Our environment

Think of some living and non-living things which you see around yourself.

All these things, around you, form the environment. That means environment consists of everything that makes up the surroundings of a living thing. It consists of living things and non-living things. The sun and the climate of the place, you are living in, also constitute your environment.

What does your environment give you?

Every living thing has its won environment. For example, the environment of a plant is the soil on which it grows the water, sun, weather, and the animals that eat it.

You are dependent on your environment for all your basic needs. It gives you all the basic necessities such as food, water, air and clothing. It also provides you with material for the construction of houses, and materials for making all the useful things tat you use in your daily life.

How you damage your environment?

Human beings have developed a number of ways to keep themselves comfortable. You have good houses to live in, good roads, cars and buses for travelling fast, number of gadgets like refrigerators and washing machines for doing your work and many new methods for growing more food for the increasing population. But in the process of making the lives comfortable, human beings are damaging their environment in many ways. Your land, water and air have become dirty due to the increasing harmful substances in them. This is what you all, polluting the environment. Pollution of land, water and air has resulted in destructive effects on the health of the living beings.

The forests have been cleared for building cities and farms. Even in the cities, trees are cut down t make houses and roads. As result, there are fewer trees for purifying the air. There is one more important function of trees that they bind the soil. So, when trees are cut, soil becomes loose. Then wind and rain can easily wash it away and thus, the fertile top soil is lost. This is known as soil erosion.

Human beings have built up a number of factories where manufactured things are used in the everyday life. These factories burn a lot of fuel which release smoke and poisonous gases in the environment. The modern vehicles like cars and buses also give our smoke and poisonous gases in the air. This results in pollution of air. Also, there are fewer trees for purifying the air.

People throw the wastes of their homes and factories into rivers, seas and lakes or they bury the wastes in the land. So the water and the soil get polluted, which damages the plants and animals living there.

Bad effects of air pollution

Breathing in polluted air causes harm to the body this is because the harmful substances enter into you body. This affects the breathing system of your body.

The factories like power plants, where coal is burnt for producing electricity, give out some very harmful gases. All these poisonous gases mix with the water drops in the clouds and form certain dangerous substances known acids. These water drops, mixed with the gases, fall to the earth in the form of acid rain. As a result, the plants and buildings get damaged, and it also affects the soil.

Bad effect of water pollution

The unprocessed sewage from houses results in the pollution of the water. This polluted water contains germs in it. If you drink such water without getting it cleaned, you can develop dangerous diseases such as typhoid, diarrhea or dysentery.

Factories, releasing poisonous chemicals in the water bodies, can affect fishes, other water animals and plants. On eating such fish, you will also fall ill.

How can you help?

• You should not throw away paper, plastic bags, bottles, or metal cans in river water because all these things cause pollution. Instead, you should reuse or cycle these things as many times as you can. As a result, the factories, that make these things, will have to make them in comparatively less number. In this way, pollution from factories can be reduced.
• You should start planting trees because they clean the air.
• You should save fuel. If you travel short distances on foot or on a bicycle, it can save a lot of fuel.
• You should try to save plants and animal life from getting destroyed.