1- Discuss the environmental challenges we are currently facing today within our
ID: 288696 • Letter: 1
Question
1-
Discuss the environmental challenges we are currently facing today within our society. In your discussion, include two examples of ecological issues and how these issues have impacted our society? Are there any methods for resolving these issues?
2- In your community, are there any human-ecological issues that need to be solved and would involve collaboration across disciplinary and sector boundaries in order to develop a more sustainable society? Conflicts over land use, or green space, or air or water pollution, or environmental justice issues involving minorities or the poor, for example.
3- Explain what kind of feedback is operating in this example: more and more people around the world are using more and more electricity, mostly made by more and more coal-fired electric power generation facilities burning more and more coal to run more and more air conditioners in larger and larger houses, causing more and more CO2 emissions which are trapping more and more heat in the atmosphere causing the Earth to get hotter and hotter, and more humid. How could we stop this feedback loop?
Explanation / Answer
1. Today in our society, we come across several environmental challenges like air pollution and climate change, deforestation, soil degradation, species extinction, overpopulation etc. Ecological issues include global warming, Biodiversity threats and their loss, threat to the coral reefs, deforestation, desertification, erosion, environmental degradation. Unfortunately, there is now too much carbon in the air. Burning of fossil fuels, deforestation for agriculture, and industrial activities have pushed up atmospheric CO2 concentrations to extreme levels thus causing climatic disruption.Carbon overloading is only one form of air pollution caused by the burning of coal, oil, gas and wood. Species-rich wild forests are being destroyed, especially in the tropics. Today, about 30 percent of the planet's land area is covered by forests - which is about half as much as before agriculture got started. Not only do natural forests act as biodiversity reserves, they are also carbon sinks, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere and oceans. On land, wild animals are being hunted to extinction for bushmeat, ivory, or medicinal products. At sea, huge industrial fishing boats equipped with bottom-trawling or purse-seine nets clean out entire fish populations. Increasing human encroachment on wildlife habitats is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity. The loss and destruction of habitat are also major factors contributing to a wave of extinction of these species. Overgrazing, monoculture planting, erosion, soil compaction, overexposure to pollutants, land-use conversion causes the soils to get damaged. Lastly human population continues to grow rapidly worldwide. These issues can be resolved by replacing the use of fossil fuels with renewable energy, by practising reforestation and reducing emissions from agriculture. Clean energy is abundant but it just needs to be harvested. Next, we can practise afforestation by restoring the degraded areas by replanting them with native tree species. Concerted efforts needs to be made to prevent further loss of biodiversity. Protecting and restoring habitats is one of the methods, protecting them against poaching and wildlife trade is another. A wide range of soil conservation and restoration techniques exist, from no-till agriculture to crop rotation to water-retention through terrace-building. We can easily practise them. Experience has shown that when women are empowered to control their own reproduction. And if they gain access to education and basic social services, the average number of births per woman drops precipitously.
2. Today the world is more complex and unpredictable than ever before. The most important human ecological issue that needs to be solved in our community is water pollution. We have a water body nearby which is highly polluted by the wastes and sewage from the nearby homes that are being dumped into it continuously. The water gives out a pungent smell and the aquatic oraganisms are harmed. Plastics are also dumped along with other wastes. Improving the operation of urban services, such as water supply, sewerage, drainage, solid waste management, transport, water resources are limited but the wastage from leaks and abuse is high, and water quality is not monitored in accordance with WHO International Guidelines for Drinking Water. The efforts made at reducing these wastes and improving water-efficiency are l. Water conservation initiatives involving metering and leak detection work by water agencies, as well as customer demand management strategies, must be supported by public education and incentive programmes. Local Government has increased awareness of water and sanitation problems and solutions. A famous example of water purification provided as an ecosystem service is the City of New York. The city funds and implements a comprehensive Long-Term Watershed Protection Program which maintains and protects the high quality source of drinking water for nine million water consumers representing nearly half the state’s total population providing access to freshwater, constructing wastewater purification plants. We must ensure proper treatment of the wates before discharging them into the water bodies.
3. This feedback loop can be stopped by using alternative energy resources like by replacing the fossil fuels by renewable energy resources to produce and meet the electricity requirements because they are cheaper, more advanced and most importantly environment friendly.
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