When the Americans decided to clean up the Statue of Liberty in 1986, the first thing they had to do was to make a hole in her nose and take away the acid rain that had collected inside. The polluted air of New York had mixed with the rain and damaged the Statue badly. And you certainly know that most of the pollution in big cities comes from cars and buses. More and more often people are told not to be in direct sunlight, because ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer. Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from such radiation, but if there are holes in the ozone layer, ultraviolet radiation can get to the earth. Many scientists think that these holes are the result of air pollution. Nuclear power stations can go wrong and cause nuclear pollution. This happened in Windscale in Britain, in Three Mile Island in the USA and Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effects can be terrible. To make air clean again we need good filters at nuclear power stations, at factories and plants and also in cars and buses.
Both clean air and clean water are necessary for our health. If people want to survive, they must solve these problems quickly. Man is beginning to understand that his environment is not just his own town or country, but the whole earth. That’s why people all over the world think and speak so much about ecology.
Is it true or false?
1) Most of the pollution comes from transport.
2) People don’t care about the environment.
3) You can see nuclear pollution clearly.
4) Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is dangerous for our health.
5) To protect the planet from air pollution we should use bicycles more often.
At a performance of a local youth theater set up to promote peace and reconciliation, Mali, 2014. UN photo/Marco Dormino
Theme of 2020: "Shaping the world together"
poster of the Day
Every year, on September 21, the international community celebrates the International Day of Peace. This Day was declared by the General Assembly as a day to strengthen the ideals of peace among all countries and peoples, both at the national and international levels.
This year, more than ever, it became clear that people are not enemies of each other. Rather, our common enemy is a terrible virus that threatens our health, safety, and lifestyle. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown our world into turmoil and reminded us that what happens in one part of the planet can affect the lives of people everywhere.