Topic: Natural environment
1. Why is it important to protect the natural environment?
Answer: The natural environment is probably the most important resource around us as it pretty much protects and governs our lives by providing us with whatever we need to survive. It provides us with food, water, oxygen, power, energy and many, many other things. It also helps us to live a healthy life by clearing the pollution of our atmosphere. Finally, it is important to protect the natural environment around us in order to maintain the biodiversity (having varieties of plants and animal species) for the overall well-being of our planet. Our very existence in this world is dependant on the natural environment we live in. So we should take every step possible to protect it for our own survival.
2. What environmental problems are common in your country?
Answer: There are a number of common environmental problems in my country. To start with, a certain part of my country is turning into a “semi-desert”, due to the lack of water, where temperatures are rising. Besides, the number of forests, as well as the number of some rare species of animals in them, is also getting reduced alarmingly, threatening to destroy the biodiversity of my country. Finally, our lands and waters also are becoming increasingly polluted with plastic products and other harmful substances because of the unavailability of proper waste disposal systems.
3. What can the government in your country do to deal with those problems?
Answer: The government can do plenty in my country to deal with these problems. First, they can completely ban the use of plastic products and replace them with some environmental-friendly products. It can also offer some incentives for not using these harmful products. The government can also take the necessary steps to plant more and more trees to make up the loss of forests while improving the waste disposal systems in order to reduce the land and water pollution. However, it is also important to understand that the government alone is not able to deal with these environmental problems successfully unless it takes concrete steps to raise public awareness about the dangers of environmental pollutions.
4. What technological innovations should the world develop to protect the environment?
Answer: Technology has fundamentally changed the way we live and work, and so, it is about time that we develop and use technological innovations to protect our environment also. For example, “advanced remote sensing technologies” can help us plan, monitor and evaluate the impacts of building “extractive” industries, involving “extraction” of raw materials from the earth, in the ecologically-sensitive areas. In the same manner, “drone” technology can help us monitor the health of our forests and wildlife in some remote and otherwise inaccessible areas. Finally, we can also use AI (artificial intelligence) driven technologies to carry out our environmental conservation efforts by having much more precise information on the extreme climate changes, affecting our earth’s environment negatively.
5. Do you think the youth these days care about the environment? Why do you think so?
Answer: No, I don’t really think that the youth these days like to care about the environment primarily because they are just too pre-occupied with either enjoying the comforts and luxuries of their lives or running to “acquire” them as if there is no tomorrow. In fact, German “Federal office for the Environment” conducted a survey in 2016 and found out that just 21 per cent of 14- to-25-year-olds believed that an intact natural environment and the chance to enjoy it were important parts of having a “good life”. Besides, it is also possible that the electronic media, along with the authorities, today are not exactly doing a good job in raising the awareness of taking care of the environment among the youth.
6. Environmental problems are too big to be dealt at the individual level? Do you agree? Why/Why not?
Answer: Yes, I have no doubt in my mind that environmental problems are too big to deal with at the individual level simply because they don’t have the required resources, knowledge and the technologies to solve the problems of such big magnitude. Besides, there is no boundary between our rivers, forests, earth’s atmosphere, as well as the air, we breathe. Therefore, no matter how hard, some individuals, in some parts of a country or the world, are trying to clean up their “environment”, if it is not “coincided” and “coordinated” with the others somewhere else, then the chances are that it is doing no good. And, unfortunately, “coordination” is something which can’t be “enforced” without the governments’ active involvement in such cases.
