Environmental Issues in Pakistan

What is Environmental Ethics? Environmental ethics is a branch of environmental philosophy that studies the ethical relationship between human beings and environment. It has given a new dimension to the conservation of natural resources. What are major Ethical Environmental Issues? The issues which cause dangers to environment with a moral perspective in them are known as ethical environmental issues. Environment has a direct or indirect effect on the way we live and ethical environmental issues arise when we ignore this fact.Hence we ought to protect our environment and solve the ethical environmental issues our earth is facing now-a-days. There are many ethical environmental issues some of them are stated below: 1. Green-house Effect. 2. Ozone Depletion. 3. Air Pollution. 4. Acid Rain. 5. Urban Run-off. 6. Land Pollution. 7. Deforestation. 8. Nuclear Development. 1. Greenhouse Effect Any gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiations in the thermal infrared range is called a greenhouse gas.The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. This process repeats over and over again, trapping the radiations in the atmosphere. This is one of the major causes of global warming. Consequences: Global warming is causing the Earth to lose its snow cover; glaciers are melting, the sea-level is rising, and a lot of arctic floral and faunal species are on the verge of extinction. 2. Ozone Depletion The ozone enveloping around the Earth is depleting in volume consistently since 1980s.This is largely due to the effect of halocarbon refrigerants (such as CFC, halons, freons, etc. ). Halocarbons (being lighter than other gases in the atmosphere) rise much higher in the atmosphere. They then photodissociate to give atomic halogens. These atoms catalyze the destruction of the ozone gas. Consequences: Depletion of the ozone can practically threaten hum an life, and life of other animals as well. The ozone layer protects us from UV rays of the sun; without the ozone layer, everyone would be susceptible to a number of skin diseases, including skin cancer. . Air Pollution Air pollution is probably one of the most dangerous effect on the environment since we cannot control the air we breathe. Vehicular traffic, smog created by the smoke emitted by vehicles and factories, volatile organic compounds, present primarily in paints and varnishes and refrigerants, all contribute to air pollution. Consequences: Air pollution affects everything; it affects plants, animals and humans. According to WHO, poor indoor air quality can lead to respiratory infections, coronary diseases, and even lung cancer.If all this is happening indoors, imagine what is happening outside. 4. Acid Rain Gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide can react with water to produce corresponding acids. When this happens in the atmosphere, we get rain that is of acidic. The gases mentioned above are released into the atmosphere by certain natural processes like lightning, volcanoes, etc. However, the amount of these gases released due to factories, vehicles and different industries surpasses that produced naturally. It goes beyond a level that can be tolerated by nature.Consequences: Acid rains cause stone, rocks, steel, metal to erode and paint to peel off. This means monuments, statues, bridges, buildings, all are at a risk. It also damages the skin. 5. Urban Run-off Urban run-off refers to the rainwater running off land and into water bodies. This is a natural process. However, with ever-increasing urbanization, this process affects water bodies adversely, because the run-off now carries all sorts of compounds, chemicals and particulate matter. Materials that cannot be gotten rid of are being added to wastewater and, ultimately, to water.Consequences: Urban run-off causes deposition of oil, gasoline, garbage, heavy metals (nickel, copper, lead, zinc etc. ), fertilizers and pesticides (from gardens and lawns), synthetic organic compounds, etc. ; all of which ultimately enters the food chain and causes number of health complications. It also causes destruction of Marine population. 6. Land pollution Land pollution is where our land may be as far as being contaminated. All of the bad toxic chemicals and waste, that is left or dumped on our land, causes it to become polluted.It includes trash from homes, commercial establishments, and industrial facilities, food wastes, paper, glass, textiles, and plastic objects. The toxic materials that pollute the soil can get into the human body directly by coming into contact with the skin, being washed into water sources like reservoirs and rivers, eating fruits and vegetables that have been grown in polluted soil, breathing in polluted dust or particles. Consequences: It causes problems in the respiratory system and on the skin. It also leads to birth defects and also caus es various kinds of cancers. . Deforestation Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Wood is a necessity and the humans need to use it. But the improper planning about forestation and new planting of trees, we are facing a severe crisis of the lack of trees. Trees are very important as they make oxygen and serve many other important purposes too. But we may face a serious shortage of trees in the years to come due to the way forests are continued to disappear (at the rate of 14 million hectares per year).Consequences: Deforestation results in less biodiversity, soil erosion, animals lose their habitat, more Global Warming because there would be less trees to collect carbon dioxide etc. 8. Nuclear Development Nuclear development is, however, beneficial but it has very much harmful aspects as well. The nuclear rods that we use in producing energy are very radioactive. They have a very long decaying period a nd hence cause threats to our environment. Consequences: It has positive consequences in the form of meeting the energy crises.On the other hand, the most alarming aspect of nuclear development are the prospective nuclear accidents that can take place. It can cause different types of cancers, many disabilities by birth, problems in the process of photosynthesis etc. Solutions to Major Ethical Environmental Issues The problems that we are facing are very serious and need to be solved at the earliest possible time. Some of the solutions that we can could come up with, keeping in view indigenous resources, behaviour of people, environmental legislation etc.So here are some of the solutions to the above mentioned problems. 1. Arranging Seminars for Awareness Arranging seminars can be very beneficial for communication with people and educating them about the various ethical environmental issues that we are facing. Such type of seminars should be held in educational institutions and indus tries to educate students, workers and other people about the graveness of these issues so that they may be understood and solved. 2. Three REs (Reduce, Recycle and Reuse)We should try to reduce the use of substances like plastic that causes environmental pollution and are recycleable. Consumption of natural resources should be made limited to as less as possible. Reducing deforestation and trying to use the recycled and other materials. 3. Abstaining from Clourofloro carbons A Harmfulness of clourofluoro carbons should be understood by the society as its increasing amount is a threat to ozone layer. People should be educated at lower scale so they may realize the importance of ozone layer.Chlorofluoro carbons are presents in some kinds of refrigeration processes, solvents, foams, aerosols etc. 4. Reducing Pollution Modernization of our societies has widely increased different types of pollution. With the increasing number of automobiles and industries, pollution has been widely inc reased. Smoke of automobiles causes air pollution. Wastes of industries are discharged into the rivers polluting the water and the land it passes by. A regular checking should be done on particularly industries to see whether they are safely discharging the wastes or not.Also, we should use the substances that causes less pollution and discharge our waste substances properly at the proper place. 5. Role of Media In the modern era, media has a very strong role in educating people and moulding their thinking into a specific direction. Highly qualified professionals should use the facility of media to bring awareness to the people about ethical environmental issues through documentaries, talk-shows and other programs. Children can be get attracted through cartoons and other children programs. References ? http://www. tutorvista. om/english/global-warming-causes ? http://socyberty. com/issues/greenhouse-gases-everyonesproblem/ ? http://maria79. tumblr. com/ ? http://www. atsdr. cdc. gov /general/theair. html ? http://www. cheatdiary. com/collegeessay/harmful-effects-of-ozonelayer-depletion/ ? http://www. udel. edu/chem/C465/senior/fall97/acid_rain/senior. html ? http://www. geography. learnontheinternet. co. uk/topics/taiga. html ? http://www. ec. gc. ca/inre-nwri/default. asp? lang=En&n=235D11EB1&offset=12&toc=hide ? http://wiki. answers. com/Q/What_are_the_consequences_of_land_ pollution