Life and Environment
There is much talk about environment
protection and its conservation. It is a current topic of discussions,
conferences, articles in newspapers and magazines etc. Every year 15th June is
observed as the World Environment Day. Similarly 22nd April is celebrated as the
Earth Day. It is a very healthy trend as it shows increasing awareness and
concern about the environment and its problems among the people. But what
actually the world ''environment'' means? What really constitutes our
environment? It is a basic question about which people are often vague and
confused. Literally, ''Environment'' means surroundings. All that is there
around us is ''environment''. It includes all the conditions, situation,
influences, circumstances etc. that affect living beings. Thus it is a very
comprehensive term and includes land, water, air, temperature, light etc. It
means all the conditions that helped in the origin, growth and development of
life and now sustains it. It is a comprehensive system that supports life. Life
and environment are the two aspects of the same coin. There can not be life
without this environment. Life presupposes environment.
There is no life on the moon, the Jupiter,
the Mars, the Saturn and other planets in our solar system only because
there is no environment. they are voids and deserts without life supporting
elements which constitute environment. Our earth is the only known living
planet. the earth is unique in this sense that there is environment and life on
this planet. it is because there are water air, earth, climate, weather,
geography, geology and and all other natural resources that God and Nature has
bestowed upon it. These various elements are there on the earth in a certain
desired proportion. this balance has helped in the origin of life and its
sustenance. In the absence of these elements in a given proportion, our earth
would have been another dead and sterile planet like Mars and mercury. But now
this life sustaining environment is in danger because of rapidly increasing
pollution. The pollution disturbs this desired balance in various natural
elements like water, air, earth etc. and consequently, life is endangered. Many
species of birds, plants, insects etc are already lost because of this dangerous
trend. It has also caused many serious problems to human beings as well. the
careless and excessive use of natural resources, unwise and indiscriminate
industrialization and rapidly increasing human population have made the problem
more complex.
It is the earth's peculiar atmosphere or
biosphere that protects and sustains life. Atmosphere means all the air
surrounding the earth which consists of mainly of nitrogen and life giving
oxygen. Other gases found in the atmosphere are argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen,
neon, helium, krypton etc. Water vapor is also there in the atmosphere. Without
the presence of water vapor, there would be no weather on the earth. This
atmosphere protects the earth like a shield or a skin cover. This cover of the
earth extends up to about 200 km from its surface. It is this shield of
atmosphere that moderates and regulates temperature and prevents excess of
heating. It also protects life on the earth from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet
rays. This is done mainly by a layer of ozone that lies between attitudes of 12
and 20 km above its surface. But the depletion in the ozone layer in recent
years because of pollution has become a major concern.
The earth's environment has been adversely
affected by many of the nasty human activates. One of these is the
indiscriminate use of fossil fuels like coal, petrol, diesel, kerosene, natural
gas etc. It has caused global warming. As a result temperatures are rising and
there are floods, droughts, violent storms and destructions. As temperatures
rise, the oceans become more warm and release greater energy in the atmosphere
resulting in very destructive storms, cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes etc. The
green houses gases generated by various undesirable human activates change the
weather patterns and there are often huge forest flag rations as well as it
happened recently in Australia, Indonesia and other neighboring island nations.
Forests and green cover is part and parcel of
our environment. But now the forests are vanishing rapidly. Once the earth was
covered by forests over 40 per cent of its area. But it has now been reduced to
27 per cent. The loss of forests and green cover, because of human greed and
exploitation of natural resources, is a great human tragedy. Forests support a
big diversity of life. They protect soil from erosion, Landslides etc. and also
stop desertification. Destruction of forests causes floods, droughts and
extinction of many species of animal and bird life.
The protection and conservation of
environment and biosphere is of vital importance. They must be preserved at all
cost. Pollution of the environment is the biggest problem being faced by the
humanity. It is high time that man learns more about how to live in harmony with
nature and less about how to conquer nature. Man's dependence on nature cannot
be over emphasized. Man is an integral part of nature and should never think of
disturbing the balance of nature. It is this balance in nature and environment
which supports and sustains life. The environment protects life and supplies it
with essential items like air, water, food, heat and home. The biosphere or
ecosystem is an equilibrium of various environmental elements and it should be
maintained. This delicate and fragile ecosystem should not be disturbed at all.
It is essential for our survival and growth that we adjust ourselves to the
eternal laws of nature and live in accord and harmony with nature.
No comments:
Post a Comment