ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

ASSIGNMENTS

SUBMITTED BY
SARAH SHAHID KHAN
SEAT NO. 19551090
MCOM PREVIOUS (2nd SEMESTER)

SUBMITTED TO
MAAM KANZA
 ASSIGNMENT # 1
PREVALAENT POLITICAL ISSUES PERTAINING TO CLIMATE

IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS ON CLIMATE

CHANGE

While not intended to solve climate change in 1987, the Montreal Protocol was a historic
environmental agreement which served as a model for future diplomacy on this topic. . nation
in the world finally ratified the Treaty, forcing them to avoid developing ozone-damaging
compounds, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Almost 99 percent of these ozone-depleting
compounds have been removed by the protocol.
In 2016, Parties agreed to reduce the production of HFCs, a powerful greenhouse gaseous
gas which contributes to climate change, through the Kigali Amendment. The Kigali
amendment was also adopted.
Contribution of different countries in Greenhouse emissions (metric ton)
"Progress will not take place globally, but in smaller groups and sectorally, with all countries
united," Victor states. This may be achieved in sectors like aviation and steel, bilaterally with
the United States and China or by intergovernmental organisations, for example the Twenty
Party (G20).

Many metropolitan and industrial groups intend to curb pollution and listen to the call of the
UNFCCC that, by the second half of the century, climate neutrality should be achieved. More
than 600 local councils in the United States, while they are withdrawing from the Paris
Agreement, have comprehensive climate change strategies that include carbon mitigation
goals. In the meantime, more capital is being spent in renewable funds by investor. In
early2020, the largest wealth manager in the world, BlackRock, announced that it would stop
investing in businesses with extreme climate threats. Often carbon-neutrality obligations were
committed to bigger corporations like Amazon and Starbucks. Some of them are even
claiming to be carbon negative in near future, extracting more carbon from the environment
than their emissions.
 ASSIGNMENT # 2
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable energy may be derived from sunlight, air, geysers utilizing heat from deep
underground sources and tidal energy of oceans. These sources are part of the physical
structure of the earth; hence they are being replenished by natural means continuously. These
energy sources are hailed as “alternative energy” due to their sustainability and their possible
usage as an alternative to the conventional carbonaceous fuels like coal and oil.

The renewable energy sources are often termed as clean energy sources due to their ability to
produce energy without emission of greenhouse gases in contrast with their fossil fuel
counterparts.

TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE/RENEWABLE ENERGY

Alternative energy is produced by harnessing the energy of natural processes, like heat
energy from sunlight or geysers. Kinetic energy from air, water, or waves. Alternative energy
sources are usually replenishing themselves and are most sustainable sources of energy.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is a renewable

resource of energy and the energy
of sun may be utilized directly for
heating or converted into electricity.
To turn the sun's energy and light
into heat, several solar technologies
are used for illumination, hot water,
electric power and (ironically)
cooling systems for companies and
industry utilize soler energy in Typical Solar Farms
various forms.

Capturing the Wind

From the outdated windmills, we

have come a long way. Modern day
turbines are as tall and wide as
skyscrapers, are gaining attention
all over the world. Wind power
turns the blades of a turbine that
feeds an electric generator and
generates electricity.
In several parts of the U.S.A, wind, which accounts for just over 6 percent of U.S. output, has
become the cheapest energy source. California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa are the
main wind power states, while turbines can be positioned anywhere with strong winds, like
hills and open plains, or even
offshore in open water. Typical Windfarm for generating electricity from wind

Geothermal: Power from the Earth

Geothermal energy is produced from the earth's heat. This heat can be obtained near the
surface or from heated rock and hot water reservoirs miles below our feet. In order to produce
electricity, geothermal power plants use these heat sources.

On a relatively smaller scale, a geothermal heat pump system can exploit the constant
temperature of the ground found just 10 feet below the surface to help heat up a nearby
building in the winter or to help it cool down in the summer. Geothermal energy can be part
of a broad scale industrial utility energy solution or can be part of a local sustainable activity.
The direct use of geothermal energy could include heating office buildings or manufacturing
facilities; helping to grow greenhouse plants; heating water in fisheries; and helping with
different industrial processes (e.g., pasteurizing milk).

From Waterwheels to Hydroelectricity

Hydropower is not a recent innovation, although the water wheels used to work gristmills and
sawmills in early America are still mostly functioning as historic sites and museums.
Nowadays, the kinetic energy of flowing rivers is captured in a very different way and
transformed into hydroelectricity. The most familiar type of hydroelectric power is generated
by a system in which dams are constructed to store water in a reservoir which, when released,
flows through turbines to produce electricity.

