The environment is the catchword for the present century and there is a sound reason for that. We have ample evidence and data now to establish that our environment and ecology is at great risk currently.
The price of rampant industrialization and modernization has left our environment staring at a possibility of irrecoverable damage. One of the reasons behind such dismal state is environmental pollution.
The forms of environmental pollution are multifarious like air, aquatic, chemical, soil etc. However, the cumulative effect of all these different forms that can be termed as environmental pollution. Addition of various toxic and harmful materials to the natural state of the environment has rendered it near-complete destruction.
The various causes can be traced to its various kinds. The rapid growth of industries which release harmful gases, smoke, effluents etc has largely contributed to it. The dumping of solid waste from houses as well as public facilities is another source of contaminants.
Vehicular emissions and effluent release from power plants is a major reservoir f various toxic materials. One of the major causes is also the increasing population which has exploded in the 21st century. This creates immense pressure on agriculture, manufacturing, mining etc spheres to provide for increasing mouths and stomachs.
This, in turn, forces them to injudiciously exploit the available natural resources which are limited in nature. Hence, we get a vicious cycle of overuse of raw materials and massive piles of refuse or wastes. Along with these, increase of noise levels and radiations (mobile telephony, optical fibre etc.) has added to the environmental mess.
These problems are pressing and need immediate responses. The priority is to clean the environment and the best way is to plant more trees and plants which act as natural cleansers. Promotion of organic and natural methods of farming is also pertinent.
Safe disposal of waste after appropriate disinfection and treatment must be practised. There should be a complete ban of microplastics with the alternative usage of natural materials like jute etc. Recycle and reuse of materials should be encouraged and incentivized.
Research in the field of cleaner fuels and sustainable technologies should be set as a national goal to leverage modern sciences for environmental protection and preservation. Legislation to support the above measures is also important.
However, we should start with education and awareness. This is imperative because even if we provide technology it still needs a change of mentality in terms of environment and its state. We need to inculcate a spirit of conservation and protection towards our environment in order to produce better outcomes.
