Our world is contending with bigger problems than climate change; left unchecked, these problems can exacerbate and impact the economy, leading to poverty and hunger. Environmental problems can also affect our health; think of how pollution impacts our lungs, causing issues like respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
At the heart of these crises, we take a closer look at ten of the world’s most significant environmental problems.
Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse gases have a profound impact on the environment because they trap heat from the sun as it passes through the earth’s atmosphere. This, in turn, causes the average temperatures to warm up, leading to melting glaciers and extreme weather like heatwaves and floods. Many greenhouse gases come from human activities and industries, such as burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and power.
Fossil Fuels
Unfortunately, we still depend on burning fossil fuels on a large scale. Burning fossil fuels increases greenhouse gas emissions. To counteract the problem and our dependency on burning fossil fuels, many countries are introducing carbon taxes. These taxes will stimulate innovations in low-carbon technology and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, which account for a large percentage of all the energy humans produce.
Food Waste
More than 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted or lost each year; this could be sufficient enough to feed billions of people. When food is thrown out, it impacts the environment, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and releasing methane in landfills.
Deforestation
Deforestation has several negative consequences on the environment, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, disruption of the water cycles, and, most importantly, the increase of C02 in the environment. When the trees are cut down, the carbon they absorb is released back into the environment. Obviously, because they are not there, carbon dioxide is not absorbed; and this ends up affecting air quality.
Plastic Pollution
Plastic takes a long time to decompose; it is one of the most potent pollutants in our environment. More than 14 million tons of plastic are disposed of in oceans, which affects the wildlife habitat and the animals that live in them. To counteract the problem, the United Nations initiated a legally binding international treaty in 2022 to address the issue.
Soil Degradation
The United Nations estimates that 40 per cent of the world’s soil has degraded, rendering it unusable. Several factors increase soil degradation, including droughts, rising temperatures, and water scarcity. This has led many to turn to synthetic fertilizers. On a global scale, soil degradation is estimated to cause a loss of $40 trillion per year, which is half of the global GDP.
Biodiversity Loss
Humans have wreaked havoc on the environment primarily through activities like cutting trees, pollution, and the overexploitation of animals. All these factors have threatened the ecosystem and driven some species to extinction. In lands like Antarctica, climate change and melting sea ice have taken a heavy toll on emperor penguins, which could become extinct in the near future. Scientists attribute biodiversity loss to destructive human activities; without these, the loss would have taken thousands of years to occur.
Air Pollution
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution causes 4.2 to 7 million deaths worldwide every year. The pollutants come from several sources, such as burning biomass fuels and industrial sources like factories and motor vehicles. Air pollution is a concern in both urban and rural areas. In rural communities, many burn crops at the end of the harvest season and use fires to cook, all of which impact the air quality.
Water Scarcity
Lack of water impacts people’s health, agriculture, and the environment. According to the UN’s World Water Development Report, more than 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to safe drinking water.
Rising Sea Levels
Flooding due to climate change is one of the largest natural disasters our world faces. The impact of rising sea levels affects billions of people by threatening communities, contaminating freshwater sources, and damaging coastal ecosystems. Countries like Bangladesh are affected by this, with 10 per cent of the country just one metre above sea level, causing 70 per cent of the country to be flooded each year.
David Messiha | Staff Writer