Environment Pollution
The atmosphere of the Earth serves as a key factor in sustaining the planetary
ecosystem. The thin layer of gases that envelops the Earth is held in place by the
planet's gravity. Dry air consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon and other
inert gases, such as carbon dioxide. The remaining gases are often referred to as
trace gases, among which are the greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon
dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Filtered air includes trace amounts of
many other chemical compounds. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor
and suspensions of water droplets and ice crystals seen as clouds. Many natural
substances may be present in tiny amounts in an unfiltered air sample, including
dust, pollen and spores, sea spray, volcanic ash, and meteoroids. Various industrial
pollutants also may be present, such as chlorine (elementary or in compounds),
fluorine compounds, elemental mercury, and sulphur compounds such as sulphur
dioxide [SO2].
The ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere plays an important role in depleting the
amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that reaches the surface. As DNA is readily
damaged by UV light, this serves to protect life at the surface. The atmosphere also
retains heat during the night, thereby reducing the daily temperature extremes.
Effects of global warming
The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between.
Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree
Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions. And the effects of rising
temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future. They’re happening right now.
Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only
melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting
animals on the move.
Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.
Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes
mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and
Arctic sea ice.
Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on
Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to
11,000 in 30 years.
Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to
higher, cooler areas.
Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm
summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.
Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59
centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles
could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example,
plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where
droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50
years.
Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues
to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people
who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become
more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct.
Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s,
with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten
considerably skinnier. Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar
pattern in Hudson Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will
as well.
The potential dangers of global warming are being increasingly studied by a wide
global consortium of scientists, who are increasingly concerned about the potential
long-term effects of global warming on our natural environment and on the planet. Of
particular concern is how climate change and global warming caused by
anthropogenic, or human-made releases of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon
dioxide, can act interactively, and have adverse effects upon the planet, its natural
environment and humans' existence. Efforts have been increasingly focused on the
mitigation of greenhouse gases that are causing climatic changes, on developing
adaptative strategies to global warming, to assist humans, animal and plant species,
ecosystems, regions and nations in adjusting to the effects of global warming. Some
examples of recent collaboration to address climate change and global warming
include:
The United Nations Framework Convention Treaty and convention on Climate
Change, to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level
that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate
system.
The Kyoto Protocol, which is the protocol to the international Framework
Convention on Climate Change treaty, again with the objective of reducing
greenhouse gases in an effort to prevent anthropogenic climate change.
The Western Climate Initiative, to identify, evaluate, and implement collective
and cooperative ways to reduce greenhouse gases in the region, focusing on a
market-based cap-and-trade system.
A significantly profound challenge is to identify the natural environmental dynamics in
contrast to environmental changes not within natural variances. A common solution is
to adapt a static view neglecting natural variances to exist. Methodologically, this
view could be defended when looking at processes which change slowly and short
time series, while the problem arrives when fast processes turns essential in the
object of the study.
Challenges
It is the common understanding of natural environment that underlies
environmentalism — a broad political, social, and philosophical movement that
advocates various actions and policies in the interest of protecting what nature
remains in the natural environment, or restoring or expanding the role of nature in
this environment. While true wilderness is increasingly rare, wild nature (e.g.,
unmanaged forests, uncultivated grasslands, wildlife, wildflowers) can be found in
many locations previously inhabited by humans.
Goals commonly expressed by environmental scientists include:
Reduction and clean up of pollution, with future goals of zero pollution;
Cleanly converting non-recyclable materials into energy through direct
combustion or after conversion into secondary fuels;
Reducing societal consumption of non-renewable fuels;
Development of alternative, green, low-carbon or renewable energy sources;
Conservation and sustainable use of scarce resources such as water, land,
and air;
Protection of representative or unique or pristine ecosystems;
Preservation of threatened and endangered species extinction;
The establishment of nature and biosphere reserves under various types of
protection; and, most generally, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems
upon which all human and other life on earth depends.
Very large development projects - megaprojects - pose special instructions and risks
to the natural environments. Major dams and power plants are cases in point. The
challenge to the environment from such projects is growing because more and bigger
megaprojects are being built, in developed and developing nations alike.