This method of power production is known as 'pumped-storage hydropower,' where water

flows between the lower and upper reservoirs to regulate the production of electricity
between periods of low and high demand. Another form, called "Run-of-River Hydropower,"
engulfs a portion of the river flowing through a canal and does not need a dam. Hydropower
plants can vary in size from large-scale projects like the Hoover Dam to micro-hydroelectric
power plants which work on flowing canals and are widely used to power the houses in
remote-off grid houses. Micro hydro powerplant are a common sight in Northern areas of
Pakistan.

Power from the Ocean

There are two major ways to harness the energy from the ocean: thermal energy from the heat
of the sun and mechanical energy from the motion of tides and waves.
Ocean thermal energy can be transformed to electricity using a few different structures that
depend on warm surface water temperatures. "Ocean Mechanical Energy" harnesses the ebbs
and flow of tides induced by the rotation of the earth and the gravitational force of the moon.
Wind-driven wave energy may also be transformed and used to help reduce one's power
costs.
Ocean energy is an emerging form of renewable energy and, with more than 70% of the
surface of our world occupied by the ocean, the future prospects of ocean energy seems
promising.

Biomass Energy

Bioenergy is a form of renewable energy produced from biomass for the generation of heat
and electricity or for the production of liquid fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel used for
transport.
Biomass refers to any organic matter that comes from recently lived plants or animals. While
bioenergy emits almost the same amount of carbon dioxide as fossil fuels, substitution plants
are produced as biomass to extract the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere, making the
environmental effect relatively neutral.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen comprises of one proton and one electron and it is the simplest and most common
compound in the universe. However, it is not naturally found as a gas on Earth. It is instead
present in organic compounds (hydrocarbons like oil, natural gas, methanol and propane) and
water (H2O). Hydrogen can also be synthesized under certain favourable conditions by
utilizing specific form of algae and bacteria using sunlight as an energy source.

Hydrogen is rich in energy and emits little to no pollutants upon combustion. Solid hydrogen
has been used since the 1950s to launch space shuttles and other type of spacecraft into orbit.
Hydrogen based fuel cells are used to produce electricity by utilizing the chemical energy of
hydrogen. The sole by products of this process are pure water and heat.

BENEFITS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

Less global warming

Human actions overload our environment with carbon dioxide and several other pollutants
resulting in global warming. These gasses create a shielding effect, trapping the heat of the
sun in the atmosphere. The global warming is a cause of severe and dangerous events like,
heavier and more regular hurricanes to flooding, rising sea levels and extinction of several
species which cannot bear the rising temperatures and changing climates. On the other hand,
most green energy sources contain few to no global warming pollution. Particularly when
'life cycle' emissions in sustainable energy (i.e. emissions from each point of technology's
life—manufacturing, implementation, service, decommissioning) are considered, global
warming emissions linked with renewable energy are relatively negligible.

Improved public health

Air and water contamination from coal and natural gas plants are major contributors towards
the respiratory disorders, brain impairment, heart attacks, cancer, premature death, and many
other serious problems. Pollution impacts everyone: one Harvard University report measured
the cost of the life cycle and public health impact of coal at an estimated $74.6 billion a year.
Many of these harmful health effects arise from air and water emissions that renewable
energy solutions do not generate. Wind, solar and hydroelectric plants produce electricity
with no related emissions of air pollution. Although, Geothermal and biomass systems emit
few air pollutants, however the overall environmental emissions are typically far smaller than
that of coal and gas-fired power plants.

Inexhaustible energy

Sources like strong winds, bright skies, plentiful plant matter, heat from the ground, and fast-
flowing water sufficiently provide a vast and continuously replenished source of energy. A
comparatively limited fraction of US electricity actually comes from these sources, although
this may change: studies have consistently demonstrated that green energies will supply a
substantial share of future electricity needs, even after taking potential constraints into
consideration.

Jobs and other economic benefits

In contrast with the fossil fuel systems, which are usually mechanized and resource intensive,
the renewable energy sector is relatively labour-intensive. Solar panels need to be installed by
humans; wind turbines need repair technicians. This means that on average, more jobs are
generated for each unit of energy derived by renewable energy than from fossil fuels.

Stable energy prices

Renewable technology is now supplying sustainable electricity around the world which will
help stabilize energy costs in the future. While renewable installations need upfront
investment to build, they can run at very low cost (the "fuel" is free for most clean energy
technologies). As a result, costs of renewable energy will remain stable over time. In
addition, the prices of clean energy technology have gradually declined and are expected to
fall even lower.

