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to industrialisation, dietary habits and modern living, soil erosion and desertification, and municipal waste disposal.
Jains, however, point out that it is not only the external environment that is the problem but also the internal environment of the human being, the mind and the passions. If the passionate mind were to be restrained through education or religion, one could realise a better society and environment; hence, education towards minimising desires and greed, and achieving equanimity of mind is of the utmost necessity.
Population Problems
There has been a large population increase over the last two hundred years, and an explosion of different types of industries producing a variety of consumer goods, war materials, transport vehicles, thermal power, nuclear power, and information systems. There is a direct, if not geometrical, relationship between population and industries. Both not only consume natural resources but also pollute them. They exhaust nature, but as nature has the capacity to balance itself, the consumption of natural resources might not have been a serious problem if the world had been careful not to supplement them with additional industrial products, such as artificial fertilisers and harmful by-products for commercial benefits. The depletion on one side and the over-production of industrial goods on the other is creating problems of environmental imbalance. The consequence is polluted air, water and surface areas. The West is currently suffering more from industrial pollution, while the East is suffering from pollution due to both population and industry. The disposal of human, domestic and industrial waste has compounded the problem, and it is affecting the health of both humanity and the natural world, and is destroying a host of plants and animal species everyday. The forests are being destroyed to accommodate the needs of new populations. Consumerism, modern living, industries, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and sprays are converting the living earth, air and water into an inert system, harmful to all. This pollution may be:
Air Pollution: Early human beings conceived of air as a deity, showing their respect for its life-giving property to all living creatures in the universe. Scientists, however, tell us it is a balanced mixture of some gases, mainly nitrogen, oxygen and some other gases such as carbon dioxide etc., without which we cannot live. The balanced composition of air is destroyed by:
additional amounts of components such as carbon dioxide;
⚫ its being mixed with foreign harmful components such as sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphate;
⚫ reduction in the amount of natural components.
Life on Earth suffers through many forms of air pollution, caused by industrial gases, coal or liquid fuel, power station gases, gases formed from the burning of petrol or diesel in various forms, gases from the domestic burning of fossil or organic fuels, and gases from incineration of the municipal wastes (largely carbon dioxide, and sulphurous and nitrogenous gases). Secretory and excretory volatile ingredients from other sources also mix with air. Normally, there is a natural cycle to maintain the equilibrium of the composition of air, but as the rate of pollution is greater than the rate of equilibrium an imbalance occurs and the air is totally polluted. Air pollution creates the following effects:
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