On the occasion of Earth Day, János Áder, the President of the Republic of Hungary, gave a lecture to the students of János Selye High School in Komárom. The amazing data listed by him highlighted that individual natural disasters are not regional in nature, but the initiators of a global domino effect.
The Hungarian PontVelem Nonprofit Kft . a Sustainability Theme Week for years , during which students - 400,000 students from 1,600 schools last year alone - can take part in applications or class lectures. 6-7 years ago, the President of the Republic János Áder assumed the main patronage of the program, who the János Selye High School on April 22 .
In his introduction, the President of the Republic said that this year's World Cup will be hosted by Qatar in the fall. The one-month event requires a lot of watering of the grass field, cooling of the stadiums and desalination of seawater with natural gas. All of this leaves an ecological footprint
János Áder explained that the ratio of surface, liquid and easily accessible fresh water is only 0.007 percent. Nowadays , the drama of much, little and polluted water is unfolding before our eyes.
Due to the three-year drought in Somalia, 1.5 million children under the age of 5 will starve to death. The Russian-Ukrainian war also affects African wheat exports African countries on average import 30 percent of their wheat, but there are countries that import 50-70 percent from Russia and Ukraine. The current war threatens not only Europe, but Africa as well.
However, the lack of water does not only affect African or Asian countries, as Hungary's Homokhátság is a semi-desert area where more than 800,000 people live. In order to preserve the water balance, an investment of 200 billion must be made in the area.
The president also talked about how four times more rain fell in one province of China than at any time before, which destroyed a third of the wheat crop. a rainstorm in Hong Kong affected 13 million people, and the damage was 46 billion dollars. As a result, several production chains were interrupted, for example, the production of a computer component was suspended for a year and a half.
"The Tisza can rise 6-8 meters in one day. New records are broken every 8-10 years. We build dams, which are the highest water level measured up to that point plus one meter in height. At the Tisza, however, we are building ten emergency reservoirs, six of which have already been completed. When there is a flood, we can release the water here, which can reduce the water level by one meter," János Áder gave another Hungarian example.
As for water pollution, the situation here is also catastrophic. 20,000 PET bottles are produced every second in the world. There are African and Asian countries where not only sorting, but even garbage collection does not take place. People just throw their trash away. Niger , the Nile , the Indus , the Ganges, the Yellow River or the Mekong among others, are very polluted, from where the waste flows into the oceans.
"Three large and several smaller waste islands have formed in the oceans, which cover an area the size of India and are visible from space. By 2050, there will be more plastic garbage in the oceans than fish," János Áder pointed out a frightening example.
After the presentation, the students could ask questions, and the presentation itself was interactive, as the young people could answer various interesting questions in a telephone poll.
Source and image: Bumm.sk
Author: Evelyn Szinak
