World’s Deadliest Environmental Threats-2

Our Mother Earth is currently facing a lot of environmental threats and the only way to survive the crisis is to talk and think about the problems honestly and seriously.

Our environment is constantly changing. There is no denying that. However, as the environment changes, so does the need for increasing considerations to resolve the problems.

Global warming is definitely one of the main environmental issues that we are dealing with. The earth is getting warmer and we, as humans, are responsible for a large part of this problem.

However, global warming is not the only problem we have to worry about. Around the world, people face various challenges on a daily basis. Some of these problems are minor and affect only a limited part of the ecosystem. But most of them are so dangerous and threatening that they change the nature we remember.

Our planet has been poisoned and is on the brink of an environmental crisis. The current environmental problems have made us so vulnerable that disaster lurks around the corner. Our planet is in a state of emergency. The only way to survive the crisis is to talk and think about the problems honestly and seriously. The current environmental issues require immediate attention!

In the previous blog post, we introduced 8 of environmental threats. Here you will get familiar with other 6:

9. Biodiversity Loss

Human activities have led to the extinction of species and the loss of different kinds of climates worldwide. The ecosystem, which has been struggling for its current maturity for millions of years, finds itself at risk of biodiversity loss. The pollination process is vital to the survival of the ecosystem, and human activities are the greatest threat to this process. Another example is the destruction of coral reefs in many oceans on which marine life depends.

Biodiversity is vital for human health and well-being. The United Nations marks May 22 as International Day for Biological Diversity to raise public awareness and understanding about biodiversity issues, its values and the steps taken to preserve this valuable treasure. The theme of the 2019 edition was “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health”.

10. Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification is caused mainly by the consumption of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere, leading to the lower PH of the ocean over a long period of time. According to a research published in Nature Climate Change, ScienceDaily, ocean acidification “not only impacts the behaviour of individual species but also the wider marine ecosystems which are influenced by them.”

The acidity of the oceans has been on the rise over the past 250 years, however, it will even get worse by 150 percent until 2100. The impact of this event is a threat to the life of crustaceans and planktons and will lead to osteoporosis in humans.

11. Acid Rain

Acid rain is recognized as one of the most serious ecological threats we face today, causing various health, including respiratory diseases, and environmental problems. This phenomenon is a result of the presence of certain pollutants in the atmosphere, burning of fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions or decay of plants, during which Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) penetrate deep into the atmosphere.

12. Water Pollution

You must have heard about the “War on Water” predicted to happen in the future. water scarcity has been a topic of movies and books in recent years, for example, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and Jake Paltrow’s Young Ones, but Mad Max is a step further in Hollywood’s campaign to educate audiences about the world’s water crisis.

In literature, you can also see many examples of educating people to be careful about this imminent crisis. British poet W. H. Auden said about a hundred years ago that, “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.”

Clean water is now a scarce commodity. Our rivers, seas and oceans are no longer safe from toxic or hazardous pollutants due to industrial development posing a threat to human health.

Water is becoming a political and economic issue because in the future people will have to fight with each other on the water to survive. One of the suggested solutions to this problem is sea-sweetening. Industrial pollutants are filling the rivers, seas and oceans with toxic pollutants that have become a serious threat to human health.

13. Urban Sprawl

Urbanization means the expansion of the migration of residents in crowded areas to rural areas and transforming them into urban areas. This process leads to soil erosion, increased traffic and environmental and health problems. This increasing demand for urbanization leads to the elimination of the process of replacing vegetation and animal cover.

14. Genetic Engineering

The term genetic engineering is used to describe the process by which the genetic makeup of an organism can be altered using “recombinant DNA technology.” Genetic modification of food by biological technology is called genetic engineering. Genetic modification of the food leads to the transmission of toxic substances and diseases from a plant to another. Genetic modification has many problems. Engineered genes may transfer toxic samples into the environment. Another problem is that by making plants resistant to insects, we create organisms that are resistant to antibiotics.