Ten major pollutions on earth

1. Soil damage

According to reference news reports, 110 countries (***1 billion people) have arable land Fertility is decreasing. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, soil erosion is very serious due to the disappearance of forest vegetation, overexploitation of cultivated land, and overgrazing of pastures. The exposed land became fragile and could not withstand the erosion of wind and rain for long. In some places, annual soil loss can reach 100 tons per hectare. Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, the fall of toxic dust associated with air pollution, the spraying of slurry and the dumping of hazardous waste all contribute to the generally irreversible contamination of the land.

2. Climate change and energy waste The greenhouse effect seriously threatens the entire human race.

According to 2,500 representative experts, sea levels will rise and many densely populated areas (such as Bangladesh, coastal areas of China, and most islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans) will be submerged. . Rising temperatures will also have serious impacts on agriculture and ecosystems. It is expected that energy consumption in Asia and the Pacific will double from 1990 to 2010, and energy consumption in Latin America will increase by 50%-70%. Therefore, the transfer process of energy-saving technologies should be strengthened between the West and developing countries. In particular, we should use economic incentives to enable industrialists to develop technologies that improve the efficiency of industrial resource utilization.

3. Reduction in biological diversity

Due to urbanization, agricultural development, forest reduction and environmental pollution, natural areas are becoming smaller and smaller, which has led to hundreds of millions of The extinction of thousands of species. Because the extinction of some species will lead to the disappearance of many molecules that can be used to make new drugs, it will also lead to the disappearance of many genes that can help crops overcome harsh climates, and even cause new plagues.

4. Forest area reduction

In recent decades, the forest area in tropical countries has also been declining seriously. Between 1980 and 1990, 150 million hectares of forest disappeared in the world. According to the current rate of forest area reduction, in 40 years there will not be a single tree in some Southeast Asian countries.

5. Freshwater resources are under threat

According to expert estimates, from the beginning of the next century, a quarter of the world will be short of water for a long time. Remember, we cannot create water, we can only try to protect it.

6. Chemical pollution

Millions of chemical compounds brought by industry exist in air, soil, water, plants, animals and human bodies. Even the ice caps, the last large natural ecosystems on Earth, are contaminated. Those organic compounds, those heavy metals, and those toxic products are all concentrated in the entire food chain, and will eventually threaten the health of animals and plants, cause cancer, and weaken soil fertility.

7. Chaotic Urbanization

By the end of this century, there will be 21 big cities in the world, and living conditions in big cities will further deteriorate: overcrowding, water pollution, Poor sanitary conditions and insecurity ----------- The sprawl of these big cities has also damaged natural areas. Therefore, unrestricted urbanization should be seen as the new evil of civilization.

8. Over-exploitation of the ocean and pollution of coastal zones

Due to over-fishing, the fishery resources of the ocean are decreasing at a frightening rate. As a result, many poor people who rely on seafood protein for a living face the threat of starvation. Substances such as heavy metals and organophosphorus compounds concentrated in fish species may cause serious health problems to fish eaters. Coastal areas are under tremendous population pressure. 60% of the world's population lives less than 100 kilometers from the sea. This overcrowding throws these often fragile places off balance.

9. Air pollution

The air in most big cities contains many pollutants caused by heating, transportation and factory production. These pollutants threaten the health of tens of millions of citizens and cause many people to lose their lives.

10. Polar Ozone Hole

Although people have signed the Montreal Protocol, ozone holes still form over the two poles of the earth every spring, and the ozone layer in the Arctic is lost 20% to 30%, and the Antarctic ozone layer has lost more than 50%.

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The third Global Ministerial Environment Forum concluded on February 15 in the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena. The meeting once again issued a warning to all countries around the world that environmental degradation poses a serious challenge to human sustainable development. Global climate change has intensified, forest coverage has declined sharply, fresh water resources have continued to decrease, and pollution from various chemicals has continued to spread.

The ozone hole is larger than Europe

Humans have discovered and used oil and coal in large quantities, emitting greenhouse gases and causing global climate anomalies. The "El Ni?o phenomenon" has been rampant, causing direct The economic loss was US$20 billion, which is frightening.

At present, the annual use of Freon in the world exceeds 1 million tons, and 20 million tons of Freon have been emitted so far, causing 60% of the atmospheric ozone layer to be destroyed in the 20th century, so that an ozone hole the size of Europe appeared over Antarctica. The hole in the ozone layer has sounded the alarm as early as the 1980s, but humans don't seem to care about it. The emission of toxins produced by CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbures) into the atmosphere makes the air in big cities even more "suffocating". Minimizing the use of CFCs is an action that is beneficial to all mankind, because the ozone layer over the Arctic has lost 20%, and the Antarctic has lost 50%. Scientists estimate that even if the number of CFCs is reduced from now on, it will take until 2050 for the ozone layer to return to its original state.

