Pollution
Just imagine this. You are driving to work, stopped at the traffic lights, and then, the horrible stench of engine fumes and exhaust start to creep into your car, through all of the little nooks and crannies. You turn on the air conditioning, but the air smells disgusting and has a faint tinge of brown on it. A tickle has started to creep up in your throat, like a mouse trying to steal cheese from a mouse trap. You cough and cough but it doesn’t go away. Opening the window doesn’t help either. The light goes green and you speed away thinking, ‘Yes! I survived again!’ This is what you and everyone else goes through on the way to work, or driving down the street.
Furthermore, this could soon be a reality. If we don’t do something soon, we could completely destroy the earth as we know it. There are already places in the world like this. For example: Shanghai, China. If you go to Shanghai, in China, you will see kids and adults wearing masks as they walk around on the streets. In the really badly polluted places, it is almost impossible to breathe.
It would appear that many people have just given up. But, the others, like me, know that we can fix this. Just a few weeks ago, in Brazil, thousands of people planted millions of trees in a special gathering to save the planet. If we keep doing this, we could save the planet! The earth is like a human body. It lives, thrives and breathes. But, eventually, in billions of years from now, it will die. If we persist in polluting the earth, it will surely die earlier.
Copying the example of Brazil, and using the analogy of the earth and the human body, perhaps it could repair itself over time. If you don’t believe me, here is an example. In the 70s, scientists discovered a chemical that they were putting into fridges and aerosols called CFCs. This was going into the atmosphere and attacking the ozone layer. A huge hole was made. When the world governments banned these, the ozone layer actually repaired itself!
Consequently, part of pollution relates to the current climate change crisis. Since 1900, the sea levels have risen by 10 metres! That might not sound like much, but if this carries on, the islands and low lying places will be underwater in a few hundred years! Already, places in Hawaii are underwater! ;Did you know that Holland is actually 6.78 metres below sea level? The reason that they are not under water right now is because of a very special and smart idea. Holland introduced windmills in the early 1800s. These pump all of the water out of Holland and stop the whole country going underwater and turning into a huge swimming pool!
In conclusion, pollution is doing horrendous things to the environment. But, as humans if we all join together, perhaps my generation can alter the mistakes we have made in the past. We don’t know it for sure if it will fix itself, or if the sea levels will keep rising or not, but it’s worth a shot isn’t it? :-)
By Hugh Kennedy
