Environmental problems in 2012

World hasn't done anything significant for our environment in 2011, and by the current looks of it this year will likely be very similar to the overall disappointment in 2011. Some people were hoping that 2011 will bring world leaders together towards agreeing a new climate deal but sadly that hasn't happen, and climate change is yet again threatening to run out of control.

Climate change still remains the biggest environmental problem in the world. What the world leaders fail to see is that climate change is also becoming huge economic and social issue. There is a still an ongoing global temperature increase and with it the world is coming very close to a so called "climate change tipping point", a 2C global temperature increase, after which climate change should run out of control in form of frequent extreme events, floods, drought, hunger and even new diseases.

Deforestation is still a major environmental problem, even despite certain progress in stopping massive clearance of Amazon rainforest. The deforestation is very serious issue in many African and South American countries as well as Indonesia. Deforestation also contributes to climate change issue- not only does burning forests release greenhouse gas emissions but also means there are less trees to absorb carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

Pollution, especially air and water pollution, is big environmental problem for many developing countries though pollution can be also found in some parts of the developed world. China, for instance, is experiencing huge air pollution issue in many of its cities while India is experiencing huge water pollution issue (large Indian rivers such as Ganges being heavily polluted).

Environmental issues are not only affecting our land but also our oceans and seas. The practice of dumping different garbage and waste into our oceans still exists, even despite living in 21st century but this is not the only issue affecting our oceans – scientists are warning us that our oceans are becoming increasingly acidic because of climate change issue.

Last but certainly not the least is a huge biodiversity loss. Huge biodiversity loss is happening everywhere in the world because animal and plant species cannot cope with so many different environmental issues and are experiencing huge decline in population, some of which are already critically endangered. Climate change is believed to be major factor behind global biodiversity loss though there are also some other important factors contributing to this negative trend such as habitat loss and poaching.

Can these environmental problems be stopped before it is too late? With current global politics the answer is no because world leaders care only for environment in their pre-election talks, and once elected they tend to forget all about it.

For all environmentalists this is really a sad world to live in. So many environmental problems, and so little solutions offered by world leaders. Our Mother Earth could be anything but happy with the fact that the destiny of our planet lies in the hands of humans.

We were meant to be the guardians of our planet and not to end up as the ones that destroy it.