Current Environmental Issues

The human population and the environment have not co-existed together as effectively as they should and as a result, our current environmental issues are many, global, and devastating.

Of course, the fault rests on our human population, not our environment.

The list of environmental problems we face is staggering. Environment articles from numerous sources cite problematic issues such as greenhouse gases reaching a dangerous point a full ten years before previous expectations. The global warming caused by the increase in greenhouse gases causes the temperature of the earth and the seas to increase. Once ocean temperatures rise, polar caps melt quicker and cause sea levels to rise.

Ozone depletion, originally attributed to the use of chloroflorocarbons (CFCs) in aerosol sprays, is getting worse as we continue to burn fossil fuels which emit carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide; a deadly trio of toxins. In addition to the ozone layer, fossil fuel byproducts also pollute our soil and ground water.

Littering the environment has many faces. Roads and highways are strewn with trash tossed from passing cars or dumped by those who wouldn’t be burdened by a trip to the local landfill.

Even dumping paint, oil, and other chemicals in landfills, instead of taking them to a hazardous disposal facility, contributes to environment pollution when those toxins leach into our groundwater supplies.

Ozone damaging Freon is released into the atmosphere when automotive, home, and commercial air conditioning units are not serviced in a manner designed to capture the Freon.

The ripple effects of environment pollution aren’t just a few more ultraviolet rays coming through the clouds. Environment analysis shows pollution, ozone depletion, and greenhouse gases affect plants and animals, both above the ground and in the ocean. A change in one food source has far-reaching effects throughout the food chain, including all the way up to humans.


Individual human environment interaction isn’t the only perpetrator against a green planet. Factories that spew tons of noxious byproducts into the atmosphere and the air we breathe are as much to blame as are businesses that dump chemicals into the ground or rivers and lakes. Environmental health issues from illegal toxic dumping show up in clusters of illnesses: a rise in autism, asthma, leukemia, and other cancers.
Certain environmental facts cannot be disputed. We are living in a world of increasing consumption and diminishing resources. We are destroying our environment by continuing to do things “the way we’ve always done things” -- burning fossil fuels for energy and releasing metric tons of toxic byproducts into the ground and the atmosphere.

But our current environmental issues can be mitigated, and some even reversed with a global commitment to green living.

Environment websites such as Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org), Earth First! (www.earthfirst.org), and Mother Earth News (www.motherearthnews.com) are excellent resources to receive environmental news and other environmental issues articles