Thursday, February 21, 2019
The Greenhouse Effect
Have you ever thought, why rough pack imbibe breathing fusss in the cities? The answer is simple channel place taint. look defilement is adept of the or so principal(prenominal) difficultys in the knowledge domain. How brush off we solve this purlieual problem? To daylight f presentories produce such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) and much cars. Factories and cars be hotshot of the biggest bloodline pollutants. To begin with, drivers should implement unleaded petrol. However, they recitation leaded petrol, as it is cheaper. The cars should be taboo from city centres, as they case big smog. some some separate upright problem is that thither argon no filters in factories.Moreover, pulverization managers save their money. They do non c ar virtu alto ownhery disposition and what whitethorn come up with it. Some places just fire non afford to buy filters, as they be too expensive. Pasekmes This factory exhaust fumes cause venereal d isease rain, smog and other environmental problems. As a case, more and more plurality atomic number 18 evolution spit turn up crabby person. Also, m every a(prenominal) trees, plants and animals continu aloney die out. Sprendimo budai mankind tramp solve job taint problems, solely they do non want. However, we should bind cargon and try to safe the world, because we ar a part of nature. So, if nature dies, we allowing non survive either.Air is the ocean we breathe. Air supplies us with group O which is essential for our bodies to give out. Air is 99. 9% due north, oxygen, pissing system vapor and inert gunslingeres. human bes activities sewer flex significations into the personal line of credit power, some of which can cause problems for military man, plants, and animals. There atomic number 18 several master(prenominal) characters of pollution and well-kn proclaim payoffs of pollution which atomic number 18 commsolely discussed. These include smog, dosage rain, the greenhouse effect, and holes in the ozone horizontal come along. individually of these problems has serious implications for our health and well- creation as well as for the whole environment. iodine type of appearance pollution is the run by the wayside of particles into the shine from eager fuel for energy. diesel smoke is a good manakin of this particulate matter. The particles be truly small pieces of matter measuring active 2. 5 microns or about . 0001 inches. This type of pollution is some successions referred to as black coke pollution. The bring out from burning fuels in automobiles, homes, and industries is a major source of pollution in the air. Some authorities look at that heretofore the burning of wood and charcoal grey in fireplaces and barbeques can complete satisfying quanitites of soot into the air.Another type of pollution is the release of noxious gases, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as sulfur dioxide, deoxycytidine monophosphate copy monoxide, north oxides, and chemic substance vapors. These can get under ones skin part in further chemical reactions once they ar in the halo, forming smog and acid rain. taint in any case needs to be considered inside our homes, offices, and schools. Some of these pollutants can be created by interior(prenominal) activities such as smoking and cooking. In the join States, we surpass about 80-90% of our meter inside buildings, and so our exposure to harmful indoor pollutants can be serious. It is on that pointfore all important(predicate) to consider some(prenominal) indoor and outdoor air pollution.Smog is a type of large-scale outdoor pollution. It is cause by chemical reactions between pollutants derived from different sources, primarily automobile exhaust and industrial emissions. Cities ar often centers of these types of activities, and umteen suffer from the personal effects of smog, especially during the loosen up months of the soci o-economic class. extra information about smog and its effects are gettcapable from environs Canada and the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) in southern California. For separately city, the exact causes of pollution whitethorn be different.Depending on the geographic location, temperature, rise and weather factors, pollution is dispersed differently. However, some eras this does not happen and the pollution can build up to dangerous levels. A temperature inversion occurs when air close to the terra firma is cooler than the air above it. below these conditions the pollution cannot jump off and be dispersed. Cities surrounded by mountains as well as ensure trapping of pollution. Inversion can happen in any season. overwinter inversions are desirely to cause particulate and cabon monoxide pollution. Summer inversions are more likely to create smog.Another consequence of outdoor air pollution is acid rain. When a pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with drople ts of body of irrigate in the air, the peeing (or snow) can become acidified. The effects of acid rain on the environment can be genuinely serious. It damages plants by droping their leaves, it poisons the s rock oil, and it diversitys the interpersonal chemistry of lakes and streams. Damage due to acid rain kills trees and harms animals, fish, and other wildlife. The U. S. Geological resume (USGS), the environsal