Environmental Protection
The word environment means simply what is around us. Nowadays people understand how important it is to solve the environmental problems that endanger people’s lives. Many seas are used for dumping industrial and nuclear waste. Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can’t live in them. In such places all the birds leave their habitats and many plants die. If people drink this water they can die too. As a result of air pollution there are holes in the ozone layer. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun can get to the earth and cause skin cancer. Both clean air and clean water are necessary for our health.
But it is not just people who need a healthy space to live in. If we want our lives to be healthy and interesting, a lot of other creatures and plants need growing space too. A lot of endangered species — fish, reptiles, insects, birds, mammals — may soon disappear. The reason is Man that kills animals and destroys their habitats. It is not just animals that are in danger. So are plants. They are disappearing fast. Every day we use paper and cardboard, both made from wood. We use different kinds of wood in furniture and in other ways. Every year over 100 000 sq. km. of forests are cleared for different uses and a lot of forests are so badly damaged that they will hardly be able to recover. And the forests help to control the world's weather, and to produce much of the oxygen in the air.
If people want to survive they must solve these problems quickly. Man is beginning to understand that his environment is not just his own town or country, but the whole earth. That’s why people all over the world think and speak so much about ecology.