Speech on Environmental Pollution Dear colleagues! It is a pleasure for me to address you today. The matter that I wish to discuss is the problem of environmental pollution, which, as you have probably heard, is becoming direr and direr with each passing day. In particular, air pollution poses a major threat both to the natural world and to human society. Exhaust gas emissions often contain sulfur dioxide, which reacts with the oxygen and water steam contained in the air to form highly corrosive sulfuric acid: 2SO 2 + O 2 → 2SO 3 SO 3 + H 2 O → H 2 SO 4 Nitrogen oxides also react with oxygen, forming other oxides with more oxygen atoms in them, which then react with water steams, forming highly corrosive nitric acid: 3NO 2 + H 2 O → 2HNO 3 + NO These then form noxious precipitations such as acid rain or smog, which profoundly upset the balance in the local ecosystems. The acidification of water bodies leads to the death of numerous species that are susceptible to the presence of acid. This causes other living organisms feeding on the destroyed species to also die out, etc. Simultaneously, creatures the population of which was previously controlled by the destroyed species start multiplying rapidly, possibly destroying even other organisms, and so on (Likens & Bormann, 1974). Acidic rain also has profoundly adverse effects on plants; whole forests may die (Walgate, 1983). Furthermore, acidic precipitation directly harms human society by increasing the rates of respiratory disease, quickly corroding and destroying buildings, roads, industrial objects, etc. (Likens & Bormann, 1974). Hungary is suffering severely from air pollution. This is easy to see once one knows what happened to the Black Forest, where the trees have been dying out rapidly (Walgate, 1983). Part of the problem is caused by the fact that Hungary is currently forced to use lignite (brown coal) to produce electricity. Lignite contains up to 10% of sulfur and thus greatly contributes to air pollution. Another problem is the high concentrations of CO in the air, caused by car gas emissions. CO reacts with other components of the air, creating harmful concentrations of ground-level ozone, which hurts people’s health. While the problem of high CO concentrations is local, the issue of acidic precipitations is not. Acidic clouds can be easily carried by the wind throughout the continent, which means that exhaust gas emissions from Hungary can be harmful to the rest of the European countries. This means that not only our country but your countries as well have a dire interest in reducing air pollution in Hungary. Furthermore, most of the air pollution in Hungary is imported from other European countries. Therefore, the deterioration of the Black Forest and the economic expenses that we currently face are also partially due to the industrial activity of other European countries. Needless to say, everyone should be interested in preserving biological diversity represented by e.g. the mentioned Black Forest; besides, it stretches through other countries as well–for example, through German territories. There are several ways in which air pollution can be reduced in Hungary. One option is pollution controls on cars, which can decrease the exhaust of CO. Currently, we have certain reg