Us before the Conference

Alex Turmanidze

A planet inhabited with very different species of animals, plants and microorganisms. But there is one species that harms this planet more than any kind. Humans have been destroying nature a lot, more and more since the Industrial Revolution because that event has led to many things, like increase in world population, scientific developments, more carbon dioxide emissions etc.

Nowadays, the world’s population increase rate gets higher and higher every minute. Scientists estimate that by 2025 our population will reach 8 billion but it could also happen sooner. This also brings problems with it, which are mostly environmental problems.

Environmental effects on world’s population could be listed in general as public health, food supply, freshwater and deforestation. Air pollution and unclean water cause widespread health problems. Also, scientists say that by 2025 most of our freshwater supply will be gone, consequently approximately 3 billion people will have no access to fresh water.

We have also burned, cut and destroyed half of our planet’s forests and we continue to do this because of the increasing population and urban expansion. We consume Earth’s resources, sometimes more than undeveloped countries do and the next generation will have no clean air, fresh water and green areas such as forests. Also, there is another big problem which is shortage of food supply.

Global emission of CO2, which is also a very big problem, has reached very high levels. This is the major "greenhouse gas" responsible for global warming. An important part of the emissions come from the use of fossil fuels like petrol and coal and they are harming human health, animals, plants and marine organisms. Although its use has decreased significantly, it will take a long time before it reduces the problem.

To draw attention on environmental problems a lot of young students are doing stuffs in their hometowns and schools. For example, in my school in Batumi, Georgia, once a month all people who are living near the sea come together:  at first they clean the beaches and then they go by  walk on the streets and clean up all of the wastes. A friend I met in this conference who is from Sweden said to me they recycle plastic, glass and paper in their school and they also  teach children from smaller grades how to care more about the planet. So there are a lot of young people who try to raise awareness among their friends and family. I am one of them and I see that there are people like that in this conference, too.