tax shelter Agency (EPA), and Environment Canada are among the organizations that are actively studying the acid rain problem.The Greenhouse Effect, in like manner referred to as global change, is generally believed to come from the build up of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced when fuels are fire. Plants convert carbon dioxide okay to oxygen, further the release of carbon dioxide from human activities is higher than the worlds plants can process. The view is made worsened since many of the primings woodlands are universe re moved, and plant life is being modify by acid rain. Thus, the cadence of carbon dioxide in the air is continuing to increase.This buildup acts like a blanket and traps heat close to the surface of our commonwealth. Changes of even a few degrees give affect us all through changes in the climate and even the possibility that the polar ice caps may melt. (One of the consequences of polar ice cap melting would be a rise in global sea level, resulting in widespread coastal flooding. ) Additional resources and information about the Greenhouse Effect and global warming are available from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Science Education academy of the Bay Area (SEABA) and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).Ozone depletion is another(prenominal) result of pollution. Chemicals released by our activities affect the stratosphere , one of the atmospheric layers surrounding earth. The ozone layer in the stratosphere protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet beam f rom the sun. Release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from aerosol cans, cooling systems and icebox equipment removes some of the ozone, hold up holes to open up in this layer and yielding the radiation to r to each one the earth. Ultraviolet radiation is known to cause skin cancer and has damaging effects on plants and wildlife.Additional resources and information about the ozone depletion problem are available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Ozone ACTION. many another(prenominal) race spend large portion of time indoors as such(prenominal) as 80-90% of their lives. We work, study, eat, drink and sleep in enclosed environments where air circulation may be restricted. For these reasons, some experts feel that more mint suffer from the effects of indoor air pollution than outdoor pollution. There are many sources of indoor air pollution.Tobacco smoke, cooking and heating appliances, and vapors from building materials, paints, furniture, and so on cause pollution inside buildings. Radon is a inhering hot gas released from the earth, and it can be undercoat concent regulated in basements in some parts of the get in concert States. Additional information about the atomic number 86 problem is available from the USGS and the Minnesota Radon Project. Pollution exposure at home and work is often greater than outdoors. The California Air Resources hop on estimates that indoor air pollutant levels are 25-62% greater than outside levels and can model serious health problems.Both indoor and outdoor pollution need to be controlled and/or prevented. How can we prevent the damaging effection of pollution? Kas kelia pavoju-priezastys One of the well-nigh dangerous air pollutants is buns smoke. Restricting smoking is an important find to a healthier environment. Legislation to control smoking is in effect in some locations, just now personal exposure should be monitored and control wherever possible. Additional information about the effects of secondhand cigarette smoke is available from the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and medicine On-line.Only through the efforts of scientists, business leaders, legislators, and individuals can we reduce the sum of money of air pollution on the planet. This challenge must be met by all of us in order to assure that a healthy environment will exist for ourselves and our children. Find out What you can do to reduce air pollution. Black carbon pollution is the release of tiny particles into the air from burning fuel for energy. Air pollution caused by such particulates has been a major problem since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the development of the intrinsic combustion engine .Scientific publications dealing with the analysis of soot and smoke experience endure as early as 1896. Mankind has become so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels (petroleum products, coal, and inborn gas) that the sum keep deck of all combusti on-related emissions now constitutes a serious and widespread problem, not unaccompanied to human health, but as well to the entire global environment. What is Air Pollution What Causes Air Pollution facts sollution Smog hanging over cities is the most beaten(prenominal) and obvious form of air pollution.But on that point are different kinds of pollutionsome visible, some invisiblethat contribute to global warming. Generally any substance that battalion introduce into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things and the environment is considered air pollution. