Environmental Issues
In this lesson we will discuss 6 environmental issues we currently face due to human development, how we can monitor the impact we have on our environment and soloutions to how we can ressolve an issue.
Soloutions
The Environmental Agency are responsible for regulating major industrial waste, treating contaminated land, conservation, maintaining the quality of water sources and much more. They collect reliable scientific data of the environment, inform others of the issues, monitor changes and find ways to manage and reduce the impact of human developments on the environment. Detailed information collected by biologists is needed before we can build on an area to make sure there are no endangered species there that we might harm and to make sure we don’t do too much damage to the environment there. If the danger is too high, the development will not usually go ahead. It is also important to monitor the area long-term after a development has been made by humans there.
We can reduce the amount of energy we use in our homes so that less energy needs to be produced by factories that use fossil fuels which give off greenhouse gases.
We can use alternative sources of energy that don’t emit harmful gases, such as solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric power etc.
Issue 1
Factories (used for producing materials, providing us with power in our buildings etc) may give off harmful gases such as Carbon Monoxide, Sulphur Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide.
When Carbon Monoxide is breathed in, it can cause red blood cells to not be able to carry enough oxygen, this can potentially cause death.
Sulphur Dioxide, when in the atmosphere can dissolve in the water in clouds. When this happens, the rain that falls from these clouds is acid rain. This can affect the living organisms in ponds/lakes etc, and damaging the waxy layer of trees so they struggle to absorb the minerals they need to survive.
Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas (a gas which causes the greenhouse effect). When this is released into the atmosphere in large amounts, it can lead to the greenhouse effect and effect global warming. When the electromagnetic radiation from the sun hits the earth, earth heats up. Some of this radiation escapes back out through the earth’s atmosphere, but greenhouse gases can absorb some of it and reemit the radiation, so the radiation stays within the earth’s atmosphere. This heats up the atmosphere. When the temperature of earth is increased, it can affect the environment of living organisms all over the world. These organisms either have to adapt quickly to the changing environment or they will die.
One detrimental effect of global warming is the polar ice caps are melting. This is not only destroying the home of polar creatures, but it is causing the sea level to rise, which poses a danger to countries all around the world, if they rise too high countries around the world may be submerged in water.
It is worth noting that greenhouse gases aren’t harmful to the planet in small amounts, but in recent years, as the human population and activity has vastly increased, the amount of greenhouse gases we are releasing in to the atmosphere has increased massively. Evidence shows that as the concentration of greenhouse gases has increased, the average global temperature has increased rapidly, much faster than it should.
Carbon Dioxide isn’t the only greenhouse gas, other examples include methane, water vapour and nitrous oxide.
Some factories may also produce industrial waste containing heavy metals which can leak into nearby water sources and affect the living organisms there. The heavy metal may not be able to be broken down by the organism's cells so the metal may enter the food chain and accumulate in tissues of the organisms further along in the food chain. It may be toxic.
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