Environment day
June 5th
(CC BY-NC-SA)
On June 5th we celebrate Environment day. It was founded by United Nations in 1972 as a day to do activities that help our planet. We can do respectful activities to protect our rivers, animals, plants, water and even the air! Humans are causing negative effects to nature and we are slowly killing out planet. Did you know about the problems we are causing? Let’s take a look!
Climate change
Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, humans produced a lot of pollution that caused damages to our planet. Burning fossil fuels (as the gas we use in our cars), massive farming to produce meat and deforestation are making our planet go hotter and hotter. Scientists say that the temperature in planet Earth has increased 1 degree, and this is driving us to a climate change. You probably think it is not too much, but 1 dregree means a lot!
Climate change means that:
- As temperature goes up, the ice in the Poles is melting, so the level of water is raising!
- Seasons are changing. Summers are hotter, and winters are colder. Imagine how hard this can be in certain areas of our planet.
- Weather is going crazy! Torrential rains, tornadoes, hurricanes and massive fires are causing lots of damages to people and environment.
Plastic islands
Plastic is very useful, but we are using it too much. Sometimes we use plastic once and we throw it away, for example when using plastic straws. Much of the plastic we produce ends up in the ocean, and it takes around 400 years to eliminate it completely! We have produced so much plastic that at present there are five big plastic islands in our oceans. These islands are really big (the size of France, Spain and Germany all together!) and they are seriously contaminating our sea life. Many species suffer because of plastic. Sometimes they get stuck in plastics and they die, as turtles or seals. Other species eat micro-plastic particles mistaking it for food and this is terrible for them. Many fish and sea birds have plastic in their stomachs!