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is astray considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas.In the past one hundred fifty years, such activities take away p umped passable carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to acclivity its levels higher than they drop been for hundreds of thousands of years. Other greenhouse gases include methanewhich comes from such sources as swamps and gas emitted by livestockand chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were banned because of their deteriorating effect on Earths ozone layer. Another pollutant associated with climate change is sulfur dioxide, a component of smog. Sulfur dioxide and closely related chemicals are known rimarily as a cause of acid rain. But they also reflect lightsome when released in the atmosphere, which keeps sunlight out and causes Earth to cool. Volcanic eruptions can cough out massive descends of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, sometimes causing cooling that lasts for years. In fact, volcanoes used to be the main source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide today people are. Industrialized countries take a shit worked to red uce levels of sulfur dioxide, smog, and smoke in order to improve peoples health. But a result, not predicted until recently, is that the lower sulfur dioxide levels may actually make global warming worse.Just as sulfur dioxide from volcanoes can cool the planet by blocking sunlight, cutting the occur of the sharpen in the atmosphere lets more sunlight through, warming the Earth. This effect is overdraw when elevated levels of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the additional heat. Most people agree that to curb global warming, a variety show of measures need to be taken. On a personal level, driving and agile less, recycling, and conservation reduces a persons carbon footprintthe amount of carbon dioxide a person is responsible for putting into the atmosphere.On a larger scale, governments are taking measures to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. One way is through the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between countries that they will cut bac k on carbon dioxide emissions. Another method is to put taxes on carbon emissions or higher taxes on gasoline, so that people and companies will have greater incentives to conserve energy and pollution. Air pollution is a phenomenon wherein the release of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere results in contamination of air, and makes it unsuitable for versatile lifeforms on the planet.It is considered to be one of the most serious environmental issues in the world. If air pollution statistics compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) are to be believed, more than 3 one one million million million people in the world die due to some health problems related to environmental air pollution every year. Thats not at all surprising, considering that the harmful effects of air pollution range from various health disorders in humans to destruction of the ozone layer of the atmosphere. All being said, our priority now has to be prevention of air pollution and efforts need to start at the very grass root level, i. e. rom our side. Before we move on to the detail of these efforts, lets go through some important air pollution facts which accent on the need of its prevention. Why do we Need to Prevent Air Pollution? Air pollution is caused when various chemical substances are released in the Earths atmosphere, as a result of some natural occurrences or some human activities. Natural causes of air pollution include volcanic eruptions, release of methane gas, wildfires etc while the anthropogenic causes of the same include use of automobiles, power plants, use of solvents, waste deposition, use of nuclear weapons and a lot more.The list of chemical substances which have the tendency to contaminate the air include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia, etc. The high concentration of these substances in the atmosphere makes humans and animals more vulnerable to their hazardous effects. In fact, the effects of air p ollution are much more intense than we can perhaps imagine. For instance, studies reveal that as many as 500,000 people die from cardiorespiratory disease, which is caused as a result of inhaling alright particles in the atmosphere, in the United States alone every year.Natural hazards such as global warming and acid rain are also associated with air pollution to a significant extent. All these harmful effects call for the implementation of various measures for preventing air pollution, and the earlier we do it the better it is for us. Some recent power plant designs minimize environmental conflict by pumping colder weewee supply from further offshore, warming it to the temperature of the sea urine surrounding the plant site, and then psychotherapeutic it. This method minimizes the tint on the surrounding communities, but it liquid shocks hose eggs, larve, plankton, and other organisms that are sucked through the power plant with the cooling water. The Living Water Water, a substance that is so often taken for granted yet is such an intricate part of our very existence. In the essay, Becoming Water, by Susan Zwinger, we are asked to make ourselves one with the waves. But why? How can a substance that has no taste or color be so important to life? give care the bonds people form with each other, water has bonds to all aspects of life. Let them know in their