The environmental risk survey has talked about so many
critical environmental issues, and all of them should be considered by the
stakeholders as serious concerns for the environment. We are all part of the
planet earth, and these environmental issues are affecting us in one way or the
other. However, three main environmental issues for me in this survey are acid
rain, the Ozone hole, and hazardous waste sites. These three issues are not
related to each other, but they are somewhat separate issued making an impact
on the environment. Acid rain is a kind of precipitation, which comes with
various acidic components, like nitric acid or sulfuric acid, and these
components are part of the rain, which falls on the ground. When rain is coming
with hail, fog or snow, then it must be acid rain, which is mainly caused due
to fossil fuels’ burning, pollution of machinery & vehicles, and oil
refineries & manufacturing industries (EPA, 2020)
There are a variety of ozone-depleting substances such as
Freon, which make a negative impact on the Ozone protective layer high above
the surface, and which helps to protect the earth from ultraviolet radiation of
the sun. It means if this Ozone layer will reduce, the earth will be exposed to
more radiation from the sun, which is not a good sign for anyone. It is
important to see how depletion of Ozone layer has been facing the essence of
emission, and here is a graph to show the data from 1961 to 2014:
This graph is clearly showing that emission of depleting
substances has come to a level, which was observed in 1961, and it has been
made possible due to various concerned action and international regulatory
agreements so that such substances can be eradicated from their production to
save the protective layer of Ozone (Ritchie & Roser, 2018)
The other major issue for the environment is Hazardous
waste sites. It is shocking to learn that more than 1300 sites are there only
in the United States, so the situation around the world can be very much
speculated after knowing this fact. These sites contain those substances and
chemicals, which are not only harmful to the health of humans, but it is really
toxic for the purity of the environment. These hazardous sites are not properly
cleaned and dumped, and the harmful impact is continuing to create various
environmental issues. The world will have to think more seriously to deal with
such issues to save the environment of plant earth.
References of Three Environmental Issues
EPA. (2020). What is Acid Rain? Retrieved May
8, 2020, from https://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what-acid-rain
Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2018). Ozone Layer.
Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://ourworldindata.org/ozone-layer