Protection of the environmentPlanetEarth is 4600 million years old. It is difficult for us to think about such anenormous length of time, but if we simplify it into an understandable idea, wecan compare the planet Earth to a person of forty-six years of age. Nothing isknown about the first seven years of this person s life and very littleinformation exists about the middle period we know that it was only at the ageof forty-two that Earth began to flower.Dinosaurs and great reptiles did notappear until one year ago, when the planet was forty five. In the middle oflast week men-like apes became ape-like men. Modern Man has been around forfour hours.
The Industrial Revolution began just a minute ago. During thosesixty seconds of biological time, Modern Man has made a rubbish tip of Earth.He has increased his numbers to terrible proportions, has caused the death ofhundreds of species of animals, has robbed and destroyed the planet in hissearch for fuels now he stands, like a violent, spoilt child, delighted at thespeed of his rise to power, on the edge of the final mass destruction and ofkilling all the life which exists in the solar system.TheEarth is our home but much of it is dirty and dying.
Rapid industrialdevelopment caused a lot of ecological problems. They are air pollution, waterpollution, growth of population and shortage of mineral resources.Airbecomes polluted in many ways. Cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, factories andplants send burnt gases into the air. The production of electricity causes notonly air pollution but acid rains and global warming.
Because of acid rains theEarth looses twenty million acres of tropical rainforests every year. Thismeans the extinction of thousands of species that live there, for exampletigers. Only 67 thousand tigers remain. Tigers are hunted and killed for theirbody parts, which are used in oriental medicines.The ozone layer is destroyed tooand the dangerous rays get through the atmosphere causing skin cancer and otherdiseases.Seventypercent of the Earth is covered by oceans.
Oceans are vital for the life onEarth. They provide homes for millions of plants and animals, provide people withfood and help regulate the climate. But now they are a big dumping ground fortons of toxic waste. Most big cities pour their waste into seas and rivers. Fora long time people did not realize the danger.The first alarm came from Japan sixty people died because they have eaten polluted fish. The Baltic sea is aspecial case. Because it is such a small sea, it becomes dirty very easily. 250rivers run into the Baltic.
There are hundreds of factories on these rivers andmillions of people live along them. Seven industrial countries surround theBaltic. Once we have polluted the sea, it is very difficult to clean it.Fortunately all the countries realized the problems and co-operated to solveecological problems.I would like to dwell on practical measures which must betaken in order to improve the ecological situation the factories and plantsmust be removed from cities green zones must be created pollution controlsystems must be introduced purifying systems for cleaning and trapping harmfulsubstances must be widely used almost everything is recyclable today recycling is a great way to reduce waste.Weneed clean air to breathe and pure water to drink.
We need also food that issafe to eat and housing to shelter us. We can t get all these things byourselves.We live in community so we can solve our problems only workingtogether.
Russia is co-operating in the field of environmental protection withthe USA, Canada, Norway, Finland and other countries. A lot of publicorganizations have been established. One of them is Green Peace which wasformed in 1971 with its Head-quarters in Amsterdam. The area of operation is 25countries world-wide. Its objectives are to protect wild life and atmosphere,to prevent disposal of toxic waste and nuclear tests.