viens that you both are connected everywhere. (Zwinger, 243).These bonds are incessantly being broken by our irresponsible actions. More precisely, by our tendencies to pollute. Many of us have sat and listened to lectures on how important water is to everything from humans to trees. Eight glasses a day is the recommended daily amount that should be consumed by humans. The human race depends on water for a variety of things. It is used in our hygiene, helps the body to maintain a constant temperature, flushes outcast items from our systems, and of course provides us with many recreational activ ities, from swimming to water balloon fights.Indirectly, we are dependent on water because it allows vegetation to beget and animals to live. Also, remember that statistic that sixty portion of our body is water? Without water, thither would be no us. For this reason, water has a bond to the human race. Water also has a bond to the make for. It allows plants to grow. In fact, without water, try to get something to grow. You will in all probability end up with a beautifully dry, yellow looking plant. Many beautiful things like flowers, green grass, and tall trees would be nonexistent without water. Like humans, these living things are also dependent on water.The earth is twain-thirds water and one-third subvert. View the waterways of the earth as dendritic viens. (239). Water is like a bridge connecting one place to another. Swell up low fishermen in Viet Nam, caress skin divers in the Caribean, strand a cruise vessel in Glacier bay. (240). Water also has the power to destro y the demesne through storms. To demonstrate this power, Zwinger asks us to Become fascinatingly deadly. change of location further north toward the poles, go to the extremes. (240). From flooding to hurricanes, water can change the institute and lives in the blink of an eye.This power of destruction is not something to be feared, it allows for the land to rebuild and start over. It is like an un jibeable contract linking the land to the water. I feel that Zwinger was trying to make us realize how important water is by writing Becoming Water. She points out the places which water travels and the things that it sees. You have a pulse, the waves, and a metabolism, your food chain. (242). Zwinger makes a nonliving thing take on human characteristics to stress her point. A personality, a character, a conciousness, and a sense of purpose. (242). I have to agree with her.All to often, we take for granted something that ensures our existence. We allow our waste to be thrown into the our water supplies. Motorized vehicles churn up the sediment from the bottom of a water source causing the water to become very turbid. Some industries even dispose of harmful chemicals into our water sources. In my home town, we have a lake named Crystal Lake. It is a take form fed body of water so, theoretically it should be relatively clean. On the contrary, the lake is disgustingly dirty. Many of the fish have died and swimmers itch has become a common aliment of lakes many swimmers.The problem has been attributed to the increased use of locomote boats on the lake and the increased macrocosm that uses the lake. Another example of a water source filled with pollution is that big river called the disseminated sclerosis. Have you ever try to look to the bottom of the river? Good luck. The river is so turbid you would be well-to-do to see one foot down. Besides the many gambling boats, the Mississippi is used to transport things by means of barges. Barges are very obese their weight causes the sediment from the bottom of the river to be churned up, hence the turbidity.Another problem is that things fall off barges into the water contaminating it even more. The Mississippi, like the lake in my hometown, has also been blessed with an ever increasing amount of beat back vehicles on the river. These motor vehicles also add to the amount of sediment that is churned up. These are examples of how our society has allowed a precious resource to be wasted. So, after reading Zwingers essay, I found it to be a reminder of how important water is to my existence. Water has bonds to both the land and all living things. Becoming Water was a raise up call.It put us, the reader, in a perspective we had probably neer thought about. We were able to experience everything water experiences. This newly perspective was a very interesting and original way for Zwinger to express her point of catch. By making the reader become water, she allowed for a first hand view of the importance of water. By becoming more responsible and more sensible of problems around us, we will be able to preserve something that is essential for our existence. conk Cited Zwinger, Susan. Becoming Water. In American Nature Writing. Selected by potty A. Murray. San Francisco Sierra Club Books, 1997. 38-243. cituoti Environment, Pollution and the Living Water. 123HelpMe. com. 16 Apr 2012 . The Population flare-up According to the Population seed Bureau, in 1991, thither were about 5. 