For centuries, and especially since the advent of the Industrial Age, man has been polluting the environment in various ways. poisonous gases emitted by innumerable vehicles poison the air in cities. Industires dump huge amounts of waste chemicals into lakes and rivers each year., The clearing of land for construction projects, such as roads and real estate development, result in soil erosion. People throw away billions of tons of soild material each year. Much of this waste ends up on roadsides or in lakes and streams. noise is an especially troublesome pollutant in urban areas.
One very modern method of controlling pollution is that of recycling waste matter. This is the reprocessing of waste products for reuse. cans can be melted down to make new cans. Newspapers can be turned into pulp and then recycled as new newsprint. Ground glass can be used as an ingredient in road building material. More and more farmers in advanced countries are using biological controls instead of pesticides. These include the use of various types of insects and bacterial to control pests, instead of pesticides which may harm the soil, the plant and the environment.
Some governments have banned the use of chemicals as it is a harmful pesticide. Unleaded petrol is now preferred because lead is a major pollutant. However, it is for private industries and private groups to take activesteps to protect the environment. They have to focus on local problems, and them, if possible, widen the scope of their work. Organisations such as Greenpeace and friends of the Earth focus on problems of an international nature. Public concern over environmental pollution has grown over the years. still, in India, we are slow to voice our protest. We witnessed the terrile Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984, when a leak of poisonous gas from an American pesticide plant owned by the union Carbide Coporation, killed over 2000 people in that city. The gas also left about lakh people permanently maimed or handicapped. It is important for the general public to realize that environmental pollution of any kind afffects public health and makies the locality unsafe for living. There is now a great outcry against nosie pollution during the time of festivals, and laws keep an effective check on pollution. However, much more has to be done with regard to other areas of pollution, if we are to live in a clean healthy environment.
