The 4 Major Environmental Issues and Concerns of the EPA

If someone asked you what the biggest concern for the environment is today, what would you answer? The question is overwhelming because there are so many different aspects of the environments which are being impacted today. There are problems with overpopulation and problems with deforestation and problems with many different types of things that ultimately lead to the devastation of the natural environment and to concerns that impact all of the people living on this planet. However, the EPA has broken down these concerns into four major areas so that people who are interested in making changes can understand where to focus their efforts. Each of these four areas of environmental concern have many different components to them but a basic understanding of them will help you to see what’s what in terms of major issues that this planet faces today.

Water Issues

One of the most important areas of environmental concern according to the EPA is concern for our water. We need to be concerned about water pollution as well as about the increasing scarcity of drinkable water in this world. People who are concerned about this issue should start helping out by reducing water waste as much as possible. This can be done by changing the basic habits in your home to reduce your daily use of water. You can also make bigger changes like collecting rainwater for re-use, setting up a natural landscape that doesn’t require water for your plants and joining a local organization to assist in fighting water pollution around the world.

Air Issues

Air pollution isn’t an issue that most people consider to be of primary environmental concern since it doesn’t seem to pose an immediate pressing threat for a lot of us. However, air pollution causes serious health problems and threatens the natural environment of the planet which means that this is actually one of the most important areas of environmental concern that we can start working to change today. Reducing your contributions to air pollution can be done through reducing your use of cars and other vehicles in favor of walking or riding a bike. You should also be conscious of your use of air-polluting chemicals, your use of air-polluting services like dry-cleaning and your consumption of products that come from air-polluting factories.

Waste and Land Pollution

Another area of grave concern that impacts many different parts of this planet is the issue of waste. Toxic waste, such as the placement of electronics into landfills on a wide scale basis, is a major issue but all areas of waste are of concern. All waste ends up leading to the other types of pollution and causing problems for the environment in addition to taking up much-needed land space. People who are interested in reducing their own contributions to waste should get in the habit of only buying what they need and recycling or re-using all items instead of throwing them away. A lot of items that can be recycled or donated still get thrown away because it’s more convenient for people to stick stuff in the trash than to try to recycle it. Making the effort to make this change can significantly reduce your impact on the earth’s environment in terms of waste.

Climate Change Issues

All of these different types of pollution and waste end up contributing to what is probably the biggest area of concern that we have for the planet – the changing climate. Climate change is a major environmental concern because of the fact that even small changes can cause significant problems for large portions of the world. Climate changes are resulting in an increase in the number of worldwide natural disasters like floods and hurricanes. These things devastate society and wreak havoc on the regions that they hit. Global warming will only cause an increase in these issues along with additional problems that could ultimately end this civilization as we know it. If you work on improving your efforts in the first three areas of environmental concern then you will be helping to contribute to the solution for this major issue.

Why Focus on these 4 Concerns?

It’s true that there are other types of environmental concerns that we might be inclined to focus on when we are fretting about what’s going on with the earth around us. However, if you take a close look at any of those specific concerns then you will see that they usually fall into one of the other categories as a subcategory within it. For example, deforestation is a really serious problem that is causing a lot of environmental issues. However, it can be considered a problem that is related to waste because it usually happens as a result of the fact that people are using more of the trees than they actually need either for building bigger homes or for making paper products or something like this. Reduction of waste and choosing to only use what we need would reduce this problem. Similarly, a major issue related to deforestation is its relationship to climate change so dealing with the issues surrounding it would help us to deal with the bigger picture of our changing climate.

Get an Environmental Education

This article really only touches on these four major environmental concerns of the EPA. To really be able to make a difference on this planet it’s important to understand each of these four issues in greater depth. The only way to do that is to get an education in what each of these four areas of concern is really all about. Reading through the EPA’s website is a really good starting place for beginning to get that education. After that you can choose which of the four areas concerns you most and focus your personal efforts on that area to do your own small part for changing the planet for the better.