I enjoy the music of birds

Birds are very interesting animals and they are also very attractive. They are very useful to our environment. If not for them the environment would be a very boring place and people will miss the opportunity of listening to the music they make.

Enjoying the music of birds is a very interesting hobby. My family members and I love to do it. My sister and I use binoculars to watch the birds make nests in our garden.

As we love listening to their music during our leisure, we go to the garden and hide behind the trees and observe the way they sing. Sometimes I hear the nightingale singing in a sweet voice in the night. It keeps me relaxed and happy and I have pleasant dreams. Even when I wake up in the morning, the memory of its melody refreshes my mind and helps me to do my work, in a pleasant mood.

My sister always says it would be nice if we too were birds. She says that she likes to be a bird and sing sweetly like they do.

Birds can sing more sweetly than most humans and we can enjoy their songs better than some songs played over the radio..

Clean environment, a must

The environment is everything around us. It includes the atmosphere, waterways and the landscape. Clean air and pure water is essential for humans to lead a long and healthy life.

The air is mainly polluted by factories and old vehicles which give out dark black clouds of smoke and gases called 'carbon monoxide'. This gas is poisonous and unbearable to humans and also damages the ozone layer.

Another main source of pollution is the dumping of garbage in public places, roadsides and unauthorised places. As a result these places have become breeding grounds for deadly mosquitoes and various other insects.The filthy water diverted from homes and toxic waste from industries released into nearby rivers, channels and thereafter the sea also leads to pollution and is a big threat to the environment.

Sometimes due to unexpected explosions and other accidents of oil tankers in the middle of the seas, tons of oil is released into the sea. The recent oil spill in the Gulf as a result of some damage to an oil rig led to a large area being polluted.

Millions of sea creatures are affected by such oil spills, threatening biodiversity.

Therefore, everybody must regard the environment as a part of their lives and do everything to protect it. Otherwise, all living beings will perish in the near future.

Why Earth is hotting up?

Global warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth. As the Earth is getting hotter and hotter, disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, cyclones and tsunamis are getting more frequent. Over the past 100 years, the average temperature of the air near the Earth's surface has risen by a little less than one degree Celsius.

This shows that even an increase of just one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer than what it was over a thousand years ago. Out of the 20 warmest years on record, 19 have occurred after the 1980s.

Global warming is a great 'disadvantage to this world because in the future their will be hardly any form of life left on Earth. Because of the rising temperature. Many species of animals and plants are becoming extinct.

So, to prevent or lessen the effect of global warming, we must plant more trees (afforestation), stop cutting down trees and also reduce the use of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas etc.) We can use solar power or hydro power instead. I think we must all extend a helping hand to lessen the effects of global warming.