Protection of Environment in the USA
Environment pollution problem is paid much attention to in the USA. Different environmentalists and environmental societies, like Wilderness Society, try to improve the situation. The level of damage to the forests in the USA is really high. The construction of new roads and the need of wood influenced the cuttings of large areas of forest. As a result some rare species of animals, and some plants can disappear. For example, the pacific yew, containing a cancer-fighting compound. American environmentalists are also disturbed by the problem of global warming. They pay much attention to the research in this sphere. Global warming is the result of air pollution by different gases. Together with the gases, destroying the ozone layer, it influences the patterns of weather. Many USA universities investigate these problems. The pollution of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, and the problem of acid rains that threatened many forests, made the media start a campaign against industrial pollution. All of the states have adopted their own laws; some banned throwaway bottles, or use of phosphates in soaps, or industrial dumping of wastes. By 1986 smoking in public had been restricted. There also exist public societies, whose aim is to attract public's attention to the most important environmental problems. Some of them, for example, "Pals of the Planet", publish the materials of how to save the seas from pollution. The "Greenpeace" organization, which was founded in 1971, is one of the leading environmental organizations in the USA and in the world. Its numerous actions of protest against water and air pollution, its programme "Water for Life", started in the USA, help our planet to survive. Public attention to the problems of pollution has now become a part of American life.