ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Our planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but nowadays it's the only place where we can live. People always polluted their surroundings. But until now pollution was not such a serious problem. People lived in rural areas and did not produce such amount of polluting agents that would cause a dangerous situation on a global scale. With the development of overcrowded industrial highly developed cities, which put huge amounts of pollut­ants into surroundings, the problem has become more and more dangerous. Today our planet is in serious danger. Acid rains, global warming, air and water pollution, and overpopulation are the problems that threaten human lives on the Earth.

The pollutants that harm our respiratory system are known as particulates. Particulates are the small solid particles that you can see through rays of sunlight. They are products of incomplete combustion in engines, for example: internal-combustion engines, road dust and wood smoke. Billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year. When these fuels are burnt, they produce smoke and other by-products, which are emitted into the atmosphere. Although wind and rain occasionally wash away the smoke, given off by power plants and automobiles, but it is not enough. These chemical compounds undergo a series of chemical reactions in the presence of sunlight; as a result we have smog, mixture of fog and smoke. While such pollutants as particulates we can see, other harmful ones are not visible. Among the most dangerous to our health is carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and ozone or active oxygen. If you have ever been in an enclosed parking garage or a tunnel and felt dizzy or light-headed, then you have felt the effect of carbon monoxide (CO). This odorless, colorless, but poisonous gas is produced by the incomplete burning of fossil fuels; like gasoline or diesel fuel.

Factories emit tons of harmful chemicals. These emissions have disastrous consequences for our planet. They are the main reason for the greenhouse effect and acid rains.

Our forests are disappearing because they are cut down or burnt. If this tendency continues, one day we won't have enough oxygen to breathe, we won't see a beautiful green forest at all.

The seas are in danger as well. They are filled with poison: industrial and nuclear wastes, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. If nothing is done about it, one day nothing will be able to live in our seas.

Every ten minutes one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out forever. If nothing is done about it, one million species that are alive today may soon become extinct.

And even greater threats are nuclear power stations. We all know how tragic the consequences of the Chernobyl’ disaster are.

Fortunately, it's not too late to solve these problems. We have the time, the money and even the technology та make our planet a better, cleaner and safer place. We can plant trees and create parks for endangered animals. We can recycle our wastes; persuade enterprises to stop polluting activities, because it is apparent that our careless use of fossil fuels and chemicals is destroying this planet.

Nowadays each tour operator is very much concerned with the effects of tourism on the environment, in particular that tourists often destroy the beauty of the thing they come to see. You can't deprive people of their interest in wanting to travel. But what you can do is to set up patterns of behavior which will introduce them to a country in a responsible way. That means, for example, making sure that, on an adventure holiday, no detergents are used in springs or streams and that no rubbish is left behind after camps. It means, that people must respect the rules of the host country and not damage fragile plants or go too near the rare animals. It means providing travelers with a pack with instructions on how to behave and what to do to best preserve the cultures and places visited.

The key factor in minimizing damage through tourism is to keep groups to a manageable size and then you can control how they behave. Thirty on a safari is an absolute maximum.

The operators start putting things back into the environment instead of just taking from it. There are schemes to protect wildlife habitats in Kenya and Tanzania, to save the rhino, veterinary programs and so on. People now go on holiday to restore ancient monuments or clean up beaches. Things have changed and the model of Mediterranean tourism of high-rise concrete, sun, sea, and sand is not the one most people now want. And another thing, in some places the environment is tourism and national parks have been created by it. Without tourism, the animals would have gone. I think the environment is strengthened by sensitive tourism - look at the preservation of the gorillas, for example. And you never know, tourism might save the tropical rainforest in a place like Madagascar. I think most countries go through several phases in their tourism development and hopefully in the best scenario, the local people not only share the income and foreign exchange generated by tourism but also use the amenities.