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It is a known fact that since man has entered the Industrial Age in society, he has taken advantage of what natural resources that have been accessible to him. Mankind has brought about the extinction of many plant and animal species. He has dumped waste and polluted many lakes, rivers, and streams to the point where nothing can exist in them any longer. He has destroyed forests at an alarming rate causing many species to die and the loss of thousands of square miles of forest area, a majority of it in the name of profit. Even as I write this paper and you read it man is creating an enormous hole in the ozone layer of our Earths atmosphere.
By creating that hole, ultraviolet radiation from the sun is now entering our atmosphere and reaching us, causing many different types of problems that we are still just learning about. Tropical forests are being destroyed at an ever-increasing rate. Estimates of the extent and rate of loss vary, but it appears that nearly half of the worlds tropical forests already have been lost, and the remainder will all but disappear in the next two to three decades. The loss is incalculable. These forests provide habitat for an estimated half of the worlds plant and animal species, provide water and fuel for much of the worlds population, and influence regional and global climate. Commercial logging, clearance for agriculture, ranching, and fuel gathering are all responsible for the destruction.
Their greatest threat is acid rain pollution, which is already severely affecting large areas of the conifer forests of northeast North America and Europe. Solutions include the development of alternative fuel wood supplies through fuel wood plantations, the regulation of logging, and a consensus as to the value of forest conservation over commercial development. Overgrazing and firewood gathering denude vast areas of arid lands, resulting in inexorable spread of deserts and desert like conditions. The United Nations estimates that, at present rate of loss, by the year 2000 about one-third of the worlds arable land will be nonproductive. The ever-increasing loss of plant and animal species represents a major conservation concern. Habitat loss, especially in tropical forest areas, is the greatest threat.
Some species, such as whales and the rhinoceros, are threatened by overexploitation. A fundamental solution, however, must be the establishment of global network of areas that protect and maintain representative samples of the worlds ecosystems. Substantial progress has been made toward this goal, and there are protected areas on paper at least in virtually all nations. Maintaining species of plants and animals in botanical gardens, zoos, or gene banks is a secondary solution. It may work well for some species (although kept in storage, even seeds of domesticated plants and their wild relatives tend to loose genetic vigor), but relative to the magnitude of the problem, such efforts are very limited.
Water supplies are threatened virtually worldwide with depletion and pollution. Globally the major problem is loss of watershed areas through denudation of vegetation. The solution must come from better land use and the protection of critical watershed vegetation, along with water conservation and recycling. The primary conservation concern here is with fossil fuels.
Solutions include improvement in the efficiency of fuel combustion, as well as more intensive explorations of alternatives, particularly from solar energy and other renewable resources. The damage we cause today by dumping waste into the ocean or creating more smog in the city unlikely will be seen by those who create it. As population growth continues to accelerate into the 21 st Century, waste management will play an integral part in maintaining an ecological balance within our environment. We can no longer generate unlimited quantities of waste, and must sacrifice our economic viability to ensure long term protection of the earth. Therefore, recycling plays an important strategy in minimizing the generation of waste and reducing the need of hazardous landfills. It is expected that certain problems will arise with recycling initiatives but the positive factors from our efforts will override those obstacles.
With high levels of public participation, sufficient financial backing and increase technological sophistication, recycling can be an effective strategy for sustaining a healthy environment. There are several goals to protect our environment. People should work on the maintenance of essential ecological processes (which rain from the global cycles of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water to the localized regeneration of soil, recycling of nutrients and cleansing of waters and air) and life support systems, such as agricultural systems, coastal and fresh water systems, and forests. It is important to preserve genetic diversity.
Moreover, government agencies need to ensure sustainable utilization of species and eco systems such as forest and grazing lands. The consumption of non renewable resources should ensure that scarce minerals are used conservatively and recycled where possible, and that their mining and use have the least possible adverse impact on other resources, and on environmental quality. A Paramount principle of protection of the environment is that use of any resource requires consideration of the impacts of that use on associated resources, and on the environment as a whole. Today, protection of the environment should be concerned with a large number of major global issues.
Each of these affects the others, and all are basic to human survival. Although not strictly conservation issues, population growth and economic factors underlie virtually all conservation problems. Nowadays protection of the environment is very important as the world is moving into a new era without considering any of the major problems of pollution with rapid industrialization. The best way to protect the environment is conservation.
Conservation is the philosophy and policy of managing the environment to assure adequate supplies of natural resources for future as well as present generations.
Free research essays on topics related to: animal species, plant and animal, greatest threat, population growth, tropical forests
Research essay sample on Plant And Animal Tropical Forests
