Drawing Experience from Your Local Area and the World in General, Elaborate the Main Environmental Problems Facing East Africa

The environmental problems that we are currently facing are all man-made; we may not be aware of it but it is a fact that we have ignored because we are too busy with our daily routine that sometimes our lack of awareness have affected the environment.

* Deforestation: National Geographic states that, at current rates of deforestation, all forests would disappear in 100 years. Forests filter the Earth's air. Trees breathe in CO2 and release oxygen. Trees help store carbon and retain atmospheric water. Forests are also vital habitat for many species.

* Water pollution: Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

* Rapid Urbanization: Cities, in their modern form, are unsustainable. Cities import much of what they need and have to export their waste. Globally, there are many examples of rural populations being displaced and having to move to cities, where health crises and crime are exacerbated by poor living conditions and poverty. When the dramatic world population rise is considered, the problem gets worse.

* Water Scarcity: Access to potable drinking water is becoming an increasing problem. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to improved drinking water. Human beings need water to survive. But drought diminishes available water and waste-water from industrial processes and agriculture contaminates aquifers. The WHO is currently campaigning to address these problems. They have also declared March 22 World Water Day.

* Climate Change: This can be understood as the end result of many of the problems we've mentioned. Through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, by-product greenhouse gasses are trapping the sun's heat in our atmosphere. The overall temperature of the earth is rising. This is causing the melting of glaciers and the disruption or amplification of global weather and will cause long-lasting, hard-to-predict impacts

* Global warming. This is caused by the green house gases that are emitted by our cars, factories and chemicals that trap the heat from the sun making our surroundings hotter. We should be aware that global warming is also one of the reasons why we have cyclones and tropical storms that are stronger than what we have previously experienced. Global warming is also gradually increasing the sea level by melting the ice caps. People who are not aware of this will not be alarmed but we can already feel the consequence of this Phenomenon.

* Ozone layer degradation, chemicals that are present in various household or cosmetic products such as spray net for hair grooming have contributed to the degradation of the ozone layer; exposing us to direct heat of the sun in a level higher than we experienced.

* Deforestation,

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