Note Making: Contamination of the Environment

The most alarming of man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrevocable; the chain of evil it initiates is for the most part irreversible. In this contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world; radiation released through nuclear explosions into the air, comes to the earth in rain, lodges into the soil, enters the grass or com, or wheat grown there and reaches the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death. Similarly, chemicals sprayed on crops lie long in soil, entering living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of posioning and death. Or they pass by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle and harm those who drink from once pure wells.

It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth and reached a stage of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. The environment contained elements that were hostile as well as supporting. Even within the light of the sun, there are short wave radiations with power to injure. Given time, life has adjusted and a balance reached. For time is the essential ingredient, but in the modern world there is no time.

The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is no longer the bombardment of cosmic rays; it is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make adjustments are no longer merely calcium and silica and copper and all the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried in the rivers to the sea; they are the synthetic creations of man’s inventive mind, brewed in his laboratories, and having no counterparts in nature.

Q. One the basis of your understanding of the above passage make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (wherever necessary-minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply a title to it.

Answer

THE DEGRADATION OF ENVIRONMENT

1. Contamination of the environment
   1. Pollution is for most part irrevocable
      1. Initiates an irreversible chain of evil.
   2. Chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation
      1. Radiations released through nuclear exp.
      2. Comes to Earth in F. O. rain.
      3. Enters the body of humans and remain till death.
   3. Chemical & lying in soil
      1. Passes from one to another in F. C.
      2. kills veg.’ sickens cattle etc.
2. Establishment of life on earth.
   1. Took hundreds of millions of yrs.
   2. The env. contained elements that were hostile and supporting.
3. Changes in life on earth
   1. Life has adj. and reached balance.
   2. Time is essential but modem world has no time.
   3. The heedless pace of man
      1. Radiation no longer the bombardment of cosmic rays.
      2. The chemicals are no longer natural.
      3. They have tinned out to be synthetic.

Key:

• exp. – explosions
• F.O. – form of
• F.C. – food chain
• veg. – vegetation
• yrs. – years
• env. – environment
• adj. – adjusted

Q. Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.

SUMMARY

The above passage tells us about the degradation of environment since the human life has evolved on this planet. The chain of evil initiated by pollution is for the most part, irreversible and irrevocable. The various chemicals that come to the Earth in the form of rain and are sprayed in the soil get transferred through the food chain and remain there till the death of the host organisms. The modem world does not have much time to spare as it is well-adjusted and balanced. But the rapidity in change follows the heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. The radiations and chemicals are no longer natural but, rather synthetic or man-made.