The global change on environment, such as shortage of raw materials and food due to the desertification, air pollution, and depletion of the ozone layer, have been a controversial issue to the world since the age of industrialization. If this pace of industrialization continues, it would become important to consider the global environment more and more seriously before reaching to a critical level. A country can’t solve this issue of environment solely; therefore, all of the nations should cooperate in one unit. This mother earth is not only for us, but also for our offspring including our next generation. By the following analysis and facts, we will realize how the radical change is crucial to the environment towards the next millennium.

Land degradation is continuing and increasing at an alarming pace, eroding seriously the world’s precious store of productive land. When it happens in the world’s drylands it often creates desert-like conditions and is called "desertification". This process happens gradually as different areas of degraded land spread and merge together, rather than through advancing desert. The definition agreed by the world’s leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit and adopted by the Convention is: "land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities." (Mainguet, 4~5 [1]).

It is not a problem for the poor in developing countries. It is true that one billion of the poorest and most marginised people of the earth is the most severely affected by desertification. But it has other victims too; some 18 developed countries suffer from desertification, including the US. We have mainly five zones of desertification: northwest Mexico and southwestern US, the Atlacama Desert from south of Ecuador to central Chile, most of the area from the Atlantic Ocean to China, southern Africa, and most of the Australian continent (UNCCD, web [2]).

Drought is part of the cause of desertification and certainly makes things worse. But essentially it is a man-made problem, human activity. It arises from placing too much pressure on the land, as a result of cultivation or overgrazing. If we could not stop the extension of desertification, the worst effect would be the food problem. The world population is growing day by day and it will go over six billion in several years if the current growing pace continues (CIA Factbook, web [3]). Producing food will be very important in this era of population burst. If we could not stop desertification, the price and cost of food will be higher. Bad land use, one of the causes of desertification, could only give us the negative effect. If Africa suffers from loss of productive land, it means that the food on the market will be higher, which leads that the poor people are less likely to be able to afford imported food. It means local people who depend on African production may face starvation or famine. It is ironic but there are almost no effects in industrial world like Japan, Europe, and US (Martin, [4]).

The desertification in the drylands of the US is located in west side, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas state. There are three major deserts at these places, which are Mojave, Sonran and Great Basin, and six major river basins, which are Columbia, Snake, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Colorado, and River Grande (Mainguet, 128~131 [5]).

There are three major causes, which are excessive water consumption, overgrazing, and Salinization. According to the US General Accounting Office, groundwater supplies about for 20% of water consumed in the US. By contrast, groundwater supplies 75% in Texas and 62% in Arizona. Over consumption of water results in depletion of groundwater resources, which is a cause of desertification because it leads to the abandonment of irrigable farmlands. The second cause of desertification is by human activity in which the carrying capacity of land is exceeded which is called overgrazing. It is essential to use the land for productivity of livestock, but overgrazing contributes to the desertification. Overgrazing resulted in sever water erosion and vegetation substitution. Salinization is the main factor of degradation. Three major aspects can be identified: highly saline perched water tables created by irrigation; a few hundred acres of land wearing a salt crust; salinization of the soil (Mainguet, 131~137 [6]).

Today the arid West produce for about one-fifth of the US’s total agricultural production in food and fiber. To solve this problem there are two ways. One is in-state project such as the Central Valley project in California. This project will divert annually 1.2 millississippi, and transport across Louisiana, before being delivered to the Texas water system. Both projects require high technology of electric generating capacity and huge budget. The Texas Water Plan’s estimated at the beginning of the 1970’s were $10 to 14 billion (Mainguet, 145~146 [7]).

Air pollution is the contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substances. Air pollution can cause health problems including burning eyes and nose, itchiness irritated throat, and problems breathing. Some chemicals found in polluted air can cause cancer, birth defects, brain and nerve damage, and long-term injury to the lungs and breathing passages in certain circumstances. Above certain concentrations and duration, certain air pollutants are extremely dangerous and can damage the environment and property. Not only trees, lakes and animals, but also buildings monuments and other structures have been harmed and damaged by air pollution (NSC, web [8]).

