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ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR CAUSES, AND SUSTAINABILITY

The science of Environment studies is the science of physical phenomena in the environment. It
comprises various branches of studies like chemistry, physics, medical science, life science,
agriculture, public health, sanitary engineering, and many others.
The field of environmental science is divided into three (3) main goals:
1. Learning how the Natural world works
Fields within the Natural Sciences such as:
 Biology
 Chemistry
 Geology
2. Understanding how we humans interact with the environment
Fields within the Social Sciences such as:
 Geography
 Political Science
3. Determine how human actions affect the environment.
Fields within the Humanities such as:
 Philosophy
 Ethics
The rapid Growth of the Human Population puts an increase in pressure in our Natural
Resources and Ecosystem Services which are heavily used. Nonrenewable Natural Resources as
an option just to meet human demands, having it worst, it will be gone eventually, while leaving
pollution along the way.
The principle of environmental pollution control - It can also be broken down into water
pollution, air pollution, soil pollution and physical pollution.
GLOBAL WARMING OF 2020
This change won't only be felt many decades from now—it is already happening and its impacts
are clearly visible. These include increases in extreme weather events, rising sea level,
disappearing glaciers and polar ice, damaged coral, changes in wildlife distributions and health.
We’ve been warned for the global warming of the century:
In 1992: “calling on humankind to curtail environmental destruction and warning that “a great
change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be
avoided.”
In 2017: “To prevent widespread misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss, humanity must
practice a more environmentally sustainable alternative to business as usual.”
In 2019: “Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any great existential
threat. Based on this obligation and the data presented below, we herein proclaim a clear and
unequivocal declaration that a climate emergency exists on planet Earth.”
Final notice: “We face a direct existential threat…Our fate is in our hands.”
Nature loss
The global biodiversity crisis is on a par with the threat posed by climate change, according to a
new report. The most direct causes of biodiversity loss are habitat change, direct exploitation and
invasive alien species, as well as pollution and harm caused by human activities such as fishing
and hunting.
Polar Regions
Integrating climate change implications into the governance of the region can help to preserve
ecosystems for the future, according to the UN Environment Programmed (UNEP).
Oceans
Rising sea levels are affecting coastal communities, habitats and biodiversity in many parts of
the world. The ocean is acidifying and the amount of oxygen is decreasing, according to the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - NOAA is the most important
source of fresh water on Earth.
Freshwater
They are witnessing declines in biodiversity even worse than those on land. Limiting global
temperature rise to 1.5°C could reduce the pressure on water supply and restore degraded
ecosystems.
Grasslands
Grasslands and savannahs are being lost and degraded faster than any other biome on the planet,
as a misunderstanding of their importance has led to poor management and conversion to other
land uses.
Forest
Are being destroyed at an alarming rate, with the damage driven by the consumption and food
production patterns of a growing human population. Meanwhile, practices like unsustainable
logging to produce timber and pulp is leading to their degradation, and impacting the richness
and abundance of forest species.
Food
Agriculture has underpinned the development of civilizations, but has also led to vast nature loss
and contributed to climate change. Many of today’s methods of food production are also harmful
to nature.
Air pollution
All types of pollution were responsible in 2015 for an estimated 9 million premature deaths—
16% of all deaths worldwide. Pollution is thus the world’s largest environmental reason for
disease and premature death.
Ocean acidification
This can affect marine life from shellfish to whole reef communities by removing needed
minerals that they use to grow their shells.
Sea Ice Melting and Rising Sea Level
Scientists are investigating connections between the massive changes we've seen within the
Arctic and changes to the airstream leading to increasingly dramatic impacts on extreme weather
events at lower latitudes. "The Arctic biophysical system is now clearly trending aloof from its
20th Century state and into an unprecedented state".
SUSTAINABILITY - it is the property of being sustainable/continuity.
Three Pillars of Sustainability:
 Social sustainability - The principle of sustainable development addresses social and
economic improvement that protects the environment and supports equality, and so
the economy and society and also the ecological system are mutually dependent
(Diesendorf, 2000).
 Economic sustainability - Abandoning economic process isn't an option. (Hawking,
2010).
 Environmental sustainability aims to boost human welfare through the protection of
natural capital (e.g. land, air, water, minerals etc.).
Millennium Development Goals of 2000
1. Reduce poverty and social exclusion
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child morality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Partnership for development
The SDGs Report of 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
1. No poverty
2. Zero hunger
3. Good health and well being
4. Quality education
 5. Gender equality
6. Clean water and sanitation
7. Affordable and clean energy
8. Decent work and economic growth
9. Industry innovation and infrastructure
10. Reduced inequalities
11. Sustainable cities and communities
12. Responsible consumption and production
13. Climate action
14. Life below water
15. Life on land
16. Peace, justice and strong institutions
17. Partnership for the goals
Three E’s of sustainability:
 Economy - is the management and use of resources to meet household and community
needs.
 Ecology - is the pattern of relationships between living things and their environment.
 Equity – is fairness. Ideally, everyone in a community shares in its well-being.
What is matter?
Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. The three most common forms of matter on
Earth are solids, liquids and gases. Matter also exists in two chemical forms—elements and
compounds.
 Elements - is a pure substance which cannot be broken down by chemical means,
consisting of atoms which have identical numbers of protons in their atomic nuclei.
 Compounds - is a substance formed when two or more elements are chemically joined,
when the elements are joined, the atoms lose their individual properties and have
different properties from the elements they are composed of.
Phases of matter
Solids have a fixed shape and volume. A solid’s particles are packed closely together. There is
not much space between the particles and there is little particle movement.
Liquids have a fixed volume, but take the shape of the container in which they sit. There is not
much space between the particles, but they can slide past each other and flow easily.
Gas fills the shape and volume of the container in which it sits. There is a lot of free space
between its particles and they flow easily past each other. Gas can be compressed.
Plasma is often thought of as a subset of gases, but the two states behave very differently. But
unlike ordinary gases, plasmas are made up of atoms in which some or all of the electrons have
been stripped away and positively charged nuclei, called ions, roam freely.
BOSE-EINSTINE Condensate is also called the fifth state of matter which is typically formed
when a gas of bosons at low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (-
273.15 °C).
The six ways to change the phase (state) of matter:
 Melting changes a solid to a liquid.
 Freezing changes a liquid to a solid.
 Evaporation changes a liquid to a gas.
 Condensation changes a gas to liquid.
 Sublimation changes a solid to a gas.
 Deposition changes a gas to a solid.

