How Ordinary People Can Help the Environment

Air pollution, water pollution, loggings, mining, burning forests, waste/rubbish disposal, global-warming, endangered species, are some of the problems that our environment is facing now. As an ordinary people, we can also help our environment. We need our self-awareness to help the environment. We've got to realize how important our environment for our lives is and care to our environment. These are some ways for us to help our environment; they are easy to be done. And I know for sure that these things will help our environment a lot!

• Throw rubbish to the rubbish bin. Don't throw the rubbish on the road or to the water bodies (e.g. rivers). It may causes pollutions on the road and in the rivers. As all of us have known, water pollution can cause flood, landslides, etc. And I know for sure that you do not want these things happened to our environment, do you? :)
  
• Do not do the illegal loggings and burn the forest for your own interests. Maybe it could give you profits, but by doing the illegal logging and burn the forest, it also means death to the world. When the illegal loggers cut trees or when people burned forests, it means there would be less trees in the world. The world would die without trees, just like a person would die without lungs. Burning forests and illegal loggings also could narrow the forest as a habitat of the animals in the forest. It could kill the animals and make them extinct, also cause an imbalance in the forest ecosystem. You want your next generation to be able to see those unique forest-animals, don't you? So, stop doing illegal loggings and burning the forest!
  
• Plant trees! More trees, means more oxygen and lives to the world. :)
  
• Use the public transportations. By using the public transportation, there would be less air-pollution. Ten people in a public transportation could produce less pollution than ten people in ten cars. And if the distance is not too far, you could just use a bicycle or just walk. There would be no pollution produced by walking or riding the bicycle. It also could help to make the earth cooler because there would not too much greenhouse gasses (air pollution) that trap the sunlight in the atmosphere and make the earth warmer.
  
• Save energies! Use electricity only when you need it. Save it for our next generations. With saving energies, there would be less pollution from making the electricity.
  
• Do not be afraid to tell the police or government if you know that someone is doing the wrong thing that can destroy our environment (e.g. catching the endangered species, illegal loggings, mining).
  
• If now you're a student, study! If you get some powers when you've grown up, you could help the world more.  And you could make a great change with a great chance to make this world better! (:
  

So, what are you waiting for? Let's help the world!

By. Yulina Citra Lativolia

Central Kalimantan's Environment and the Problems Facing It

What I really love about Central Kalimantan is the forests in it.  As what all of us have known, the forests of Kalimantan are the lungs of the world.  And it is just a pride to the inhabitants of Central Kalimantan that the people in the world are depending on our forest.  Central Kalimantan also has unique animals and plants that another place doesn’t, for example Orangutans and Tingang birds.  But, I also feel sad about the illegal loggings and burning forests that happen in Central Kalimantan.  I think people should’ve known that the forest is really important for human’s lives.  The illegal loggings and burning forests narrowed the habitats of the animals in Central Kalimantan. Some of those animals, like Orangutan, now are almost extinct because they lost their habitats.  It also can cause the imbalance in the forest ecosystem. 

 

By. Yulina Citra Lativolia

LOGGING

 

Central Kalimantan has a lot of forest and many kind of plants and animal. So if the forest of Kalimantan is always cut by the people for their own business, they were wrong because they don’t know about the effect of them doing. They will lose a lot of orangutan’s habits and will kill other animal because they don’t have any forest for their live and will make global warming when they are cut the trees and we will lose oxygen , and now the population of plant and animal always decreases and because the effect of logging every month and years, this situation leads to incredible carbon dioxide emissions and annually long lasting fires, causing make a bad effect like smokes, health problems and leaving many people living poverty.. Sometimes when they do the illegal logging they don’t have any certificate for doing the logging, so they just cut the forest like they want and they sell it to the company. and sometimes they don’t think cut the tress that still young and still can’t cut, that’s why the forest can’t grow up until higher and if the rarely animal like orangutans is extinct will be bad because our child or people can’t see the orangutans in the future so make our environment keep clean from the logging air pollution, and burning forest and etc.  ^^ and please keep our environment as good as possible as you can^^.

Resources:

Google
Illegal  logging in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia .

by: Ade

Burning Forest

Burning forest is one of the biggest problems that are facing our Central Kalimantan. There are 30000 hot spots in Kalimantan. It was caused by the behavior of the people that always wanted the best for himself and careless even though what he had done harms other people also the world. The forest is being burned in order to cheaply convert it into commercial uses such as plantation and agriculture. Burning forest happened because of local people that want to make area for planting. Many people plant palm oil in Indonesia, so they burned the area and make the area broken and the smoke of the fire spread become pollution. Many people don’t care about this. They just think how to get money without thinking what will happen if they burn the area. The habit of burning forest has become a tradition for the farmers in Central Kalimantan because it is easier and more practical than other methods.

