The environment is referred to as man's best friend in articles by great authors whom I had contact with before putting up this article. David McBash Phd, when asked what the environment is to man says "The environment is man's greatest resources regarding the fact that man also evolved from it according to evolutionary science".
Also environmental biologist, Theodore Finley says "Man is a complex organism made up of non-living components found in the environment and this in turn supports man".
In view of the mind striking excerpts from my tete-a-tete with these great people I decided to start off this month with man's best friend, "the environment". Finley's excerpt says that the environment supports man and in no way hazardous. This is a special feature of man as a higher animal, that is, being able to alter the surrounding to support or suit it. This is sometimes not the case where the environment becomes hazardous due to man's activities and the negligence to the menace of environmental pollution.
Here are some of the problems posed by environmental pollution and the way forward.
Noise pollution could be seen as unorganized sound that is unpleasant to the listener. Whether organized or unorganized, any sound that irritates the hearer is noise. The magnitude of sound is measured in decibels. Experts in this field measured the magnitude at which sound could be hazardous to be setting off from 45db. In homes, people now use theater systems whose magnitude is more than 45db. In the short term it is luxury or prestige but in the long term is sure to be hazardous ranging from minor hearing problems to deafness as a result of too much vibration of the middle and inner ear leading to the damage of the auditory nerves. Others are noise from road side record sellers, heavy factories and so on.
The way forward is controlling the sound systems in homes to a minimal no damage level. In case of industries they should be sited away from residential homes. Constant exposures to noise pollution should be avoided.
Research show that hearing problems are increasing at a geometric progression.
Refuse and sewage pollution is another great challenge to our environment. This is more seen in under-developed countries and third world countries where the level of poverty is higher.
Irregular disposal of refuse into culvert, around homes and along roads. Sewage such as waste water disposed directly into culvert, around homes and channeling through open surface canals. These are breeding grounds of disease causing pathogens and infections and disease the dwellers in such surroundings. No wonder malaria is so common in Africa.
Refuse can be burnt in incinerators in places some distances away from residential homes. Research shows that some of these gases irritates the lining of the nostrils and eyes giving rise to the multiple ocular problems. Sewage should be treated to harmlessness and surface channels closed properly. In homes dust and dirt should be disposed off properly in bins or trashes.
Industrial chemicals and fertilizers are also harmful to human population. Direct disposal of industrial chemicals into water bodies and washing of fertilizers into rivers and lakes by rain water poison the planktons on which fishes depend and in turn passes onto the fishes and to man as the food chain continues.
Air pollutants include gaseous pollutants like oxides of Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulphur and so on. The chlorofluorocarbons (easily referred to as CFCs) are no exception. This results in the greenhouse effect; the depletion of the ozone layer by greenhouse gases. The emission of these gases are increasing by the day with less green life to make use of them as a result of development. The amazon forest seems to be the forest standing whose conservation is a global challenge.
Like David McBash Phd said "the environment is man's greatest resources.."must be cherished as much as man would cease not to continue into the future generation.
Save the environment today and stay healthy
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