We have a lot of air pollutants currently, which are most by-products attributed to industry. Four major chemical materials are carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), and hazardous air pollutants (HAPS). CO is produced by the incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels, including gasoline, oil and wood. It can cause dizziness, headaches, and fatigue. CO2 is the principal greenhouse gas emitted as a result of human activity (e.g., burning of coal, oil, and natural gas). CO2 can cause burns, frostbite, and blindness. CFC are chemicals used in great quantities in industry, for refrigeration and air conditioning, and consumer products. When CFC released into the air, they take part in chemical reactions, which result in depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. HAPS are chemicals that cause serious health and environment effects. Sources such as chemical plants, dry cleaners, and motor vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses, planes, etc release HAPS (NSC, web [8]).

In the individual level, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), driving a car is the single most polluting thing that most of us do. Motor vehicles emit millions of tons of pollutants into air each year, which cause as many as 1,500 cases if cancer in the country each year. Especially, the US is one of the biggest contributors. Currently, there are approximately 200 million vehicles on the road, which is estimated one-third of all vehicles in the world. 12% of them are fewer than two years old, operating with relatively low emissions. The remaining 88%, about 176 million vehicles are contributing to the air pollution (NSV, web [9]).

Since vehicles contribute greatly to the air pollution by emitting CO, CFC, and HAPS, an individual can contribute significantly to cleaning air if they change their driving habits. Limit driving, use public transportation, walk, carpool, bike, etc. It is the best way that an individual can help reduce air pollution. When we drive cars, we must pay attentions to the following things: Drive at moderate speed (ideally between 35~45mph), Drive newer vehicles which are generally pollute less, Keep your car well maintained, especially the emissions control system, Drive alternative vehicles alternative fueled vehicles, such as electric vehicles.

As one of the example of electric vehicles, there are fuel cell cars, which is the newest technology in the motor industry. Fuel cell is a series of process combining hydrogen and oxygen to create water. During this process, electricity will be released by chemical reaction, functioning as the prime source of the engine. The first fuel cell cars may have small gasoline engine to help and make hydrogen (Ingersoll, 324~333 [10]). But even with the little gasoline engine and fuel cell, they are as three times as cleaner than today. Fuel cell cars would bring us a wonderful new era and personal transportation, if it completed. Last year Japanese auto maker Toyota produced a new car named "Prius", which is very friendly to the environment with combination of gasoline and electric engine (Toyota, web [11]). And also Honda announced this month (July 1998) that they are planning to produce fuel cell cars in practice by the year of 2003 (Honda, web [12]). So far, Toyota and Mercedes have invested hundreds of million dollars in fuel cell cars. That is the very expensive process but that represents the best solution we know on today for air pollution.

Ozone is a colorless gas, which consist of variety of oxygen. Oxygen consists of two oxygen atoms, ozone consists of three. Stratospheric ozone (in upper atmosphere) is known as the ozone layer, and protects our health by shielding us form the sun’s damaging ultraviolet layer. However, at ground-level ozone (tropospheric ozone) is a polluted with highly toxic effects. It is a health hazard causing damage to human health, the environment, crops, and wide range of natural and artificial materials (NSC, web [13]).

Ground-level ozone comes from product of reactions among chemicals produced by burning coal, gasoline, other fuels, and chemicals like CFC, which I referred at "2. Air Pollution." In the individual level, we can find CFC in refrigerators, paints and hair sprays. In addition, motor vehicles and industries are major sources of pollutants that cause ground-level ozone.

