Environmental Issues of Our Polluted Planet

For many, many years we have not dealt with the problems of our planet. We were trashing the environment carelessly like it is something that we are able to replace any time. Recently, an expression that was supposed to be taken serious 50 years ago has become the center of our attention: global climate change. Our focus will be on this topic in the following essay, we will explore the background of this problem and try to find a solution that can be suitable for both developing and developed countries.

Well, the root of the problem dates back to the 1800s and the industrial revolution. In the early days of that era no one thought that it could affect our Planet's overall well-being so fast and so negatively if they burn some fossil fuels and cut down some trees in order to achieve rapid growing in the economy. Unfortunately, in only 200 years the Earth proved it otherwise.

Our planet's temperature is continuously increasing, and we cannot make clear predictions about the events that can happen if we pass the critical +2-degree Celsius limit.

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For now, we are facing sea-level increase, the melting glaciers, changing weather conditions. Ozone shield is growing thin because of the high temperature and gas level.

Who is responsible for all this and how

Earth has a life cycle. The climate change is happened in the past and it is happening from time to time. This time the process is accelerated because of the human activity so we can say we have a problem with climate change because of humans.

The greatest motivation is the money.

For businesses is cheaper if they are not paying for remove garbage or not following the rules. Logging is a great business the logging is easy money. If businesses want to get more space just they burning down the forests. See: Amazonas. So, taking an advantage from earth or pollute it just because for business and for money. Which activities are humans doing? Let's talk first about the logging.

Logging is a great business

Trees are covering 30% of the Earth Land. I couldn't believe my eyes either when I saw this data in one of the articles I read recently. These trees are not only producing oxygen and clears the air which is essential for every breathing creature on the Earth, but also cools the environment which is crucial activity in the process of slowing down the global climate change.

If the deforestation goes on like this, we won't be able to keep the temperature increase under the estimated 2 degree Celsius. Most of the countries realized this threat, so at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference which was held in Paris they had a debate on whether the deforestation has to be limited or not. They all agreed that this condition is unsustainable, but many ethical questions were raised by this issue.

Without limitation on tree logging we wouldn't be able to reach the impact that we hope for. This means that we would need to cut back on cutting the trees in small and big companies in the industry in both rich and poor countries equally. Since it is a global problem, everyone has to participate to accomplish the solution. This solution may lead to different problems that have to be dealt with.

For example, because of lack of resources we will have to increase the recycled materials therefore it will increase the prices of the products that contain wood too. As a result of this, the governments can lose their control over the industry, black market can gain power and illegal logging can ruin the law-abiding companies and target national parks and protected lands, in the end it can cause more harm than good. The biggest wood production takes places in developing countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Columbia. In Brazil in 2018 more than 1.3 million acres of forest became equal to the ground. Similar numbers erase when we talk about Indonesia (nearly 500 thousand acres) or Columbia (approximately 300 acres).

The economy of these countries was kick started by timber extraction. Developed countries like the United States buy up most of the exploited wood, because it is way cheaper even with the cost of shipping, then buying from a developed partner like Canada. Demand creates supply. That is why it is not in any of the parties' interest to put limitation on wood extraction. Study shows that developed countries are responsible for nearly 80 percent of historical carbon emission cumulatively.

It means that during the 161 years that was shown on the graph (basically since the industrial revolution) these countries, like the United States, Russia and some countries of the European Union reached huge economic growth with the help of fossil fuels and emitted more CO2 than nearly all of the developing countries all together (if we don't count China's emission).

For obvious reasons, developing countries find it rather difficult to accept that they should stop or eliminate their CO2 emission and deforestation. Especially the ones with an economy relying on wood extraction. They want to grow and gain economically as well and the cheapest way to do that is via fossil fuels. The developed counterparts on the other hand are mostly the ones that will feel the immediate effects of the global warming and bear most of the costs. They also can afford to renew their energy sources, build windmills, use solar panels and loose a bit of revenue in the altar of climate change. Some of them are still not even willing to do that despite the consequences. Unfortunately, the case is mostly similar in the poorer states. Even if they were willing to reform their economy, most of their governments are barely able to maintain the essential economic growth to keep up the current standard of living in their country.

We could say that developed countries could just pay for developing ones to build a more sustainable economy, plant more trees, which benefits everyone in the long run, but due to corruption and lack of infrastructure in these states there is a chance that all the money could just end up on offshore bank accounts somewhere in the other parts of the world. There were some attempts to set regulations like the 30*30, which aims to keep the timber extraction under the limit that was set during the climate summit in Paris. It was a great initiation, but in the following 2 years the deforestation hasn't stopped, moreover the numbers increased.