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Contributing to Society through Environmental Measurement Technology
Author: Toshiya HIGASHINO
– It is said that the earth was born 4.6 billion years ago. The modern-day earth was formed by deformations in its crust and climate changes, and the water and air cycles that are the source of life exist in an exquisite balance that has given rise to the diverse life thriving on this planet. In the long history of the earth, it has only been in the past 200 years since the industrial revolution that there has been a focus on environmental pollution problems. If we calculate the length of time since the birth of the earth as 1 day, these 200 years would be equivalent to only 0.004 seconds out of that day. While the lives of humans have become more abundant as scientific technology has developed, those activities have begun to destroy the exquisite balance of nature and are affecting the global environment. Initially, these problems were handled as being localized issues in specific regions, but currently, environmental problems are considered to be problems on a global scale, such as climate change effects like global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, the sudden, localized summer downpours known as guerrilla rainstorms, and super typhoons, the radioactive pollution caused by accidents at nuclear power plants, water pollution, air pollution such as PM2.5, effects on food safety and ecosystems caused by chemical substances, depletion of the world’s water resources, food supply problems, and energy problems.
