100 years, with the average global surface temperature rising by around 1 degree Celsius. Global warming has caused significant changes to our environment. Natural disasters such as drought, flooding and mudslides have increased substantially over the past few decades.
Meanwhile, the explosive growth of the human population has meant that larger and larger areas of natural wilderness are being destroyed in order to accommodate more residential and industrial development. Hand-in-hand with this development has come an increase in the amount of pollution being released into natural ecosystems. Our oceans are becoming loaded with plastic waste and toxic runoffs. Our rivers and dams are experiencing the same fate, and our soil and air quality is deteriorating too. Without worldwide action, the decline will not be reversed.
WHAT FUTURE ARE WE LEAVING OUR CHILDREN?
If the world continues to go this way, can you imagine what future generations will be faced with? Your children or grandchildren may find themselves on the receiving end of food and water shortages, and there may be very few unspoilt natural areas left to enjoy. They could face unhealthy living conditions, and be at an increased risk of falling victim to natural disasters. Mother Earth is already giving us warning signs, so the future could be a bleak one for the generations that follow us.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
There are a number of small things that you can do to reduce your impact on the environment:
Practice the concept of Reduce; Re-Use; Recycle
Practice the concept of Reduce; Re-Use; Recycle to cut down on the amount of waste you produce.
Use public transport or join a lift club in order to reduce your carbon footprint.
Join a local environmental club that supports environmental issues, or form your own.
Consider making donations to environmental organisations such as Greenpeace.
Save as much water and electricity as you can.
Pick up litter when you are done with an outing in a natural area.
If protecting the environment is something that you’re very passionate about, then you could consider turning this passion into a career. You could strive to become an employee of an environmental NGO; a game ranger or a wildlife scientist. You could also make it your goal to reduce people’s impact on the environment, by aiming for a career as an environmental health and safety officer. These employees ensure that companies abide by environmental regulations, and also make sure that employees are protected from any risks in the environment they are working in.
