Before its too late… Or is it late already?

How would it feel to find out that the environment that consists of the food we eat, the water we drink and especially the air we breathe would not be clean if the environment itself is not clean? It is more or less obvious that we would want to find out the root cause of it and do everything we can to prevent it from getting contaminated. This is exactly what Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth', has tried to explain in his documentary.

The problems that have caused the environment to be contaminated are air pollution, globalization, deforestation and most importantly global warming. Focusing on the first problem; air pollution comes from industries, factories, vehicles, dumps of trash being burned, etc. The air pollution caused by industries and factories cannot be controlled because once the owner of one industry or factory is asked to go about appropriate ways to discard their trash, they look at the other not doing so and flatly refuse to do anything about it. Hence the environment keeps getting polluted. Other than that, fuels that cars run on and the emissions they release contribute to the contamination of the environment.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near surface air and oceans. All these factors; air pollution, deforestation, etc, cause global warming and the temperature of Earth's near surface continues to rise. It rose 0.74 ± 0.18 C from 1905 to 2005. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said, "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations." Greenhouse gases are causing global warming and these gases are released mostly by air planes, cars, factories, etc.

Although, most countries have excellent laws for keeping the environment clean, unfortunately there is no implementation of these laws, with the exception of a few countries. The consequences of global warming can prove to be very dangerous. The world is already facing extremely hot and cold weathers. It can also cause reduction in fresh water, changes in agricultural patterns, drought, floods, loss of biodiversity (death of animals and other species), erratic weather conditions, hurricanes, tornados, glaciers melting (sun's rays also increase global warming), and the melting of ice caps which would result in rising of sea levels.

There is a lot that we as individuals can do to help prevent global warming. We can cut down on the usage of electricity by switching off the lights when we go out of the house, by turning off the computers when they are not being used, by turning off the television sets when nobody is watching them, etc. Cutting down on the use of water would also prove to be helpful. That can be done by avoiding long hours of showering, or even by the smallest effort of closing the water tap while you are brushing your teeth.

According to Al Gore, the world probably has only 10 years to start controlling and cutting down on consumption patterns and energy. If we start soon enough, only then we will be able to control the consequences.

This is not the end of it. It is just the beginning. Efforts need to be made to create awareness amongst the masses in order to stop the Earth's temperature from rising.