The next 50 years will be the worst in the history of the planet * This week the green organizations celebrate Earth Day in the hope of raising awareness of the dangers and minimizing damage
This week, when the world will celebrate the International Earth Day, some will say that there is no reason to party, but on the contrary - a reason to mourn. Earth has survived billions of years just fine. It has also survived the last hundreds of thousands of years beautifully, since the arrival of man in his various incarnations, until the arrival of the 20th century man who damaged it, polluted it, and left his hand bent. The purpose of the festive day is to try to minimize damage by raising awareness of environmental problems. The green organizations have been celebrating the International Earth Day since 1970. The celebration, this year, will be overshadowed by the opposition of the US President,
George Bush, to sign the Kyoto Convention to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Here are the main dangers lurking for the earth from man:
warming
Gases - such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide - rise into the atmosphere and trap heat emitted from the Earth's surface. This is the greenhouse effect. Most of the carbon dioxide is created when burning fuels to create energy. The warming effect causes glaciers to melt and consequently islands to flood. In the last 50 years, the average number of snow-free days in the summer has increased by 25 percent in Alaska, about 3,000 square kilometers of ice shelves have collapsed in Antarctica, the coastline in Fiji has receded by 15 cm every year. Shuli Nezer, head of the air quality division at the Ministry of the Environment, explains that when the temperatures rise, the desert area spreads, an increase in malaria, skin diseases and diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and flies is expected. The greenhouse effect also causes the depletion of the ozone layer, and consequently harms the health of humans.
Air pollution
A study by the World Health Organization stated that the gases emitted from vehicles cause more deaths than traffic accidents. 1,500 people die in Israel from air pollution, thousands suffer from respiratory diseases. Industrial plants and power plants operating on fuel or coal contribute their negative part to air pollution. There is also a bright spot. More than a million vehicles in the world today run on natural gas, which pollutes less than gasoline. We are also talking about an electric vehicle or a vehicle that runs on solar energy. The Ford company recently announced that it will promote cars powered by alternative energy. But it will be a long time before such vehicles are put into mass use.
Water pollution
Factories that discharge toxic substances into water sources are effectively killing streams, rivers and lakes around the world. The lack of proper supervision causes serious environmental problems. In Israel, the problem of pollution of the Kishon River following the death of the naval commando soldiers who trained there is well-known. In fact, there is almost no stream in the State of Israel that is not polluted by raw sewage. The pollutants seep into the groundwater and contaminate the drinking water.
In the USA, waste from a nuclear plant in the state of Utah is poisoning the Colorado River. The Tisa river in Romania was badly polluted last year, when the factory injected cyanide into it. A particularly painful problem is the pollution of seas and oceans with oil, due to leakage from tankers or accidents. The biggest disaster in history happened in 1989 in Alaska. A tanker that ran aground spilled 42 million liters of oil into the water. The damage to land, life and vegetation was enormous.
nuclear power plants
The world has experienced many years of horror since the first atomic bomb was dropped, on
Hiroshima. The decades that have passed since then without a nuclear war have dimmed it
somewhat the fear, but at the same time a network of power plants was established in the world
nuclear and the previous fear was replaced by the fear of an accident. The horrible script
It came to fruition when the reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded in the mid-80s
In what was defined as the heaviest nuclear disaster. Thousands have died and are still dying
from cancer in Ukraine. A large area has been polluted for many years. nuclear waste
Thrown into the sea or buried in the ground is a time bomb, because materials
Nukes only decay after hundreds of years and by then there is a risk of leakage
and infection.
Destruction of the rainforests
Deforestation increases air pollution, because the forests absorb the
The carbon dioxide emitted from vehicles and factories. Greenpeace is fighting
Hard against the cutting down of the rainforests in South America. Alf recently clashed
The workers of the wood industry in Brazil with the activists of the Greenpeace organization in the port of Belem,
in the north of the country. The workers saw Greenpeace as directly responsible for this
that 3,000 of their members lost their jobs, due to the environmental laws
the rigid ones Greenpeace has been fighting in recent years to protect the rainforests in the south
America, which are rapidly disappearing due to over-excision.
