Environmental Ethics

Author(s): S M Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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problem. The levels of carbon-di-oxide produced by these power stations, vehicular exhausts and other activities produce green house effect, trapping the ground heat and not allowing it to escape in the atmosphere higher up. As a result the average temperature is increasing, affecting the climatic patterns all over the globe. Average global temperature rose by 0.6°C in the last century, it is now increasing by 0.1°C every decade and ten warmest years in recorded history occurred during last fifteen years. Global warming has led to freakish weather conditions in unexpected droughts, cyclones, coral bleaching, megastorms, sudden snow storms (recently in UAE where it was never before), grass taking roots in Antrartica. Arctic getting hotter, species getting mutated (fish have mutated into new organism Pfstria which kills and eats fish). With depleting ozone layer, the effect of sun and wind will become stronger, people will have to live indoor and grow food underground. If the trend continues it will affect the production of food crops. It will also result in melting of glaciers and ice capes, raising the sea level which will result in submergence of vast areas, displacement of populations and simultaneously drying up of the glacier fed rivers will create more pressure on shrinking land area, cause draught, hunger, water famine, and misery to people all over. There are numerous other toxic solid, liquid and gaseous industrial effluents and emissions polluting soil, water and air causing immense harm to human and other life forms, various diseases like asthama, cardiac and even cancer. The more the population and consumerism the more will be generation of waste, gases and effluents.
Danger from Nuclear power plants and other radiation:
The nuclear power plants considered less polluting than thermal plants are in fact more dangerous. Presently nuclear energy is produced by fission. Only certain nuclei of unstable atoms are fissionable. The material used is uranium. Only uranium 235 is fissionable which is only 0.7% of the uranium found and converted into plutonium 239 and then used as fissionable fuel for nuclear
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