Environmental Science Essay

If you were the postal code czar of your state, where would you invest your cipher? What changes, if any, would you commit to the existing program? I would invest on the renewable qualification resources in the budget. This is be arrive with the current expenditure on muscularity, renewable energy sources would reduce the monetary allotment on the energy budget. The changes I would make take on, purchasing solar panels, wind turbines and similarly the geothermal energy equipments and defy them installed in major goernment industries and buildings that have got very high energy consumption power.The installation would be very easy especially on the solar panels because they argon fitted on the already existing buildings therefrom does non affect land use in any way. Other changes would embarrass funding the projects that have to with installation of renewable energy sources and as well supporting citizens to switch to the renewable energy sources for their daily energy nee ds in seminars and through the media. Qn 3. What ar some of the planetary environmental tasks caused by the extensive use of fossil fuels worldwide? Pollution is a major environmental occupation caused by use of fossil fuels.All fossil fuels are used by burning them. Burning produces waste products out-of-pocket to impurities in the fuel which are usually particulates and gases like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercurial organic compounds. These waste products affect the environment and people in a priceful way. This burning to a fault produces blow dioxide and body of piddle vapor as by-products. This is because carbon is a part of what makes fossil fuel useful. Studies have shown that these carbon dioxide emissions ease up to harmful heat retention by the communication channel that is global warming and climate change.Qn 4. What are two of the advantages and woundings of each of the perpetual or renewable energy resources described in the text books? Which s eem to be near desirable from an environmental stand agitate? Why? Renewable energy sources consist of solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass. They all have advantages which allow in the fact that each and every one of them is renewable. This is an advantage in the sense that they bay window non be depleted due to the reason that they are naturally and infinitely replenished.The renewable energy sources also are clean energy that do not pollute the air consequently do not contri preciselye to global warming or greenhouse effects. A common disadvantage of the renewable energy sources is that the cost of initiating them is very high. For one to install the solar panels and wind turbines, a large make out of outstanding is required for get and installation. These energy sources have difficulties of producing the large quantities of as compared to their fossil fuels counterparts. From the environmental standpoint, solar energy source seems to stand out.This is because it us es the suns energy. The system can be fitted into existing buildings and it does not affect land use hence it has no negative implications on the environment. II. Qn 1. What is indoor air pollution and why has it become much(prenominal) a problem in recent age? Provide examples of at least three indoor air pollutants liable for this problem. What might be done to improve the topographic point? Is this a problem in create countries? Why or why not? indoor(a) air pollution is the contamination of air indoors. The person is exposed to air borne substances originating not from outdoors but indoors.This has become a problem over the years because studies show that people in industrialized nations spend more(prenominal) than 90% of their time indoors (Gammage & Kaye 10). This includes homes, school and workplace. The lung is the or so site of injury by airborne pollutants. Among the acute effects that result include non-respiratory symptoms which more often than not depend on the toxicological characteristics of the substance and host related factors. This therefore makes it a very big problem. The examples of indoors pollutants include Environmental tobacco plant smoke, Combustion products such as stoves, fire places, space heaters and furnaces.There are also volatile organic compounds like cleaning agents, solvents and even pesticides. This touch can be improved by eliminating all fume from the various(prenominal)s environment. This can be done through smoking rampart or through restricting smoking to properly designed smoking rooms that are separately air out from outside. Periodic professional direction and maintenance of installed equipments like furnaces are also recommended. Such equipments should be ventilated directly from outside.It is also advisable to increase ventilation when using products that impel volatile organic compound pollutants and meet the label precautions. One should also not store opened containers of unused paints and si milar items within homes or offices. Indoor air pollution also affects developing nations. This is because the pollutants involved in indoor air pollution are also commonly name in developing nations in more or less the kindred environment putting the same risk to people of these developing nations. Qn 2. retell the problems with worldwide raw irrigate supplies. The major problem is water stress.This is a situation whereby, there is not enough water for all use. Inefficiency of fresh water affects its supply considerably. Population festering is also another problem. In more or less developing countries, the cosmos appendage is escalating and thus fresh water demands increase. This is a problem because there is no much increase in water conservation and recycling as compared to the population increase. Increased affluence, expansion of commercial enterprise activities and rapid urbanization also pose a challenge to fresh water supplies. Climate change has a significant eff ect on water resources.Fresh water supplies experience it a problem because, ascending temperatures will increase evaporation and lead to increased precipitation which leads to floods (Almasi & Pescod 126). higher(prenominal) temperatures also affect the water quality. Last but not least, water pollution. Many pollutants threaten supplies world wide and more especially in the under unquestionable countries. This is caused by discharge of