The ozone layer is being depleted over Antarctica, but also to much lesser extent over North America, Europe and other populated areas. A depleted ozone layer that is close to the ground cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, coughing, and impaired lung function due to allowing more ultraviolet layer to earth. The worst effect of ultraviolet layer is that it effects not only human being, but also everything else that lives on the earth. Moreover, it is expected to reduce crop yields, diminish the productivity of the oceans, and possibly to contribute to decline of amphibious populations that is occurring around the world (EPA, web [14]).

Over 60 years ago, choroflorocarbons (CFC) were invented in the US, and they soon found many uses throughout the world in refrigeration, air conditioning, and other industrial process. Due to scientific evidence that CFC and other chemicals destroy ozone in the upper atmosphere, the US, the country which has traditionally been the largest emitter of CFC worldwide, is rapidly scaling back the use of these chemicals and phasing out their production.

In 1978, the use of CFC in spray cans was banned in the US. In the 1980s, the Antarctic "ozone hole" appeared and an international science assessment more strongly linked the release of CFC and ozone depletion. It became evident that a stronger worldwide response was needed. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was signed and the signatory nations committed themselves to a reduction in the use of CFC and other ozone-depleting substances. Since that time, the treaty has been amended to ban CFC production after 1995 in the developed countries, and later in developing. Today over 160 countries have signed the treaty and they are keep working together to protect the ozone layer. To protect ozone layer in individual level, we can do the following things: Avoid idling your motor vehicle excessively, Use public transportation, Start charcoal with an electric lighter or a newspaper-fueled "chimney" instead of lighter fluid, Conserve energy and recycle (EPA, web [14]).

Destruction of natural environment causes lots of harmful aspects to the earth and it is certainly spreading all over the world. Though I especially focussed on three negative of environment, there are other changes such as acid rain, deforestation and overpopulation. What should we do is to realize these problems and change our mind, which is profoundly related to education. All of the people living on the earth should know these current serious situations, and education can accelerate to let the people know how serious are they. After individuals get the knowledge, they can tale an action to protect natural environment. Each country should look their education of environment over again. Another thing to do is the worldwide cooperation to become wealthy. This seems to have no relation to protect environment, but actually it is crucial, because if we are wealthy we can afford to use technology to reduce pollution. The reason why some undeveloped countries are polluting so much is that they are still too poor to pay for clean technology. Through the next century, the industrialization will progress as the technology progress too; however, we should never forget the earth is the only planet human being can live on.

[1] Mainguet, Monique. "What is Desertification." Desertificaton. Gergia: Springer-Verlag, 1994

[2] "About the Desertification." United Nations Convention on Combat Desertification. http://www.unucd.ch/what.htm (12 July, 1998)

[3] "World." CIA FACT BOOK. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/country-frame.htm/ (12 July, 1998)

[4] Martin, Walter. Personal Interview. 24 July, 1998

[5] Mainguet, Monique. "Location of Land Degradation in the Drylands of the USA."Desertificaton. Gergia: Springer-Verlag, 1994

[6] Mainguet, Monique. "The Causes of Land Degradation." Desertificaton. Gergia:Springer-Verlag, 1994

[7] Mainguet, Monique. "Conclusion." Desertificaton. Gergia: Springer-Verlag, 1994

[8] "Air Pollution fact Sheet." National Safety Council. http://www.nsc.org/ehc/mobile/airpollu.htm (12 July, 1998)

[9] "Auto Emissions Fact Sheet." National Safety Council. http://www.nsc.org/ehc/mobile/mse_fs.htm (12 July, 1998)

[10] Ingersoll, John G. "Hydrogen Vehicles." Natural Gas Vehicles.Georgia: THE FAIRMONT PRESS, INC., 1995

[11] Toyota http://www.toyota.co.jp (30 July, 1998)

[12] Honda http://www.honda.co.jp (30 July, 1998)

[13] "Ozone Fact Sheet." National Safety Council. http://www.nsc.org/ehc/mobile/ozone.htm (12 July, 1998)

[14] "Environment Indicators: Ozone." Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/indicat/indicat.htm (12 July, 1998)