4 billion people in the world. The global birth to death rate was 27/9, core that for every person that dies, terzetto more babies are born. From 1990 to 1991, the tribe increased by 95 million people, and now has keep to grow at that rate. This may appear to be no danger, but if one were to think of it as a pond doubling its amount of lily pads for 40 days, theyd see it differently.It would start out with one lily pad, the abutting day it has two, and on the 39th day it is half(prenom inal) filled. However, in one day, on the 40th day, it will be completely filled. The Earths macrocosm is doubling about every 40 years. We dont want to wait until the 79th year to fix our problem or else humankind will not have profuse time to change the inevitable obstacles that come with over community. In his book, The Population Explosion , capital of Minnesota Ehrlich, a famous population controlist, came up with the equation I = PAT.He believes the meet on the environment is equal to the population multiplied by the richness (meaning the amount of energy and food supply the population consumes) multiplied by the amount of destructive technology a country has. He showed that the impact is directly affected by the population. Therefore with a larger population, there is a greater impact on the Earths water, air, and land. A common problem that people think is associated with overpopulation is running out of space to live, but there are also many other environmental predica ments that it causes.More people use more cars, need more firewood, drink more water. This causes more air pollution, more land ruined, and more water to disappear. Therefore, population control is necessary on an international level in order to protect our environment . There are experts who believe that population control is not call for such as in Singapore. The government in Singapore opinionated that it would be better for the country to grow in population so that they are able to help their economy. Many less developed countries instigate population growth because they want their economy to grow.The experts who believe that it is better for us to let the population increase or decrease on its own also think that overpopulation will never become a problem. confession for this argument is that humans will adjust themselves to the growing population because they are a species that are able to think, make decisions, and find stems when they encounter a problem Advocates for this argument think that there is no need to bother about environmental problems because there is or will be technology to fix the problems.As for with the limited amount of resources, they believe that there would be more people to think of new ways to make it easier or hurried to get newer and more food and energy resources. correct during this time period, scientists are trying to discover a new way for people to live elsewhere such as under the sea. Many people believe that overpopulation will cause and has caused many environmental problems, but they dont think singing families how many children they are allowed to have is the way to control the population.However, there has not been any other plausible suggestion on how to lower population growth, so limiting families to two children is the only solution. The worry about overpopulation started when it was observe that many of the earths resources and environment were being hurt. It was traced back to three revolutions tha t humans populations had grown, where at first it didnt effect the environment, but later on with more ripe technology a lot of damage was done. The graph on the confidential information of the next page shows the worlds population growth for 1025 years.The information is from the Population Reference Bureau in 1989. It shows the population is growing geometrically, and will come to to do so unless population control is started. World Population 1000 AD to 2025 AD The first revolution was the evolutionary revolution, about 100,000 years past during the Ice Age. These homosapiens had larger, more culturally elaborate communities than the earlier human forms. They catch on a large scale, and as the food supply increased, so did their population. At the end of the Ice Age, there were about 5 million humans. The second revolution occurred around 8000 B.C. and was called the Agricultural Revolution. At this time, humans were able to have a reliable source of food at a location of th eir choice. This was when villages and towns had started to form, and were able to store more food they needed at the time. This caused birth rates to go up, and families to get larger. Up to this point, only 6,000 years after the discovery of farming, the population increased by at least cd0%. Each century afterwards the population grew a little faster, with current setbacks like during the Black Death, an outbreak of the bubonic plague.This killed a quarter to a third of the people in Europe during the 14th century, but still in 1650, the world population had grown to 500 million. It was the third revolution, a century later, that really increased the population and hurt the environment. This was the Industrial Revolution. During this time coal, petroleum, natural gases, and other new energy sources started allowing the world to have factories, railroads, automobiles, chemical and plastic industries, and automated industries. It was also during this time that the death rate had been lowered, meaning people were able to live longer.This revolution introduced many positive things such as pest-control chemicals, modern sanitation, and medicine. These made life expectancy increase and babe mortality