raw sewage into natural waters, a very common practice in underdeveloped countries and even in the quasi-developed countries like China, India and Iran. Qn 3. What is eutrophication and why is it a problem? Provide examples ofeutrophication in two the unite States and European countries. What are some of the ways in which this problem can be mitigated? Eutrophication is a process whereby water bodies such as lakes receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive plant maturement (Khrisanov & Osipov 69). This excessive plant growth in turn reduc es dissolved type O in the water so that when dead plant materials decompose, they can cause other organisms to die. The aquatic plants stimulated to grow include, algae, periphyton attached algae and iniquity plants weed. In the U. S eutrophication is for the most part human induced. Nitrogen and Phosphorus concentrations for the U.S are estimated to exceed reference median values (Khrisanov & Osipov 103). According to schooling in the literature, a conservative estimate of the increase in nitrogen loads from land and atmosphere to the Baltic and North Sea regions is a doubling from the 1950s to the 1980s, and a fourfold increase in the friction match load from the 1940s to the 1970s. This is in the European countries. Eutrophication is in most cases caused by point inputs of phosphorus like in the case of sewage discharges mostly found in developing countries, or nonpoint inputs like runoff from agriculture, mainly in developed nations.Mitigation differs depending on whether most of the phosphorus comes from point or nonpoint inputs. Therefore, decreasing soil phosphorus is a very of the essence(p) step towards the mitigation of eutrophication. Once soil phosphorus is decreasing, steps to subside transport of phosphorus in surface waters and manipulations to decrease phosphorus recycling within lakes is recommended. III. Qn 1. How has population growth in less developed countries overwhelmed economic growth? What effect has this had on the environment? Population growth in less developed countries has an overwhelmingly negative effect on the economic growth.This is because, with land being fixed and not growing, increased population eventually leads to diminishing outputs. Thus shortage of food and hunger that makes the on the job(p) population not put much into economy development due to famine hence the economy dwindles. Growing population also leads to capital and resource thinning. The low capital causes reduced per capita output resulting to l ower economic growth rates. Population growth in less developed nations also leads to investments diversions from things like infrastructure development to provision of basic needs that are scarce due to the increase (Ehrlich, P.& Ehrlick, A 37). This results to lowering of the economic growth rate considerably. Population growth has a great effect on the environment in the sense that, the environments carrying capacity has been exceeded by population increase thus strain on natural resources star to their depletion The more the people are, the more the houses there are to warm, so more trees are cut. The forests and atmosphere are most at threat from population increase. Hence, degradation of all facades of the environment can be blamed on population increase. Qn 2. What are ethnic resources?Provide examples of cultural resources in the United States and in two of the less developed countries discussed in the text. Why is it definitive to make an attempt to preserve these resour ces? Cultural resources are archaeological and diachronic resources eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They include buildings, sites, districts, structures or objects having historical, architectural, archaeological, cultural or scientific value. In Kenya which is a developing country there are quite a number of cultural resources that a big tourist attraction. In the U.S there is COSO rock music Art National Historical Landmark District, China Lake Naval aureole Weapons Station, California and The Pentagon building as examples of cultural resources (Adams & Goldbard 37). There is the Kenya National Museum and also The Nairobi National commonalty. It is very important to preserve because they are a source of a countrys heritage. They also help in the economic growth of many developing nations through tourism hence should be preserved. Qn 3. What are the major environmental problems facing the National Park System? What is being done to minimize t hese problems? Which National Park has been most affected?National Park System faces various environmental problems which include insufficient funding for park operations. The increase of its visitors has increased the amount of moil and tear on the park. With limited funding, repairs and maintenance often take a back seat. According to Abramovitz, overuse is another problem in that the amount of visitors is increasing hence overusing the limited park facilities (17). Mining claims on case parks is another problem. If any of the claims were developed, it could directly impact on the health of the ecosystem within the park. Atmospheric pollution is yet another issue.Acid rains harm delicate organisms like amphibians. Laguna de Tacarigua National Park IN Venezuela has been most affected. This is due to the many problems that combine to threaten its biodiversity. High rates of sedimentation, secure waste contamination, water contamination and forest fires are just but some of the p roblems it encounters.Works CitedAbramovitz, J. Imperilled waters, impoverished future The decline of freshwater ecosystems. Washington, D. C. , Worldwatch Institute, Mar. 1996. p. 5-66. Adams, Don, & Goldbard, Arlene. inventive community The art of cultural development. new York. (2001).Almasi, A. and M. B. Pescod. Waste water word mechanism in anoxic stabilisation ponds. Water Sci. Tech. 33(7)125-132. (1996a). Ehrlich, P. & Ehrlick, A. The Population Explosion. New York Simon and Schuster. (1990). Gammage, R. B. , Kaye, S. V. Indoor glory and Human Health. Lewis Publishers, Inc. Chelsea, MI. Khrisanov, N. I. and Osipov, G. K. Eutrophication control of water bodies. Gidrometeoizdat. Sankt-Petersburg, Russia, 278 p. (in Russian) (1993). Wadden, R. A. , Scheff, P. A. Indoor Air Pollution Characterization, Prediction, and Control. 1983. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York, NY.