Environmental degradation and it’s consequent effects by Green Yatra

Think Green, Be Green 1


ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND IT’S CONSEQUENT EFFECTS

Ngarambe Daniel

3Think Green, Be Green

What is Environmental Degradation?- It is the deterioration of the

environment through depletion of resources such as air, and soil leading to the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife

Alt-It is any undesirable change or disturbance to

the environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION


There are basically two factors namely:1.Natural factors such as drought, storms on

sea, land and deserts such as hurricanes, tornadoes, carina and volcanic eruptions. These factors lead to land degradation through erosion.

2. Human factors which include deforestation, industrialization and urbanization. These factors lead to water, air and land pollution.

FACTORS OF ENVIRNMENTAL DEGRADATION


There are a number of causes most of which are based on Human activity on the environment as discussed bellow.

CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION


Definition: The physical growth of rural or natural land into urban areas as a result of population in-migration to an existing urban area.

Urbanization has both negative and positive consequences on the environment as see below.

1.URBANIZATION


-Increased cost of living – Farmers become more mechanized forcing laborers out of work, reducing soil moisture, more resources are needed to meet basic requirements and air, water and soil pollution increase.

-Soil ad Land degradation – when fertile land/soil is lost due to increase in human population.

- Increased Deforestation – Clearing forests for human settlement.

Negative Consequences


-Cities are places where money, services and wealth are centralized.

-Central mobility and diversity increases, greater economic opportunities are created.

Positive Consequences


Definition: The setting up of industries in a specific area which is close to the source of the raw materials needed by those industries.

As urbanization, industrialization also has it’s negative and positive effects as elaborated below.

2. INDUSTRIALIZATION


- Noise, air and water pollution occurs- Increase in health problems.- Creation of machinery that is dangerous to

the environment, human and wild life. - Creates over population in urban areas which

leads t shortage of resources.

Negative Consequences


- Renders land unsuitable for crop, pasture for animals and forests because it becomes too infertile or shallow to plant

- Soil composition is greatly affected.- Loss of minerals such as nitrogen and

phosphorous that are so critical for plant growth.

- Increase in food shortages

Negative Consequences cont..


-This creates new ideas, products and jobs.- It also creates mass investment markets.-Creates commerce and revenue.-Construction of homes and high ways for living

and travel respectively.

Positive Consequences


Definition: The clearing of forest land (tropical forests) for purposes of obtaining fuel and building materials, paper to be used by humans. Land is also cleared and cut for logging and pulpwood and urban extensions.

-This later results in to diseases and death from

localized flooding.

3. DEFORESTATION


The Problem: By chemical waste, pesticides, fertilizers and soil sediments that are being deposited in to water bodies after the typical rain forests are cleared.

4. WATER POLLUTION


i). Four (4) million children worldwide die each year due to acute respiratory infections caused by air pollution that is due to industrialization.

ii). Asthma is rising dramatically due to increased environmental allergies and overcrowding of homes.

iii). Three (3) million people die every year due to air pollution from smoke and other chemicals.

Facts about environment associated infections/diseases


iv). Toxic chemicals and other substances are released it to the environment contributing to cancers, birth defects, immune system defects and many other serious health problems.

v). Agriculture degradation of water comes in the form of mature runoff from farming causing damage to local water quality by over loading it with nutrients , particularly phosphates. The mature contains pathogens to which humans are vulnerable. These pathogens can lead to acute short-term memory loss, asthma like symptoms, liver and kidney dysfunctions and blurred vision and vomiting.