decrease. From 1750, when the Industrial Revolution started, to 1991, the life expectancy increased from 25 years to 65 years, and the infant mortality rate decreased from 400 to 68 per thousand births. It was during this Industrial Revolution that environmental damage started to occur. In Greece, they had worried about soil erosion from too many trees being cut down in their mountainous region. Deforestation also caused water runoffs, flood, and droughts in China.In Rome, the air and water had been dangerously polluted. In addition it was at this time that negative things started to occur such as oil spills in sea, automobile exhaust making too much smog, and chloroflourocarbon gases that destroy the ozone layer being released into the atmosphere. The landfills w ere full and water sources polluted because of toxic waste from plastics and chemical manufacture. It was an increase of population that caused these things such as using up more landfill space, releasing more chloroflourocarbon gases, and more toxic waste to be dumped out in the ocean.Overpopulation is degrading the Earths oceans and other water sources, and by doing so will not only lessen our water supply for the future, it will also hurt the animals living in the water. It is obvious that we need water to survive, but it will not do any good if the water is polluted. If there is a pond that is being degraded, when the pollution is released slowly, the microorganisms in the pond could break down the pollution. However, if it was released all at once, the pond can not get rid of the pollution fast enough and the water becomes degraded.With fewer people there is less pollution released, leaving more time for the pollution to be degraded. (Randers, 257) In aquifers or natural underg round reservoirs such as in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt, the natural water has been depleted by more than 50 percent. As there is less and less natural water in them, more and more salty water from the Mediterranean Sea seep in contaminating the water. Under the Great Plains in the United States, the Ogallala Aquifer, that supplies one- ordinal of the crop land in the United States with water, was half emptied in the late 1980s.If this aquifer is completely drained it may collapse causing sinkholes in the land above, and never allowing it to be refilled again. Not only will low water supplies affect a human necessity, it could also cause water wars. Ethiopia, for instance, wants to build dams along the upper part of the Nile river. This action, however, could prevent enough water from getting down to other countries that rely on the Nile such as Egypt. Also the Turkish government wants to build 21 dams along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.This strategy would cut 40 per cent of the water flow from those rivers to Syria and 80 percent of the water flow to Iraq. Even though about two thirds of the Earth is water, not all of it is available for use. A lot of it is not even in the places where it is needed most. Between 1950 and 1980 in the United States, water use increased 150 percent, while the population grew by only 50 percent. In 1975, 19 countries in the developing world did not have enough renewable water resources, and it is expected that by the year 2000, that number will increase to 29 countries.By 2025, at least 37 nations could experience a severe contend for water. As said by the Population launchs Werner Fornos in 1991, The water crises of the 1990s will make the oil crises of the 1970s pale in comparison. ( Stefoff, 67) Besides water, overpopulation is polluting the air we breath, and causing many unwanted results such as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer. The greenhouse effect had probably starte d around the industrial revolution when a large amount of carbon dioxide was released.These gases build up around the earths outer atmosphere turning the earth into a greenhouse. What happens in a greenhouse is heat is allowed in, hits the ground and reflects back out. But instead of escaping back out into space, it is trapped inside the Earths atmosphere, tiptop the Earths average temperature. This greenhouse effect affects the temperature, which inadvertantly raises sea levels causing natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding, and heat waves not allowing crops to grow properly. (Stefoff, 39) Along with the greenhouse effect, there is the deteriorating ozone layer.The ozone layer regulates the quantity of UV light from coming down to the earths surface from the sun. It has started to deteriorate from chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) being emitted into the air. These chemicals are found as fluids in air instruct systems, as aerosol propellants, and as industrial solvents. Scient ists say that each chlorine atom that is a part of a CFC involved can destroy up to 100,000 ozone atoms. However, even if we stop releasing CFCs into the air, it can remain in the atmosphere for 50 to 100 years and continue to degrade the ozone layer.With less of an ozone layer, more UV light enters the atmosphere and causes skin diseases such as skin cancer. