Over decades together, the depletion of ozone layer and its preservation had been the high priority of environmentalists and developed nations and campaigns about educating the masses of the importance of reducing carbon emissions thereby helping the preservation of the ozone layer. Now, there are a lot more issues along with this that has been worrying the environmentalists, one of this being depletion of natural resources and increase in CO2 emissions, pollution, wastage of resources, and so on. With the expected world’s population to explode to around 9 billion by 2050, it has become a great concern that people will only have 25% of the resources that were available in 1950. Already, some of the world’s natural resources have been depleted and with this growing population, it could lead to a major crisis of the natural resources.
It is high time we start saving clean air, fuel sources, water and soil for the future generations along with saving money and assets for them. How many of us agree with this thought? So why throw away things that could be recycled? To read these facts on recycling, it only takes a few seconds and to actually put it in practice would only take a few minutes in a day.
- It is believed that a ton of paper that is recycled saves 7000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil and as much electricity to electrify an average household for 6 months.
- One aluminium can recycling can save electricity needed to run a TV for 6 hours.
- Recycling one glass bottle saves as much electricity as to power a 100-watts bulb for 4 hours, so calculate the amount of energy one would save by using an energy saving bulb.
On one hand, the effects of throwing away leads to wastage of energy and resources, and on the other hand, the emission of carbon products into the atmosphere increases global warming. While it is essential for a certain concentration of CO2 and other gases to be present in the atmosphere to retain the radiation that enters Earth without which the whole of the planet would experience freezing temperatures of around -18C, increasing concentration leads to increase in surface temperature of the Earth by about 6 degrees +/- 2 degrees, and this warming will increase with time leading to disastrous consequences. Have a look at what the consequences could be:
- Increase in sea level as a result of melting of ice caps hence making coastal plains uninhabitable.
- Agricultural productivity could be majorly affected due to global warming.
- Depletion of ozone layer
- Change in weather systems could occur due to warmer climate resulting in more droughts and floods and stronger storms and extremes of weather.
- Spread of diseases on a bigger scale due to increasing temperatures which would have otherwise been contained due to cold weather conditions.
- A major change to ecosystem could occur with most organisms moving towards the North and South pole.
It is not a mission impossible to reduce these carbon dioxide emissions. Developed countries have started taking various measures to reduce their emissions at all levels right from schools, universities and colleges to houses, supermarkets, industries, production units etc. Hence remember, even a small effort to reduce household emissions could help the future generations to a great extent.
Try to recycle items that could be recycled so in order to save energy, water and natural resources. Things like batteries and electronic items when thrown away emit dangerous chemicals that leak through the landfill and pollute the groundwater, and also contaminate the soil which is important for our crops which in turn causes health risks to humans.
It is each and every individual’s conscience that should prick when we throw away things. Think about the landfill space that is occupied as well. The more that is sent to the landfill, the more space it occupies and more resources to get rid of them. The less we throw, the greater the benefits and longer will our landfills last. It is high time people start thinking about the community and society in these terms also.
The best place to start the reform should be schools as they serve as a catalyst for the community. It would involve parents, teachers, government, local businesses, administrators and environmentalists to get together to decide and educate themselves and others of what it means to recycle, what best recycling of resources could be done, and practicing them at school, homes, offices, manufacturing units, thus keeping the surroundings neat and healthy to breathe and live.
Government and other officials should spring forward in their efforts to look for ways to expand recycling and bring awareness amongst the masses on waste reduction and its harmful effects. It would be best to encourage and motivate manufacturers and companies to be environmentally compliant and energy efficient.
So what’s the wait for. There are a lot of things that we as a common man can bring changes and reforms. Let’s GO GREEN, let’s get hand in hand, strive to reduce emissions and wastage, encourage recycling and pave way for pure and clean surroundings for our future generations.
