Environmental Issues
Environmental problems can not be analyzed nor understand if you do not take
into account a global perspective, as they arise from multiple interacting factors.
Our way of life is an expense increasingly growing and unsustainable natural
and energy resources.
Industrial forms of mass
production and consumption
that make it possible in the
medium term imply the
destruction of the planet. Some
effects of the ecological crisis
are already clearly visible:
rising temperatures, hole in the
ozone layer, desertification,
accumulation of radioactive
waste, spread of diseases like
cancer or malaria, poor health
of freshwater, food insecurity,
depletion renewable and non-
renewable resources, etc.
Wastage societies direct impact on the poverty of others and contributes to the
overall environmental deterioration. It is known that only 23% of the world
population, industrialized countries consume 80% of world commercial energy
production, 79% of steel, 85% of paper and 86% of non-ferrous metals.
Risks for the environment
The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere has
some major problems for the environment. Some VOCs contribute to the
degradation of the stratospheric ozone layer, such as 1,1,1-trichloroethane and
carbon tetrachloride, as well as the
CFCs and HCFCs, among others.
Some of these substances are
already banned or there is for them
a phase-out schedule provided for
within the framework of the
Montreal Protocol.
Furthermore, VOC with NOx in the
presence of sunlight act as
precursors of tropospheric ozone
formation or environmental. Ozone
pollution is a chronic and
widespread throughout the European Union issue, to the extent that there is a
law that limits the levels of this Directive 92/72 / EEC on air pollution transposed
ozone Spanish law in September 1995 in Royal Decree 1494. tropospheric
ozone can cause harmful effects on both human health and the environment
but, in fact, plant species and crops are more sensitive to this pollutant humans.
Tropospheric ozone interferes with photosynthesis, growth and general plant
metabolism, and also it increases the sensitivity of trees to frost, heat and
drought. It has been estimated that ozone concentrations that are taking place
in the summer growing season, production losses in agriculture can be up to 5-
10% throughout the European Community.
The perception of environmental problems
Because of our human nature we perceive what acts on our senses. For this
reason we are able to perceive only the environmental problems that occur in
our immediate surroundings, as our neighborhood, our city or the places we
travel.
But what affects the global environment we perceive only when its effects are
felt in our region or our immediate environment.
This happens when the environmental problem has
worsened enough to manifest all over the planet, ie
when it is too late to prevent it.
"The environmental problem" and
"environmental problems"
When we say "the environmental problem" we
mean the problem caused by mankind throughout
history, the problem affecting our planet and all of
us. This great problem is not easy to do for many
people, because it is produced by the sum of all the small actions of each
member of humanity, actions that at first glance they seem right that we do not
observe them immediate effects, but all these numerous actions already added
over time cause serious and profound damage to the global environment.
When we talk about "environmental problems" we are referring to each of the
various problems that make up the particular environmental problem or
problems that occur in a particular place. The latter are more visible to us that
they can clearly see the bad human actions and their immediate effects on the
environment of the site concerned.
The causes of the environmental problem
The environmental issue has occurred because of the bad relationship that
humanity has had with nature throughout history and that has worsened in
recent centuries reaching crisis today.
We're not seeing clearly our situation of dependence on nature.
The remaining natural part of our planet is what is holding our present life could
not exist if this natural part disappear or decrease its size.
Human beings have always depended on nature. All technological
developments and human structures that form the antopósfera can not exist by
themselves independently, need the support of the s natural ecosystems that
are contained in rest of the biosphere.
One of the causes of the environmental problem is not to see this fundamental
fact with the necessary clarity and lose sight of our current lifestyles.
Artificial environments where we live make us lose sight of our support.
Housing, cities and artificial environments that protect us from the rigors of the
outside world, make us forget that all these human in order to function buildings,
need the external power source, the cycles of natural ecosystems and other
contributions of the nature. In these places we live and create the illusion that
we do not need nature to continue living.
An old idea that has done much harm to the environment: "The infinite
world".
There is an old idea installed in much of humanity and comes from ancient
times when humanity was not numerous, the idea of living in an infinite world
with endless natural areas and inexhaustible resources. From this conception of
the world and nature, all human endeavors acts and never took into account its
environmental cost.
This idea was inherited through generations and still exists today in a world
increasingly finite day.
There are
new ideas
that help us
see and
understand
the
environmental problem
Our planet can be seen as a "spaceship" with limited resources.
In 1966 the famous economist Keneth E. Boulding ecological used the idea that
the earth is like a spacecraft, manned by thousands of millions of passengers
with limited resources to be used rationally and moderately to ensure the
survival of the humanity. This idea, expressed in economic theory Boulding,
became a great contribution to the awareness that we live in a finite world.
Nature can be considered as a "company" provider of goods and
services.
Robert Constanza, one of the greatest exponents of modern Ecological
Economics, introduced the concept that nature is a major supplier company
business of goods and services, which operates independently of the market
and provides us with the essential ecological services and facilities for our well-
being .
The great natural company provides us, among other things, oxygen, fresh
water, regulating climate, energy, materials and other essential items for our
existence. This company does not charge us money as well as provide us with
the essential elements of climatizar our environment and keep it in the right
conditions for our life, also it gives us the reception and recycling of our waste
products. Daily captures and cleanses the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and
other gases produced, recycle our wastewater and other waste materials
generated in our human life.
This important concept of ecological economics, it helps us visualize our life
support and awareness that our lives depend on it.
We see the need to
prevent with our activities,
we continue damaging,
destroying or reducing the
size of this "great natural
company" must attend
daily to the thousands of
millions of inhabitants of
our planet, because we are
getting serious risk its
ability to continue
supplying all mankind.