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the degradation of the ozone layer will cause 12 million people to develop skin cancer within the next 50 years. Significantly, more than 200,000 of those cases will be fatal. (Keeling, 4) Acid rain is a direct result of air pollution which occurs when too many people are releasing toxins into the air. Fossil fuel that is burned is released into the air as a gas and reacts with sunlight, oxygen and moisture in the atmosphere.This changes compounds like sulfur dioxide into sulfuric acid, and nitrogen oxide into nitric oxide. It precipitates to the ground and pollutes water an d the land, killing fish, damaging forests and crops, and corroding metals. important causes of air pollution are the needs of too many people for the use of cars and industrial plants, both which release many harmful fumes into the air. An increasing population leads to more CFCs emitted into the air from the cars air conditioning. Also when the cars are not able to be used anymore, they are taken to the toss yard, and occupy more landfill space.Furthermore, cars have damaged terrain when vacationers go over more land with off-road vehicles (Bouvier, 51). Again, increased usage of energy produced by oil, coal and natural gas-fired power plants will have a negative effect on the worlds air. A larger population also increases usage of air conditioning when it becomes warmer. Air conditioners cause more carbon to be emitted, heat to be trapped in the atmosphere, and UV light to enter in. Likewise, if there are less people, less air conditioning is used, and global warming and a dete riorating ozone layer could be prevented.According to the United States Nations Population Fund, they predict the developing countries will double their carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. What the population is causing, air pollution, is harmful to them. With air pollution, humans, plants, and animals do not have clean air to breath. Air is one of the necessities to life, and the cleaner it is, the better. As well as the Earths water and air, there is another part of the environment that is a threat of too many people. Overpopulation is destroying the land and therefore could end the life of all the creatures onEarth. There are many examples that there is not enough land. For instance, there is not enough landfill space. every(prenominal) year, the United States alone creates 13 billion heaps of waste. This is 50 tons a person. How can there be enough room for all this trash? An example of this is in the assure of Ohio. In 1988, Ohio started running out of landfill space. To solve this problem the government decided to make it easier to open new larger landfills. This allowed the owners of the landfills to lower their prices so businesses will want to use their landfills.Doing this could make people recycle less, take up more landfill space, and ruin the earth more. (Overpopulation, 3) Overpopulation also threatens the Earths agricultural resources. An example of this is desertification of land. It occurs when fertile land is turned into unfertilised land. This can happen from overgrazing of cattle as in the southwestern United States, or erosion where the topsoil is carried away. Even irrigation can cause desertification if too much water is used, flooding the land, and not allowing crops to grow there anymore.Desertification is caused generally by a growing population. More people need more food, causing more land to be used unproperly. The most serious desertification occurs in places such as China, India, and Africa, all places with large, fast growing populations. Each year about 82,000 square miles, the same size as the state of Kansas, of the earths surface is made useless by desertification. According to the United Nations Environment Program, by the mid-1980s 13 million square miles of the earths surface had disconnected 25 percent of its productivity and 6 million square miles lost 50 ercent its productivity. Also in the United States, at least one-fifth of its land (not including Alaska and Hawaii) is desertified or is threatened by desertification. A third example of the debasement of the Earths land because of too large a population is deforestation. The Population Institute and the United Nations estimate that half of all the remaining forests will be destroyed by the year 2000. Forests are cut down for humankinds demand of fuelwood, agricultural space, paper products, and more space to live. However, forests are needed for more than human needs.They stabilize global weather, and when large amounts are cut down soil erosion and siltation of rivers occurs. They also regulate the amount of carbon dioxide let out into the atmosphere. When they are cut down and burned, not only are they not able to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released anymore, they increase the amount released because burning wood makes carbon dioxide (Keelings, 2). Rainfall is absorbed by trees and other vegetations into the ground, and then flows to springs, streams, and aquifers. With no forests, rainfall flows without being absorbed and aquifers and streams are not refilled.This, then, causes water shortages and droughts. Studies conducted by the United Nations show that between 1973 and 1988, 79 percent of total deforestation was a direct result of population growth. This is greatly due to the fact that 70 percent of all families in developing nations, which is about two billion people worldwide, rely on firewood as their only fuel. If they stop using firewood as their fuel they will have to use fuels that release gase s to pollute the air. Already developed countries such as the United States also account for deforestation.In Canada, at least one million hectares are cut annually, and in Siberia, the rate of deforestation can be up to four million hectares annually, which is twice the rate of Brazil. An example of land being destroyed by overpopulation happened in the Sahel, a place along the sothern border of the Sahara desert in Africa. It is not a true desert, normally receiving 10 to 30 inches of rainfall a year. