Save Our Planet, Save Our Health
By Adrienne Carlson, posted on September 22nd, 2009 in Health, OpEd, Sustainability
There is a definite cause-effect relationship between the environment and human health, one of direct dependency. To put it in simple terms, the healthier the Earth is, the healthier its inhabitants. It’s something that is pretty obvious if only we stop to think about it, but since most of us are busy with our own lives, we fail to see how the two are interlinked. Human beings and all other living forms on Earth are adversely affected by:
• Air pollution: We only have to walk on the sidewalk of a busy New York street to see how much pollution our cars cause. It’s not just the exhaust from motor vehicles, it’s also the smoke that belches out from the innards of industries, mostly from hazardous manufacturing facilities like coal factories. All this serves to make our planet one polluted mess. We are exposed to chemical residues that are toxic and cause asthma and other respiratory illnesses, allergies, and skin disease. And our children suffer from congenital problems because we have exposed them to harmful chemicals when they were but fetuses in the womb. There seems to be no limit to the amount of pollutants we send into the air, so this situation is set to continue for an indefinite period of time.
• Water pollution: Water is our most precious resource, one without which we would all die. But we end up polluting our natural water resources like lakes, streams and rivers with the effluents that result from manufacturing and other industries. We cut down trees en masse and decrease rainfall. We wipe out entire species by destroying their natural habitat. And we suffer as a result of our actions – we are plagued by diseases that arise from drinking contaminated water, like cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
• Unsanitary conditions: When nature is destroyed indiscriminately, there is less rainfall and more poverty and squalor. Most people who are impoverished live in pathetic and unsanitary conditions are susceptible to diseases and chronic conditions.
Besides this, the high level of pollution in the environment puts us at risk for cancer, Parkinson’s disease and other terminal diseases. We also risk becoming infertile with environmental factors leading to the decrease of sperm counts in men and the hastening of the onset of puberty in young girls. And unless we stop polluting the Earth and start to nurture it again, we are in danger of losing not just our health, but also the very planet we live on.
This guest opinion article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of online engineering degrees. Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com
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NASA Image of the Day
Orbital Sunrise
The Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station photographed this image of polar mesospheric clouds illuminated by an orbital sunrise. Polar mesospheric, or noctilucent ("night shining"), clouds usually are seen at twilight, following the setting of the sun below the horizon and darkening of Earth's surface. Occasionally the station's orbital track becomes nearly parallel to Earth's day/night terminator for a time, allowing the clouds to be visible to the crew at times other than the usual twilight because of the station's altitude. This photograph shows polar mesospheric clouds illuminated by the rising, rather than setting, sun at center right. Low clouds on the horizon appear yellow and orange, while higher clouds and aerosols are illuminated a brilliant white. Polar mesospheric clouds appear as light blue ribbons extending across the top of the image. The station was located over the Greek island of Kos in the Aegean Sea (near the southwestern coastline of Turkey) when the image was taken at approximately midnight local time. The orbital complex was tracking northeastward, nearly parallel to the terminator, making it possible to observe an apparent "sunrise" located almost due north. A similar unusual alignment of the ISS orbit track, terminator position and seasonal position of Earth's orbit around the sun allowed for this striking imagery of over the Southern Hemisphere. Image Credit: NASA
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you are 100% right Boss. Thanks for making the awareness among us.
Please try to put some simple steps by following which we can save our earth.