Physical and chemical changes of matter

 Physical Properties of Matter - characteristics that can be observed or measured without
changing the sample’s composition.
 Chemical Properties of Matter - the ability of a substance to combine with or change into
one or more other substances
 Atoms, molecules, and ions as building blocks of matter- The basic building block of all
matter is the atom. Curiously, the idea of atoms was first proposed in the fifth century
BCE, when the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus proposed their existence
in a surprisingly modern fashion
 Atoms, Molecules, and Ions - The angstrom unit is named after Anders Jonas Angstrom, a
nineteenth-century Swedish physicist.
 Atomic Theory - Chemistry is based on the modern atomic theory, which states that all
matter is composed of atoms. Atoms themselves are composed of protons, neutrons, and
electrons.
 Molecules and Chemical Nomenclature - Molecules are groups of atoms that behave as a
single unit. Some elements exist as molecules: hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and so forth.
 Masses of Atoms and Molecules - The atomic mass unit (u) is a unit that describes the
masses of individual atoms and molecules.
 Ions and Ionic Compounds - Ions form when atoms loss or gain electrons. Ionic
compounds have positive ions and negative ions. Ionic formulas balance the total positive
and negative charges.
 Acids - An acid is a compound of the H+ ion dissolved in water. Acids have their own
naming system.

ECOSYSTEMS: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW DO THEY WORK?