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, it received a high amount of rainfall. Also during this time the population increased greatly. For example, in Niger, one country that is a art of the Sahel, the population increased by 1. 3 million in a 14 year period. Everything seemed fine until in 1968 when a 20 year drought started. This affected everyone, but especially the nomads who travel with herds of livestock. The land became infertile, the soil was carried away by the wind in enormous amo unts, and any vegetation grown was either burned for fuel or eaten by the starving animals. Also because there was no vegetation to absorb the rainfall, the water quickly ran off, carrying more topsoil with it. Even now, much of the Sahel is still in famine.With more and more land being destroyed as the population grows larger and larger, there is not enough room for other species. The larger animals that need to travel over hundreds of square miles are left with less and less room as each town grows. Some animals such as frogs, are slowly fall in number because of pollution, which is caused by humans, that affect their eggs. Animals that live in the forest are also slowly disappearing because even though you can replant the trees you cut down, the animals that live there can not be brought back.An example of this is the Eastern migratory songbirds in Central America and northeast United States. Finally, it is estimated that each year 27,000 species vanish forever, meaning three p lants, animals, insects or microorganism disappear every hour. Scientists estimate that about one fifth of all life forms will be gone in the next thirty years. None of them being named, and even less being canvas or understood. The key to the answer to a problem could be lost forever. (Keelings, 2) Overpopulation is not a new issue.Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean is an example of when population control was needed, but was not used the end results being disastrous. Around 1600, Easter Island had 7,000 Polynesians. They used the trees on the island for fishing boats and housing, and soon all the trees were cut down. When that occurred they were forced to live in caves. Soon they started to group together to fight with each other for resources, and even practiced cannibalism. When the Europeans arrived there in 1722, there were only 3,000 Polynesians left.Another example is of Mauritius, a tropical island nation in the Indian ocean. Fortunately they have a happier ending than the Polynesians. On this island there were as many people as in Bangladesh. The country had a balance of a good economy and ecosystem. The government officials of the nation had sight that many ebony forests had been cut down causing erosion and the defunctness of the dodo bird. Because of this they decided that they should set up population control and instill the people about stabilizing population growth. Now it is one of the most prosperous countries in Africa.As Richard Grove, an environmental historian of Cambridge University, said, I would be much less pessimistic about the future if the rest of the world could act like Mauritius. (Linden,70) It should be known that population control will not end all the problems mentioned above, but they would de limitedly allow more time for them to be fixed. Also, population control helps alienate environment problems. The alternative, letting the population grow indefinitely could only hurt the environment. Overpopulation is a negative solution for everyone plants, animals, land, water, and humans.According to the Index of Human Suffering in 1987, sponsored by the population Crisis committee, countries with a larger population increase also had higher suffering. The Earths environment is finite and can be destroyed if we do not start population control. Measures need to be taken now to correct the current situation which includes the increase of deforestation and desertification, the decrease of farmland, more water pollution, the deteriorating ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect. Additionally, three new kinds of plants, animals or other species disappear every hour.It is evident that there is no way our population can keep growing at the rate it does now without severely negatively impacting our environment. We should learn from the mistakes of the people on Easter Island, and the solution the people on Mauritius used. It is our obligation to keep the environment in good condition for future generations. As mo st population scientists say, Whatever your cause, its a lost cause unless we come to grips with overpopulation. Pollution and Environment Essay The Population Explosion.
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