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Author: Jana Kopencová, MG Příbor, Czech Republic

Environmental damage and protection

Příbor 30. 11. 2007

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.“ by Zeno of Elea (pre-Socratic Greek philosopher)

I would like to begin my article with a quotation written by Zeno: “The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.“ I think that this is true. In spite of this, what does our world really look like now? It seems to me that it looks like so bad and that environmental damage is very extensive. Wouldn’t you agree? Do you think it is necessary to speak about this problem? I´m convinced that it is.

To begin with, I´m going to forecast the state of our environment in a few years. The world’s climate has changed continuously, water and air are polluted and global warming leads to countless natural catastrophes… It´s really clear that everyone knows that this could happen very soon. Some of us consider it, some of us do something useful about it. On the other hand, in this world there are a lot of people who don´t try to protect or conserve the environment at all.

It is high time to solve these problems. You may have a different point of view, but I think that even small actions can help too. (After all, every small step in the right direction is a step closer to your goal.) You may say that you won´t be alive on the planet for a long time. But isn´t that egoistic? Aren’t you capable of thinking about the future generations --- who may be own your children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren --- who will need the planet’s resources?

It´s very important to say that the behaviour of some human beings has a devasting impact on the efforts of others. They don´t sort their waste or they sort it in the wrong way whereas other persons want to save nature. On top of this, they waste energy needlessly. This wasteful attitude and approach to life has unfavourable consequences. For example, I often see lots of plastic or glass bottles in the waste-containers instead of being sorted and put in the correct recycling bins. It seems to me that it is a wasteful use of materials which could be recycled and used for our benefit again and again. Next, I commonly meet with other problems. In the containers for sorting waste there are materials sorted in a wrong way or even there is wasted rubbish! Why isn´t sorting of waste obligatory in this world? It would be more effective for the protection of the environment, wouldn´t it? I think they should have a long, hard think on their own to consider their actions and the effect it will have on the rest of us . So, how do you feel about it?

In this article I have focussed on the possibility of improving the state of our environment by looking at what could do everyone and how we can all contribute in our small way. It´s quite clear, of course, that there are lots of other problems which are connected with environmental damage, but we can do almost nothing if we don´t have the authority from government and the law to deal with them.

But this work must be done more for the sake of the environment. It isn´t pleasant to take a walk outside and see lots of glass bottles, paper products, plastics and aluminum cans littering our lands and waters.