Pollution: The Bane of the Machine Age
Expansion of Ideas | School & College Section
The following are three different versions of the essay. Please choose one.
Ever since humanity entered the machine age, pollution has been a direct and disadvantageous effect of modern technology. The environment is filled with harmful materials that pose a threat to daily life. If we take a closer look, we will find that we are breathing impure air, thereby inviting respiratory diseases. We are also consuming unnatural or synthetic food that directly or indirectly affects our health. Waste material—solid, liquid, and gaseous—is on the increase, thus affecting the proportion of natural elements present on our Mother Earth.
Thus, it can be truly summarized that pollution is the bane of the machine age.
Progress and development come at the cost of the environment: a maxim that we have reluctantly come to accept. Humans exhibited resourcefulness by using their intellect to tap the resources of the Earth for their own purposes. But we lacked the foresight to envision the day when our own endeavours might leave us at the precipice of destruction.
We hailed industrialization as the force that brought forth a change in the socioeconomic structure of society. Human greed has not only begotten industrialization but also caused the degeneration of the ecosystem. A world without technology is unimaginable today. We are growing increasingly dependent on gadgets and automobiles, but all this comes at a big price. Pollution is slowly killing our environment with every passing minute. Substances such as gases, chemical by-products, and harmful aerosols are contaminating the air we breathe, the water we consume, and the land we walk on.
Pollution is happening at a faster rate than the environment can accommodate and is degrading the quality of our lives. Instead of being in denial about our situation, each of us should make concerted efforts to decrease our dependence on technology. Making green choices can mitigate the damage that has already been done. To save our environment from implosion, we need to be aware of the problems caused by the machine age.
Today's world cannot be imagined without machines. They are not just a comfort for all of us but also a basic necessity. From cell phones and cars to refrigerators and air conditioners, we are dependent on machines at every step. Life has never been so simple: with just a click, you are connected to the whole world. But everything comes with a price tag. What price are we paying for all the comfort we enjoy? We are paying with our environment, and it is a big price.
Every coin has two sides. Machines have reduced our work but have also put us in great peril, as the only habitat that shelters all creatures—our planet Earth—is being immensely harmed. Pollution is slowly degrading our environment every minute. Environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems the world faces today. It is an issue that troubles us economically, physically, and in our everyday lives. The contamination of the environment is also being linked to some of the diseases that are currently prevalent. Yet, most people pretend that there is no problem because they are dependent on, and sometimes addicted to, machines. We must do something as soon as possible to curb this problem, not only for the good of the environment but also for the people who live in it.
The machine age brought solutions to many problems, but it has also harmed our environment in the form of pollution, thus putting a question mark on the very existence of the human species.