Reliability and resilience

Wind and solar energy are less vulnerable to large-scale loss since they are scatttered and
modular. These systems usually distributed across a wide geographical area, meaning that an
extreme weather occurrence at one place would not shut off electricity in the entire country.
Modular structures consist of multiple individual wind turbines or solar arrays. And if any of
the machinery in the system is disabled, the remainder will usually continue to work.

OUR GROWING POPULATION

The human beings are remarkable creature of nature. Considering the humble beginning of
mankind in the tiny pockets of Africa, the human race has grown over centuries to colonize
almost every corner of our world. The human race has proven to be clever, resilient and
adaptable—maybe a bit too adaptable.
In 2015, the population of the world was over 7.3 billion. It's more than seven billion three
hundred million bodies that need food, cloths, warmth of housing and ideally, nurtured and
educated. More than 7.3 billion people who, though busy consuming energy, are still
producing huge volumes of waste, and our numbers continue to rise. The United Nations
predicts that the world's population will exceed 9.2 billion by 2050.

Since the inception of human race, our population has been increasing quite slowly, being
kept in check by diseases, altering climates and other social influences. It took us until 1804
to cross 1 billion people. Since then, continued developments in diet, medicine and
technologies have seen a steady growth in our population. Human population has grown
exponentially over the last few centuries.

The impact of so many humans on the environment takes two major forms:

• the consumption of resources such as land, food, water, air, fossil fuels and minerals
• waste goods arising from consumption, such as air and water toxins, hazardous
chemicals and greenhouse gases

Some people fear that unregulated population increase will inevitably lead to an
environmental calamity. This is rational concern, and a brief glance at the circumstantial data
definitely indicates that the health of our ecosystem has declined as our population has
grown. The effect of so many humans on the world has prompted some scientists to coin a
new word to characterize our time—the Anthropocene epoch. Unlike previous geological
epochs, where different geological and climatic cycles have defined time intervals, the
proposed Anthropecene era is defined as the dominant impact of humans and their activities
on the climate. In other words, human beings are the new global geophysical force.
 ASSIGNMENT # 3
AFFECTS OF POPULATION INCREASE AND CARRYING CAPACITY OF
EARTH

CARRYING CAPACITY

The maximum number of individuals of a species that may be supported in an environment.

Carrying ability is typically constrained by environmental components (e.g. food, habitat,
resources).

Estimate of earth’s carrying capacity

Most of the studies estimate the Earth's carrying capacity to be 8 billion people or less.

Population distribution

The ways in which people are distributed around the World influence the climate. Developing
nations tend to have higher birth rates due to insecurity and lower access to family planning
and education, while developed countries have lower birth rates. In 2015, 80% of the world's
population lived in less developed countries. These fast-growing communities adds pressure
on local environment.

Pressure on growing cities and their infrastructure, such as water, electricity, and food, due to
continued expansion, involves emissions from new vehicles, heaters and other modern
luxuries, which can cause a number of localized environmental issues.

Population composition

The population’s composition can also influence the surrounding climate. The world's
population is largely disproportionate towards young people (under 24) and the elderly
people. Currently both young and elderly people have the major share in world population.
Younger people are more likely to relocate leading to a rise in urban environmental issues, as
cited above.

Life expectancy has grown by about 20 years since 1960. While this is a victory for the
human race, and definitely a positive thing for the individuals, however from the perspective
of view of the our planet, these souls are will continue to consume the resources and generate
waste for about 40% longer than in the past.

Population income

Population income and disparity of wealth distribution across population results in

environmental strain at the lowest and highest levels of income. For survival, many of the
poorest people in the world are engaging in wasteful amounts of resource consumption, such
as burning of garbage, discarded tires, or plastics for heat. They may also be compelled to
deplete already diminishing natural resources, such as trees or animal species, to sustain their
families. On the opposite end of the continuum, people with the highest income spend
relatively vast quantities of wealth by the vehicles they drive, the houses they live in, and
their extravagant lifestyle.

Population consumption

Although poverty and degradation of the environment are strongly interlinked, unsustainable
patterns of consumption and development, particularly in developed nations, are of much
greater concern.

Mass manufacturing of goods, many of which are needless for a comfortable existence,
requires massive quantities of resources, produces needless emissions and generates
enormous volumes of waste. The environmental effects of these needless utilization of
resources is immense.

Individuals living in developed nations typically have a much greater ecological footprint
than people living in the developing world. The ecological footprint is a systematic
calculation of how much usable land and water is required to generate the energy used and to
contain the pollution generated by an individual or a community of people.

“Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we use and
absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to
regenerate what we use in a year.”