PAPER
Speaking 3
HOW WE CAN IMPROVE OUR NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT
By:
Sarina Adam
Gelvin Mokoagow
Merril Watulinagas
Debora Masengi
Oliviane
MANADO
STATE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
OF LANGUAGE AND ART
ENGLISH
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
2013
Preface
Thank God we pray the presence of
almighty God is one, because he gives us a chance to finish this paper. The
existence of this paper aim to increase our knowledge about nature and how
where we improve our natural environment.
Had this paper can deliver broader
knowledge for future readers.
Tondano,
September 24, 2013
Preliminary
How we
can improve our natural environment?
Nowadays
we know that our natural environment is being destroyed. We can see illegal
logging , flood , fire everywhere. Those kinds of disasters which happen in our
environment are caused by some reasons , and one of them is from ourselves that
can not safe our environment as our own home. If we have a big realization to
safe our environment , of course we have to keep it from anything that can
destroy it. But how to do that ??
The best way to improve our natural environment is starting from our selves. We can do many things. As normal man, we can not make government policies and regulations, we can not punish others who violate the regulations, but we can control us not to destroy the environment. Do not smoking , do not throw away used things , do not waste water and electric, etc. Starting from now, starting from ourselves.
Besides
that , we can plant trees. Trees have many benefits in order to improve the
natural environment. Trees protect the soil from erosion. Their branches and
leaves stop the direct impact of the drops. Water descends through the trees or
falls from branches or leaves at a lower speed , so it can infiltrate more
conveniently into the soil. The result is that a greater proportion of water is
retained in the subsoil as a surplus and less water is left to run on the
surface, reducing its erosive effect.
By planting trees , we return to a more natural , less artificial environment. Birds and other wildlife are attracted to the area. The natural cycles of plant growth , reproduction , and decomposition are again present , both above and below ground. Natural harmony is restored to the urban environment.
Saving
energy. Saving energy does not always takes days of planning. There are many
things we can do right now to start saving energy and cutting down on costs in
order to improve our natural environment. For examples , using power strips
when we turning off these electronics , power down using the power strip to
prevent stand-by mode from drawing electricity unnecessarily. Then , power down
computers and monitors when they are not being used. Contrary to popular
beliefs , turning them on and off will not cause damage. If we are away from
our computer at different intervals , make sure we have set the power save
options.
These days many people seem to be
asking this question but very few of them would be willing to go beyond the
question itself, and actually do something that would improve our environment.
It seems like most of us are willing to do something to improve our environment
as long there are no sacrifices needed from our side, because if helping
environment means that we have to be deprived of something than all of the
sudden importance of environmental issues loses great deal on their value.
What we have to be aware off is that
environmental issues can't be solved by talk and questions. What we need is
answers in form of real action, and not just theoretically speaking about
possible ways to improve our environment like some scientists seem to be doing
all the time. What we really need to do is go out in the nature, inspect our
environment, find environmental problems in our area and then work on their
solutions. Diagnosing environmental problem is in most cases easy to do, for
instance to notice pollution, but solutions are often anything but easy because
environmental problems sadly still lack required level of political support.
Each and every one of us can do
something for our environment by not polluting it with garbage or any other
form of pollution, by caring for plants and animals, and not doing anything
that could jeopardize them. Basically what we need to do is care more for
nature, and this is where the main problem lies. Our society has certain
values, namely almost anything is measured in money, and this is the origin of
all environmental problems world is faced with today. We can't help nature by
destroying forests, causing habitat loss for many animals just to make some new
building or new industrial facility. This could mean more money at the end but
at what price?
We can sadly see the results of not
caring enough for nature and our planet by looking at climate change problem.
Heavy industrialization followed by excessive greenhouse gas emissions is
changing our climate bringing warmer average temperatures to all parts of our
planet, and in couple of decades time this could change entire picture of our
planet. In negative sense, of course, in form of drought, floods, hurricanes,
hungers, sea levels increase, etc.
And what
is the worst part in all of this? The worst part is definitely the fact that
despite being pushed so heavily by different environmental problems we still
don't do enough to move them away from us, instead they are pushing us even
more, up to the point where they will be able to completely squeeze us. Slow
politics run by different industry lobbies still looks in this world with the
greedy eyes that only tend to boost their profits, and our economies are holy
cows that must be protected at any cost.
You probably still remember all the
fuss about financial crisis and how quickly world leaders acted to save their
precious economies? If you can also remember world leaders pushed aside
environmental problems to be solved in better times once the recession will be
thing of the past. Now that world economies have started moving upwards yet
again we do not see any solution for environmental problems that should be high
on political agenda these days. All we see is further negotiations, and lots of
promises how world is finally ready to go green.
How far from truth this is? World is
really ready to go green only if by green we mean color of the money. because
despite living in the 21st century very little has changed in the last 300
years. We can't improve our environment unless we first improve ourselves, our
values and the way we think. This really requires total change of our society
that takes lot of time, and time seems to be slipping away from our hands
bringing us closer and closer to total environmental catastrophe. Do we really
need to see the worst before start changing things?
Closing
Given this lesson, hopefully we can
be again keeping our natural environment that spawned a healthy environment,
free of pollution and a healthier environment and fresh.
References
September
23, 2013 07:43 PM
