Here is an article about the current environmental issues:
Since the mid-
1950s, the man has taken massive strides in technology bringing
immense comfort to much of the population of Earth, but this
development has come at a very big cost. The ongoing increase in
population, creating an indefinite demand for homes has led to
deforestation. Rapidly increasing infrastructure has made the world a
smaller place. New commercial establishments and factories have wiped
out much of the vast green lands of our planet, leading to large
volumes of pollution, which in turn have had devastating effects on
the people. Development has become a vicious cycle by itself. There
has been an alarming shrinkage of Glaciers, loss of sea ice with
thick layers of ice on lakes and rivers giving way and affecting
plant and animal life in the colder regions of our planet. This has
further resulted in high levels of sea water and has led to more
severe heat waves.
Hydraulic
fracturing or fracking involves drilling and injecting fluid into the
earth at high pressure to fracture shale rocks in order to liberate
the natural gas from within. An unbelievable amount of water required
for a single gas well is mixed with sand to produce the fracking
fluid. In America itself, 500,000 active gas wells use 72,000
trillion gallons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals. The
entire process releases methane gas and toxic gas which contaminates
the nearby groundwater leading to respiratory, sensory and
neurological problems in people living in these areas.
Through this
process, only 30-40% of the fracking fluid is recovered while the
rest is left in the ground, in open pits, gets evaporated,
contaminates the air, releases toxics, acid rain – the worst
results ever. Every fracking activity produces only 300,000 barrels
in a single day, but only after harming the environment in the worst
and horrific manner.
During the 20th
century, the Earth’s average temperature has increased by 1 degree
Fahrenheit and the situation is going to get worse in the coming
years unless corrective and serious measures are not carried out.
Continuous ‘greenhouse’ activity has produced greenhouse gasses
increasing global temperatures like never before and this will
continue to increase unless the billions of tons of annual emissions
are not decreased by a large amount.
Small changes
in the temperature correspond to enormous changes in the environment.
If corrective measures are not taken, our planet is likely to by
2050, become a victim of coastal flooding, severe drought conditions,
erosion, food shortages, increase in diseases, large number of human
deaths and a complete extinction of a number of animal species. By
2100, Global temperatures are expected to increase by 2°F to 11.5°F
depending on the level of future greenhouse gas emissions. This will
make earth twice as warm as it has been in the last hundred years.
Time to wake up and save this beautiful Earth.
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