The forest fire can affect the environment it can cause environmental loss such as the haze production, loss of biodiversity, increased particulate matter, CO₂ emission, and climate change; and economic loss such as airport closure, decreased economic activities (trade, production, and service), and health costs.The forest fires not only cause the economic losses and damage to ecosystems. We could also brand as a nation and society can not and do not want to maintain the natural wealth, because we burn the forests of ours. So, it will be great for our earth, if all of us, as the next generation of the world, help this world by taking care of our forests!

References :

- Attayaya. (2009). Dampak Kebakaran Hutan. Available: http://www.attayaya.net/2009/02/dampak-kebakaran-hutan.html. Last accessed 16th May 2011.

- Yayat Ruchiat. (2008). Penyebab dan Dampak Kebakaran Hutan dan Lahan. Available: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACT626.pdf. Last accessed 16th May 2011.

- Jtanaya. (2007). Air Pollution: Case of Indonesia’s Forest Burning . Available: http://jimbonk.blogspot.com/2007/02/air-pollution-case-of-indonesias-forest.html. Last accessed 16th May 2011.
- Jafar M Sidik. (2011). Kalimantan residents still burn forests for farming. Available: http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1287331917/kalimantan-residents-still-burn-forests-for-farming. Last accessed 30th May 2011.

By : Desy Natalina

Water Pollution

Water pollution is the contamination and a change of state in a water bodies (such as lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater) caused by human activities.  Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without any adequate treatment to remove the harmful compounds.

Water pollution can be caused by:

• Eutrophication. Eutrophication is when the environment becomes enriched with nutrients. This can be a problem in marine habitats such as lakes as it can cause algal blooms.
  
• Sewage and wastewater. Domestic households, industrial, and agricultural practices produce wastewater that can cause pollution of many lakes and rivers.
• Marine dumping. Dumping of litter in the water bodies can cause huge problems to the water ecosystem.
• Industrial water and water pollution.  Industries produce pollutants and it is a huge source of water pollutions.
• Nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is produced from industrial, medical and scientific processes that use radioactive material and it could have detrimental effects on the water habitants.
• Oil pollution. Oceans are polluted by oil on a daily basis from oil spills, routine shipping, run-offs and dumping.
• Atmospheric.  Atmospheric is when the pollution of water caused by air pollution.  When the water particles mix with carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere, it forms weak acid.  Acid rain is when the rain water is polluted with these gasses, and this pollutes the water bodies.
• Global Warming.  The increase of the water temperature can disrupt many marine habitats and kill many aquatic organisms.
• Underground storage leakages.  Underground Storage Tanks often store substances, such as petroleum, that are harmful for the environment.

The water pollution can causes flood, erosion, lack of water resources, landslides, damages to water ecosystems, many diseases to human beings, and losses to fishermen.

 

The water pollution also occurs in Central Kalimantan.  The level of mercury contamination that occurred in three major rivers in Central Kalimantan, the Barito River, Kahayan River, and Kapuas River, is still dangerous because it exceeds the required quality standard.  Standard maximum limit of mercury concentration is set at 2.000 micro grams per liter.  Mercury pollution exceeds the standard in the region occurred in Barito watershed, Tewah river, with a concentration of 5.519 micro gram per liter.  In Kahayan watershed, high mercury concentrations between 2.966 to 4.687 micro grams per liter was found in Bawan, Tanjung Sanggalang, Tumbang Rungan, Kahayan Bridge, Jabiren, and Pulang Pisau.  The most severe conditions occur in the Kapuas watershed with pollution levels that reached 7.029 micro grams per liter. Areas that suffer pollution in this river are Mentangai, Kuala Kapuas, Pulau Tilu, Timpah, Masaran, and Masaran Hulu.

References:

• The Guides Network. (2003-2011). The Causes of Water Pollution. Available: http://water-pollution.wp.fubra.vc.catn.com/causes.html. Last accessed 15th May 2011. 
• Wikipedia. (2003-2011). Water pollution. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution. Last accessed 15th May 2011.
• Wikipedia. (2007-2011). Pencemaran air. Available: http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencemaran_air. Last accessed 15th May 2011.
• ·   KapanLagi.com. (2003-2010). Pencemaran Merkuri di Sungai Kalteng Sudah Membahayakan. Available: http://berita.kapanlagi.com/pernik/pencemaran-merkuri-di-sungai-kalteng-sudah-membahayakan-ptx8wue.html. Last accessed 15th May 2011.
  
  
  By. Yulina Citra Lativolia.