This document discusses environmental science concepts including ecosystems, environmentalism, sustainability, population growth, resources, pollution, global warming, and overpopulation. It defines key terms and explores the relationships between human activities and their impact on the natural world. Issues covered include rising population putting pressure on resources, pollution from industrialization harming the environment, and climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. Potential solutions proposed are increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable resources, reducing waste, and promoting family planning.
David O. Norris, James A. Carr - Endocrine Disruption - Biological Bases For Health Effects in Wildlife and Humans-Oxford University Press, USA (2005) PDF
This document discusses environmental science concepts including ecosystems, environmentalism, sustainability, population growth, resources, pollution, global warming, and overpopulation. It defines key terms and explores the relationships between human activities and their impact on the natural world. Issues covered include rising population putting pressure on resources, pollution from industrialization harming the environment, and climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. Potential solutions proposed are increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable resources, reducing waste, and promoting family planning.
This document discusses environmental science concepts including ecosystems, environmentalism, sustainability, population growth, resources, pollution, global warming, and overpopulation. It defines key terms and explores the relationships between human activities and their impact on the natural world. Issues covered include rising population putting pressure on resources, pollution from industrialization harming the environment, and climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. Potential solutions proposed are increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable resources, reducing waste, and promoting family planning.
This document discusses environmental science concepts including ecosystems, environmentalism, sustainability, population growth, resources, pollution, global warming, and overpopulation. It defines key terms and explores the relationships between human activities and their impact on the natural world. Issues covered include rising population putting pressure on resources, pollution from industrialization harming the environment, and climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. Potential solutions proposed are increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable resources, reducing waste, and promoting family planning.
Environment • the natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity. Environmental Science • An interdiciplinary study of the relationships of the natural world and the relationships between organisms and their environments Environmentalism • Social movement to protect earth’s life support systems • Members Include- ecologists, conservationists, preservationists, restorationists and environmentalists Sustainability • Meets the basic needs of all people while not affecting the future generations’ ability to do so. How unstable the world is? • As the world population rises, the rate at which we degrade the worlds natural capital is constantly accelerating. Resources • Anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants. – Example: water, food, shelter etc. Classifications of resources • Perpetual • Renewable • Nonrenewable Perpetual resources • resources that are renewed continuously on the human timescale, such as the sun. Renewable Resources • resources that are refreshed fairly rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes, such as forests and freshwater Non renewable Resources • Exist in a fixed quantity or stock in the earth’s crust. They can only be renewed after millions or billions of years. – Energy resources, metallic mineral resources and nonmetallic mineral resources. Population in the world • Population in the world is currently (2018- 2019) growing at a rate of around 1.07% per year (down from 1.09% in 2018, 1.12% in 2017 and 1.14% in 2016). • The current average population increase is estimated at 82 million people per year. Economic Growth • The increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services. – Measured by GDP (gross domestic product) – Standard of living is measured by a change in per capita GDP Economic Development • The improvement of living standards by economic growth. • Determines whether a country is developed or not • Based on degree of industrialization and per capita GDP – Developed nations have 1.2 billion people – Undeveloped have about 5.2 billion people Developed vs Underdeveloped nations Globalization • the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale Environmental problems • The industrialization of society and explosion of human population leads destruction to the environment through indiscriminate discharge of untreated industrial and domestic wastes. Pollution • the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects. • Pollution can occur through natural processes (volcanoes) or human or anthropogenic actions (burning coal). – Most comes from urban or industrialized areas Pollutants • a substance that pollutes something, especially water or the atmosphere. – Example • Ground level ozone • Carbon Monoxide • Sulfur Dioxide • Lead • Nitrogen Oxides • Particulate Matter • Carbon Dioxide • Methane • Chlorofluorocarbons (CFS) Types of Pollution • Water pollution • Thermal pollution • Land pollution • Radiation Pollution • Noise pollution • Air pollution Water Pollution • Degradation of the quality of water and affects organisms living in it through : – Chemical, physical or biological materials. Thermal Pollution • the harmful release of heated liquid into a body of water or heat released into the air as a waste product of a business Land Pollution • the deterioration (destruction) of the earth's land surfaces, often directly or indirectly as a result of man's activities and their misuse of land resources Major causes of Land Pollution • Deforestation • Agriculture • Industry • Mining • Landfills and waste • Urbanization Radiation Pollution • Caused by radioactive substances which emit invisible radiation released in the environment through human activities Noise Pollution • harmful or annoying levels of noise, as from airplanes, industry, etc. Air Pollution • the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. Types of air pollution • Primary pollutants – Volcanic ash (natural occurrence) – Gas emission from vehicles (man made pollutant) • Secondary pollutants – Nitrogen oxide from factory emission causes acid rain Global warming • a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the Greenhouse Effect • increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants Effects of Global Warming • Rising seas and increased coastal flooding • More destructive hurricanes • Longer and more damaging wildfire seasons • More frequent and intense heat waves • Costly and growing health impacts • An increase in extreme weather events • Destruction of marine ecosystems Effects of Global Warming • Widespread forest death in the Rocky Mountains • More severe droughts in some areas • Growing risks to our electricity supply • Changing seasons • Disruptions to food supplies • Melting ice Solutions to Global warming • Improvement of energy efficiency and vehicle fuel economy • Use of alternate natural powers – Wind and solar power – Biofuel (organic waste) • Protection of forestry • building better batteries to store renewable energy Solutions to Global warming • building better batteries to store renewable energy • engineering a smarter electric grid Overpopulation • an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. Causes of Overpopulation • Decline in the Death Rate • Better Medical Facilities • More hands to overcome poverty • technological Advancement in Fertility Treatment • Immigration • Lack of Family Planning Effects of Overpopulation • Depletion of Natural Resources • Degradation of Environment • Conflicts and Wars • Rise in Unemployment • High Cost of living Solutions to Overpopulation • Better education • Awareness on family planning • Tax benefit (concessions)
David O. Norris, James A. Carr - Endocrine Disruption - Biological Bases For Health Effects in Wildlife and Humans-Oxford University Press, USA (2005) PDF