An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as
weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or
living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts. Biotic factors include plants, animals,
and other organisms.
The classification of Ecology: Based on Taxonomic Affinities
 Plant Ecology - This branch deals with the relationships of plants to other plants and
their environment.
 Animal Ecology-This branch deals with the animal population, changes in population,
their behavior, and their relationships with the environment.
Synecology - It is also known as the ecology of groups of organisms.
Autecology - It is also known as the ecology of individual organisms.
ECOSYSTEM
Living organisms cannot live isolated from their non-living environment because the latter
provides materials and energy for the survival of the former. There is an interaction between the
abiotic community and its environment to produce a stable system that is known as an ecosystem
or natural self-sufficient unit.
Abiotic Components
The non-living factors or the physical environment prevailing in an ecosystem form the abiotic
components. They have a strong influence on the structure, distribution, behavior, and inter-
relationship of organisms.
Abiotic components are mainly of two types:
 Climatic Factors – Which include rain, temperature, light, wind, humidity.
 Edaphic Factors - Which include soil, pH, and topography minerals.

Biotic Components
The living organisms including plants, animals, and micro-organisms (Bacteria and Fungi) that
are present in an ecosystem form the biotic components.
Biotic factors have been divided into three main categories, which define their distinctive role in
the ecosystem:
 Producers (Autotrophs)
 Consumers (heterotrophs)
 Decomposers (detritivores)
Autotrophs are "self-nourishing organisms capable of absorbing solar energy and
photosynthetically building high-energy organic substances". They are most commonly found
within the top 70 meters of water in marine environments. Since most coral reefs reside in
shallower waters, they provide a great environment for autotrophic organisms.
Heterotrophs are consumers; they obtain the energy necessary to survive from other organisms.
Heterotrophs can be broken down into seven different subcategories: herbivores, carnivores,
omnivores, filter feeders, planktivory, opportunistic feeders, and parasites.
Herbivores feed only upon autotrophs. There is a large guild of herbivores in coral reef
environments. Two examples are the Green Sea Turtle, which eats sea grass, and a sea urchin,
which eats algae.
Carnivores feed only upon other animals. In coral reefs, they range from top predators such as
barracudas and eels to smaller predators such as lobsters.
Omnivores consume both autotrophs and other heterotrophs. An example of an omnivore in
coral reefs are angelfish which feed algae, smaller fish, and shrimp (an organism that eats plants
and animals).
Detritivores are decomposers that feed upon the waste products and dead remains of other
organisms. They are extremely important to coral reef ecosystems because they break down the
dead waste, convert it to the energy they can use, and then return important materials back into
the environment (an organism (such as an earthworm or a fungus) that feeds on dead and
decomposing organic matter.)
Planktivores can be herbivores that are omnivorous and consume primarily phytoplankton, or
they can be carnivores that consume suspended animals. The whale shark, which feeds primarily
on plankton, is an example of planktiva's in coral reef ecosystems.
Filter/suspension feeding Zooplankton and sponges are good examples of these in coral reef
environments. Suspension feeders actively capture particles of food from the water using
tentacles. Filtration feeders use a filtration system to filter out dissolved particles after pumping
in water.
Corals use suspension feeding to supplement the nutrients they already derive from their
symbiotic relationship with the sea creatures.
Crinoids are another example of an organism that uses suspension feeding to capture food
particles. Crinoids have finger-like podia that occur in triads on both sides of the pinnular
ambulacra. The primary podia are adhesive, but the role of mucus in capturing food particles
varies among species.
Polychaete worms belonging to the family Serpulidae and to family Sabellidae are filter feeders.
Well-known examples include Featherduster Worms and Christmas Tree Worms, which are both
members of the Serpulidae family. They extend tentacles out to feed and then use cilia to sweep
water towards the mouth and to filter out food particles.
Tunicates draw in hundreds of liters of water a day through an incurrent siphon. This water
passes through a pharynx where small food particles are filtered out before the water is expelled
via the excurrent siphon.
Trophic Levels describe the transfer of chemical energy and nutrients through the food chain.
Each trophic level represents organisms that serve the same role. Trophic levels include the
primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, and
decomposers.