Short Speech on Environmental Pollution!
Environmental pollution or ecological disorder is now a global phenomenon with regional variations in its nature and extent. Now, when there is anxiety and debate on this startling issue, countries are entangled in accusing one another for polluting the environment. The rich and powerful nations, which are the biggest consumer, hold that the poor countries are responsible for environmental pollution.
Likewise, within a nation, the rich people hold the poor people responsible for pollution. The fact, however, is that the rich create pollution and the poor have to bear it.
The rich contribute to pollution because they have enough money to enjoy consumption without facing its negative effect because, they can afford to counter the after-effects and also move away from the polluted area. Rich people’s farm houses outside the polluted area of the city are common site whereas the poor in the city are usually found living in slums mostly located on the sides of railway tracks and roads.
Environmental pollution is directly linked with consumption level and living pattern. It is, therefore, also linked with the level of economic development and poverty. Pollution is the result of an unmanageable amount of residues and wastes due to the high consumption level, emissions from chimneys of industrial units, smoke from motor vehicles etc.
This is an age of consumerism. Globalization has intensified it. This is a social reality involving both the affluent and the middle class, who can afford to go on replacing the consumer goods by the new ones as and when they are showcased in the market. The rich countries consume much more than the poor ones.
They use large number of vehicles and are highly industrialized. The consumption level in developed as well as less developed world is increasing gradually. The consumption of fresh water has doubled since 1960 and over a period of 25 years, the consumption of wood has increased by 40 per cent. In the industrialized world, the wood consumption has been increasing 2.3 per cent annually.
In East Asia, the rate has been 6.1 per cent. The richest 20 per cent of the world’s population accounts for 86 per cent of private consumption expenditures, while the poorest 20 per cent account for only 1.3 per cent. The richest 10 per cent consume 58 per cent of total energy, 84 per cent of all paper, 45 per cent of all meat and fish and own 87 per cent of all the vehicles.