Unpopular Environmental Issues We Should Care About
If the realm of environmental issues was a high school, then Climate Change would be the most popular girl in school (the head cheerleader) and she would surround her clique with Pollution, Animal Conservation and Deforestation. Yes indeed, Global Warming seems to hogging all the attention these past years, thanks especially to a little movie called “The Inconvenient Truth.” Rightly so, Climate Change will probably be this year’s (and next’s?) Prom Queen.
In the bottom rung of the social ladder as some of the more unpopular issues – perhaps the equivalent of band geeks, mathletes and chess club members in our hypothetical high school social scene. Should these issue be relegated to obscurity?
Coral Bleaching
Image source: marinebiology.org
No, that’s not a new cosmetic procedure – it’s a real environmental concern in the oceans. Corals have a symbiotic relationship with organisms called zooxanthellates, which cover the corals and help them produce the nutrients they need to survive. Sometimes, under extreme stress, corals can reject these zooxanthellates, which exposes their white skeletons and thus make it seem like they have lost their color. The most common cause for coral bleaching is the rising temperature of the water, but it can also be due to pollution and acidification if the water – basically anything that disturbs the delicate ecosystem that corals live in. When corals lose these zooxanthellates, it can take decades before they recover or they can eventually die out.
Light Pollution
The visual counterpart of air and water pollution, light pollution is caused by too much artificial lights. This apparently is a big problem, as there is even a non-profit organization (The International Dark-Sky Association – yes, you read that right) dedicated to solving this situation. But, you may be wondering, light is good? When you have light, that means you won’t be stumbling around in the dark, stubbing your foot and eventually needing a toe amputation, right? Well, according to the IDA, any light at night that is excessive could have adverse effect on the environment. These confuse many nocturnal species and affect their mating, hunting and migration habits. Some lights can harm humans as well – being around a lot of artificial light can reduce our levels of melatonin (the hormone that regulates our body clock), which, as some scientists have discovered, has a link to breast cancer.
Pollinator Decline
Used under license from Shutterstock.com
While The Bee Movie may have been a bomb at the box office, it does raise a good question – what would happen if the bees just stopped working (aside from making the term “busy as a bee” invalid)? The bees certainly have not taken a vacation, but there has been a noticeable decline in their population – there are 90% less honey bees today than there were half a century ago. What’s so bad about that (and don’t say “not having honey with my tea”)? Well, virtually 1/3 of our food exists because of pollination – after all, plants can’t reproduce by themselves. They rely on pollinators (not just bees – but birds, other insects and even bats) to help them multiply and procreate. The culprit, as usual, is the destruction of their habitats, as well as pollution, including light pollution. The bright lights confused the birds, making them unable to complete migration patterns, and thus preventing the spread of the seeds of some plant species.
While these (and some other issues) may not be at the forefront of our minds, they are important nonetheless. But perhaps, the most important lesson we can learn is that all these issues, whether popular or not, seem to be caused by those it most affects – us.
By Maria Belgado
Additional resources:
Environmental Protection UK’s page on Light Pollution
The International Dark-Sky Association
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s page on Coral Bleaching
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s page on Coral Bleaching
National Academies statement on Pollinator Decline
The Ecological Society of America’s Pollination Tool Kit
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Tags: coral bleaching, honeybee, light pollution, pollinator decline, unpopular environmental issues
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