Contemporary Environmental Protection

With the rapid development of science and technology during the 1900s, society flourished in a world of convenience and prosperity. People were part of a consumer culture that sought for new and improved transportation, communication, and goods and services to make their lives better. Unfortunately, those same people ignored
the protection of the environment until signs of climate change became impossible to ignore. These signs of climate change are most apparent in air quality, especially in densely populated urban areas, temperature, and the accumulation of harmful or corrosive materials on the planet. Thankfully, over the past 20 years, climate scientists have devoted themselves to developing new technologies to reduce the impact of humans on the planet and ensure future societies will have a hospitable environment in which to live. Some of the most exciting developments have occurred in the field of reducing and recycling harmful materials such as chemicals and plastics as well as returning the atmosphere to its original, unpolluted state.
In order to protect the environment, it is vital to properly process pollutant chemicals. In the past few years people have found many ways to reduce pollutants using microbes. One company has created a compound that can absorb the harmful chemical properties of PFAS. PFAS are a kind of persistent inorganic pollutant that are “highly mobile in water, resistant to degradation, and oxidation” (Puraffinity). This makes it difficult for PFAS to decompose naturally. Unfortunately, PFAS are dangerous to human health and natural ecology. “CustoMem in the UK uses synthetic biology to create a granular material that attracts and sticks to micropollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and certain chemicals in wastewater” (Cho). The substance is strong enough to absorb the insoluble PFAS in water, rendering them inert and disposable. New technological developments such as those to remove harmful chemicals from water are only one of the exciting ways in which scientists are working to reduce humanity’s effects on the planet.
Another important issue at the forefront of environmental protection is more effective plastic recycling methods. Plastics are widely used in modern daily life. They take the form of single use bottles and packaging, and they are difficult–or at least inconvenient–to recycle, so they take up valuable landfill space, or end up in natural habitats like the ocean. Fortunately, scientists appear to have found a way to speed up plastic degradation with the use of bacteria. “This new process can depolymerize any kind of PET – transparent, colored, opaque, amorphous as well as crystalline fibers – into any kind of PET product” (Snowden). In this way, plastic can be quickly broken down so that they do not end up polluting the earth. This also prevents the need for communities to burn plastic as a means of disposal, which produces toxic gas that can harm the atmosphere.
In addition to air pollution caused by burning plastics, there are many other sources of increased greenhouse gases that contribute to the warming up of the earth. Although some greenhouse gases are necessary to keep the earth warm, recent overproduction has caused the earth’s “blanket” to be too effective, thereby raising the entire temperature of the earth. This excess gas comes from several sources, and it is growing out of control because humans are producing more gas than is being consumed through natural processes such as photosynthesis. Deforestation has exacerbated climate change because the trees that used to consume excess carbon dioxide have been cut down. “One suggested method [to reverse global warming trends] is to inject [carbon dioxide] into the ground before it gets a chance to reach the atmosphere. After the CO2 is separated from other emission gases, it can be buried in abandoned oil wells, saline reservoirs, and rocks” (Goudarzi). Another possibility promotes the injection of CO2 emissions from factories and processing plants into aging oil wells to boost production (Garthwaite). This would in a way turn oil into a close to zero-carbon footprint industry. If humans combine efforts like these with reforestation and other conservation techniques, issues related to global warming will reverse much more quickly than if any one strategy is used alone.
In 2020, the world has faced one global crisis after another, but while some are relatively recent, climate change has been around since humans first started to affect their environment. Each generation of humans has not had to deal with the consequences of their own actions, but those of the previous generations. Because the last century of human development has relied so heavily on pollution, our current generation is faced with fixing the issues left behind by our ancestors. Today, thanks to the dedication of many scientists across multiple fields, we are more equipped than ever with technology to combat our effects on the environment. Without action, our world could become unlivable within another century, but with action and the cooperation of scientists, governments, and regular people, it is possible to reverse the damage done by previous generations and ourselves, and create a world where we can live in harmony with nature.

References
“Renee Cho, August 14, 2019, How Synthetic Biology Can Help the Environments, https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/08/14/synthetic-biology-help-environment/
Scott Snowden, April 11, 2020, New Enzyme Breaks Down Plastic In Hours And Enables High-Quality Recycling, https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottsnowden/2020/04/11/new-enzyme-breaks-down-plastic-in-hours/#6780ed4f5e4e
Sara Goudarzi, April 19, 2007, Top 10 Emerging Environmental Technologies, https://www.livescience.com/11334-top-10-emerging-environmental-technologies.html
Josie Garthwaite, September 18, 2018, Cash, carbon, crude: How to make oil fields bury emissions, https://earth.stanford.edu/news/cash-carbon-crude-how-make-oil-fields-bury-emissions#gs.a67pkc
Puraffinity, https://www.puraffinity.com/technology