Extinction of animals
A painful and moral problem is the extinction of many species of animals due to hunting
Uncontrolled, massive construction and habitat destruction. In Israel they lived in the past
the Syrian and many other species of extinct wild animals. Environmental quality newspapers
Around the world, the disappearance of rare species of my husband is constantly being reported
Haim. The former US president, Bill Clinton, transferred at the end of his term
Grants to environmental organizations, for tiger and elephant conservation projects.
Asian tigers and elephants are classified as endangered species and are prohibited
for trade according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
What will happen in 50 years?
Scientists, philosophers and science fiction writers are occasionally required to ask what
Will it be the face of the future? There are pink predictions and there are black predictions. there is also
Literally apocalyptic predictions predicting total destruction. If we go down to the details
The trivial little things of everyday life, we are likely to see more
Vehicles powered by natural gas and electricity. Green construction will enter an accelerated pace
And it is possible that green skyscrapers will be built, all of their energy consumption
Be, for example, on the purity of sunlight. There will probably be no choice and waste
Purified water will be used for drinking, due to the lack of water and the pollution of the water sources.
Technology, as a whole, will take giant steps, and with it - probably - tools too
The weapon, which carries many potential dangers.
Prof. Adi Zemach, author and philosophy lecturer at the Hebrew University,
Believes that the 21st century will be characterized - unlike the 20th century - by a revolution
biologically. That is, cracking the human genome will allow better health
and longevity. This will create greater differences between the rich
for the poor Prof. Zemach: "This will be an unprecedented revolution in the history of the species
the human After we understand the genetic structure better, we can write software
for the genome. If we can program the genome better, we can take care
For the birth of people with better health who will live longer. It
can lead to the division of the human race, since the physiological differences between
The rich and the poor will be greater."
Prof. Zemach believes that the moon will become a large industrial site. "rate
The development will be accelerated more and more and gradually we will move from motorized transport
for energy-saving transportation, using light aircraft instead of cars
polluting engines. There will also be a better virtual option for simultaneous communication
between different points on Earth. The media will be
Interactive.
"We will be much more polarized than we have ever been. As many types as there are
Newer and more accessible means of entertainment and means of medicine, they will be more
expensive and sophisticated. The gap between the rich and the poor and uneducated
will grow The task of humanity is to do everything possible to reduce the gaps so that the species
The human will not be broken. This will be the century of biology. the stories
The decisive ones will be biological stories. Culturally there will be systems
filtering of information".
Also the president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the mathematician Prof. Menachem
Magidor, predicts a biological revolution and estimates that the rich countries will benefit
more than her. In general, the gaps between rich and poor will remain. the technology
Progress, of course, and communication will become even easier and simpler.
Prof. Asa Kosher, from the Department of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, believes
Because in 50 years the world will be more democratic and fairer. will be in it
More civil and social rights and also greater sensitivity to values
the environment. The world will be run in a more professional and smarter way. The politics
get weaker "The gap between the strong and the weak will increase greatly," says Prof. Kosher,
"Between the strong and rich world and the weak and poor world. The gap between two
The worlds can cause an explosion."
Dr. Eitan Zeliger, CEO of the Environmental Quality Services Company: "Quantity
Hazardous waste will decrease, thanks to recycling and more correct use of materials
raw Complex plastic raw materials will be used instead of the metal that was eaten
and pollutes the groundwater." Prof. Dan Zaslavsky, former water commissioner:
"Most countries will have to deal with water supply problems. solution
The water crisis will be met through water recycling and seawater desalination."
Roni Komar, director general of the Ministry of the Environment: "The air will be very hot
Polluted and we can hardly bathe in the sea. A large part of nature's treasures will disappear."
MK Nechama Ronan, former director general of the Ministry of Environment: "If there is not
Treating the hole with ozone We expect the flooding of huge areas due to the melting
the glaciers Warming has also increased the sea temperature, which has already caused
to a tremendous mortality of corals".
by Golan Yosiphon
(M)
