Mary Allen
When it comes to protecting the environment, you ensure that the environment is not harmed. The environment is, in the broadest sense, the earth on which we live. The protection of the environment emerged at a time when people realized how far pollution had come.
On the one hand, environmental protection is about not causing any further damage to the environment. This is why wastewater is cleaned before it is discharged into a river. As many things as possible are reused instead of thrown away, this is called recycling. Rubbish is burned and the ashes are properly stored. Forests are not felled, only as many trees are felled as will grow back. There are many more examples.
On the other hand, it is also about repairing old damage to the environment as well as possible. The simplest example is collecting garbage in the forest or in water. School classes often do this. You can also get toxins out of the ground again. This requires special companies and it costs a lot of money. Deforested forests can be reforested, i.e. planting new trees. There are many other examples of this as well.
Generating energy is often bad for the environment. That’s why it helps to use less. Dealing with energy is particularly important. Houses can be insulated so that less heating is required. There are also new heating systems that use little or no oil or natural gas. In many areas, however, this does not yet work. Air traffic, for example, is increasing rapidly and is consuming more and more fuel, even though individual aircraft are consuming less. Cars are also more economical today than they used to be.
People today disagree about how much environmental protection they want to do and how. Many states have laws that vary in severity, and by no means do all states have them. Some people don’t want any rules and think everything should be voluntary. Some people want a tax on products that harm the environment. This should make the other products cheaper and more likely to be bought.