Facts about environment associated infections/diseases cont..


vi). Two and a half (2.5) million children worldwide die every year of diarrhea a disease associated to contaminated water and soil.

vii). Atmospheric Pollution For over 150 years, the growth of our industrial society has been fueled by cheap energy, much of it is obtained by burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil and gas) which release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide creates what has become known as the greenhouse effect where radiant energy from the sun is prevented from radiating into space. Therefore, the temperature of our atmosphere is rising. Global warming is predicted to have a major effect on rainfall patterns.



viii). It is estimated that worldwide 1.2 billion people lack clean water. Therefore, waterborne infections account for 80 percent of all infectious diseases. Water pollution creates breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes and West Nile virus carrying mosquitoes. Urbanization has caused overcrowding of urban areas to create conditions that are unsanitary. Therefore, more people have been exposed to such diseases as measles and flu. Soil and land Soil is contaminated by many chemicals and pathogens which are passed on to humans through direct contact or via food and water. Pesticides are a type of pathogen that pass on their harmful toxic chemicals through food and water. The long- tem effects of pesticides include elevated cancer risks, and disruptions of the body’s reproductive, immune, endocrine and nervous system. Approximately 10,000 deaths occur each year due to pesticide poisonings. Studies have shown that pesticides have been linked to certain types of cancer.



What is it?

Definition: Global warming is the current rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere and its projected continuation.

GLOBAL WORMING


- Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone.

- Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide.

CAUSE OF GLOBAL WORMING


When sunlight reaches Earth's surface some is absorbed and warms the earth and most of the rest is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light. Some of these longer wavelengths are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before they are lost to space. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere.

These greenhouse gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to space. The reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the "greenhouse effect".

THE GREEN HOUSE EFFECT


Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (see above) act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth a part of the heat radiation, which would otherwise be lost to space. The higher the concentration of green house gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more heat energy is being reflected back to the Earth. The emission of carbon dioxide into the environment mainly from burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas, petrol, kerosene, etc.) has been increased dramatically over the past 50 years, see graph below.

The Green House Effect as a cause of global worming


There are two major effects of global warming:1. Increase of temperature on the earth by

about 3° to 5° C (5.4° to 9° Fahrenheit) by the year 2100.

Increasing global temperatures are causing a broad range of changes. Sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to melting of land ice. Amounts and patterns of precipitation are changing

2. Rise of sea levels by at least 25 meters (82 feet) by the year 2100.

Effects of Global Worming


The major two effects above later result in to the following:-

a). Drought: The effects of drought on health include deaths, malnutrition, infectious diseases and respiratory diseases Countries within the “Meningitis Belt" in semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa experience the highest endemicity and epidemic frequency of meningococcal meningitis in Africa, although other areas in the Rift Valley, the Great Lakes, and southern Africa are also affected. The spatial distribution, intensity, and seasonality of meningococcal (epidemic) meningitis appear to be strongly linked to climate and environmental factors, particularly drought. The cause of this link is not fully understood.

Effects of Global Worming cont..


b). Fires: In some regions, changes in temperature and precipitation are projected to increase the frequency and severity of fire events. Forest and bush fires cause burns, damage from smoke inhalation and other injuries.

c). Heatwaves: Hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have become more frequent. Heatwaves are associated with marked short-term increases in mortality. For example, in August 2003, a heatwave in Europe resulted in excess mortality in the range of 35,000 total deaths.

Heat-related morbidity and mortality is projected to increase. The health burden could be relatively small for moderate heatwaves in temperate regions, because deaths occur primarily in susceptible persons.



d). Floods and weather disasters: Floods are low-probability, high-impact events that can overwhelm physical infrastructure and human communities. Major storm and flood disasters have occurred in the last two decades.

The impacts of weather disasters are considerable and unequally distributed. For example, natural disasters have been shown to result in increased domestic violence against – and post-traumatic stress disorders in – women. In terms of deaths and populations affected, floods and tropical cyclones have the greatest impact in South Asia and Latin America. Vulnerability to weather disasters depends on the attributes of the person at risk, including where they live and their age, as well as other social and environmental factors. High-density populations in low-lying coastal regions experience a high health burden from weather disasters.



e). Ocean Acidification: About one-third of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity has already been taken up by the oceans. As carbon dioxide dissolves in sea water, carbonic acid is formed, which has the effect of acidifying the ocean, measured as a change in pH. The uptake of human carbon emissions since the year 1750 has led to an average decrease in pH of 0.1 units. Projections using the SRES emissions scenarios suggest a further reduction in average global surface ocean pH of between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st century.


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Environmental degradation and it’s consequent effects by Green Yatra

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Transcript of Environmental degradation and it’s consequent effects by Green Yatra