A large number of species were destroyed

Human beings are frantically plundering the earth, causing a large number of species to quietly disappear. The Amazon rainforest, known as the "Lungs of the Earth" and covering a total area of ??6.5 million square kilometers, has been destroyed on an unprecedented scale. 80,000 hectares of tropical rainforest are being wiped out every day, which means that the oxygen that sustains the survival of various organisms will be reduced. 1/3. Forests are known as genetic treasure houses, and one-fifth of the approximately 100 million species on earth live here. The loss of tropical rainforests means at least one species is lost every day. The pollution of the ocean and the excessive fishing by humans have also caused a large number of marine species to disappear. Some experts predict that in 30 years, at least 500,000 to 800,000 animal and plant species will become extinct. Due to forest destruction and illegal hunting, more and more species are becoming extinct. Forest fires are also one of the indisputable causes of biological extinction. Scientists point out that from 1600 to the present, the rate of extinction of various biological species has accelerated 100 times! The demand for special medicines (rhino horns, seals, tiger bones, bear bile...) has pushed many animals into the corner. Other “victims” such as white bears, sea turtles, mandrills, Asian tigers, African elephants, Princess Alexander butterflies, and many more have been added to the list of those who are about to become extinct. While there are more and more national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, the level of killing of wildlife is also getting higher, faster and more intense.

Nameless diseases are prevalent

Environmental pollution has brought some nameless diseases. In the past, there were terrible Minamata disease, Itai-itai disease, etc. In the 1990s, there were 370,000 cattle in the UK. Infected with mad cow disease, 165,000 cattle died. Some people who ate sick beef suffered from "new Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease", also known as "human mad cow disease". People became dementia, tremors and eventually died due to severe brain damage. The rampant spread of mad cow disease is caused by certain scientists destroying the disease resistance genes of high-quality cattle when modifying genes, causing the cattle to lose their disease resistance. Similarly, genetically modified (or destroyed) genetically modified plants may be causing or will bring fatal and nameless diseases to humans. This point has attracted great attention from the international community. The mad cow disease crisis is not over yet, and dioxin pollution has made its appearance again. Dioxins have 210 congeners, some of which are the most toxic (50 to 100 times more toxic than potassium cyanide) and have strong carcinogenic, reproductive toxicity, endocrine toxicity and immunotoxic effects. One drop of dioxin can kill 1,000 people, and one ounce (about 28.35 grams) can kill 1 million people! Dioxins significantly reduce the number of sperm in men, increase the prevalence of endometriosis in women, and some people suffer from mental retardation and serious damage to their health. Contaminated by countless unknown environmental hormones, human functions are deteriorating.

The decline of land resistance

People mostly only talk about various issues such as the rising temperature of the earth, but rarely talk about the decline of the quality of the earth. According to the United Nations, as of November 1999, the land of 120 countries was severely poisoned, with a population of as many as 1 billion! Asia, Africa and Latin America are experiencing severe erosion due to the destruction of forests. In addition, deforestation and raising livestock everywhere have also poisoned the land. Since the ground loses the protection of vegetation, the land cannot resist the attack of wind. In many areas of the world, hundreds of tons of soil are "thrown out" by wind and rain per hectare of land every year! The threats of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, industrial waste, sanitary waste, and radioactive residues increase the risk dozens of times. There are about 2,500 areas in France, 35,000 areas in the United States, and 2,500 areas in the Netherlands whose land is seriously poisoned!

Forests on the verge of extinction

Over the past four centuries, Africa has lost many important forest areas. From the 1970s to the present, tropical rainforests are on the verge of extinction, and the Amazon forest, the lungs of the earth, is being destroyed at an alarming rate. From 1980 to 1990, approximately 150 million hectares of forest (12% of the total forest area) disappeared from people's sight. According to a report by the International Fund for Conservation of Nature (WWF), in the next 40 years, some countries in Southeast Asia will no longer have any forests! Due to indiscriminate deforestation, the Venezuelan floods in December 1999 killed 30,000 to 50,000 people, and the ecological balance was lost, causing large-scale migration of many animals.

Water source pollution is a serious disaster

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% to 90% of diseases and about 1/3 of deaths in poor countries are related to water. Water containing germs, old traditional habits and lack of hygiene have caused many deaths, especially children and the elderly with weak immune systems. In addition, the injection of industrial wastewater into rivers and lakes also makes the situation more serious.

Incredible but true figures show that 25,000 people (including children) die every 24 hours from "poisoned" water. Sources of clean water for human consumption are gradually drying up. Humanity is trying to avoid a repeat of the Minamata Bay incident in Japan: mercury-containing wastewater from the Minamata factory poisoned 20,000 Japanese people, 1,000 of whom died. Marine pollution caused by oil tanker leaks is also a real danger to the green environment. In addition, the dumping of various wastes into the sea, including heavy metals, chemicals and radioactive waste, is a major danger and threat.

These toxic substances seep into the bodies of fish, shrimps, crabs, and shellfish, and people will "eat" these toxins into their stomachs!