Environmental Problems and Their Causes

Prepared by: Fendy Ting Sie Ying (4 PISMP SN/PJ/PC)

Living Sustainably
Our existence, lifestyles and economies depend completely on the sun and the earth blue and white island in the black void of space. The energy from the sun is solar capital. We can think of the planets air, water, soil, wildlife control processes as earth capital. The word environment also used to describe these supporting systems.

 Many environmentalists and leading scientists believe that we are depleting and degrading the earth, natural capital at an accelerating rate as our population and demands on the earth resources and natural processes increase exponentially. A sustainable society manages its economy and population size without exceeding all or part of the planets ability to absorb environmental insults, replenish its resources, and sustain human and other forms of life over a specified period, usually thousands of years.

 Living sustainably means living off of income and not depleting the capital that supplies the income. Deplete the capital and you move from a sustainable to an unsustainable lifestyle. Living sustainably involves not disrupting or diminishing the natural processes and services provided by the nature.

Human population
World population has more than doubled in only 47 years, from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 5.84 billions in 1997. Unless death rates rise sharply, it may reach 8 billion by 2025, 10-11 billion by 2050 and 14 billion by 2100. Recent studies by researchers at Conservation International suggest that roughly 48% of the earths total land area has been partially or totally modified by human activities.

 If uninhabitable areas of rock and ice are excluded, 73% of the habitable area of the planet has been altered by human activities. What will happen to the earths remaining wildlife habitats, wildlife species and biodiversity if the human population increases from 5.84 billion to 8 billion between 1997 and 2025 and perhaps to 11 billion by 2050?

Economic Growth
Virtually all countries seek economic growth. Economic growth- an increase in their capacity to provide goods and services for peoples final use. This growth is normally achieved by increasing the flow or throughput of matter and energy resources used to produce goods and services through an economy.

Resources
A resource is anything we get from the environment (the earths life support systems) to meet our needs and desires. All forms of life need resources such as food, water and shelter for survival and good health. We can classify the resources into renewable, potentially renewable or non-renewable.

 Some resources such as solar energy, air, water, wind, fertile soil and wild edible plants are directly for use by us and other organisms. Other resources such as petroleum (oil), groundwater and modern corps arent directly available. They become useful to us only with some effort and technological ingenuity. For example, petroleum.

Renewable Resources
Solar energy is a renewable or perpetual resource because on human time scale this solar capital it is essentially inexhaustible. It is expect to last at least 6 billion years as the sun completes its life cycle.

Potentially Renewable Resource

A potentially renewable resource can be replenished fairly rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes. Example: forest trees, grassland grasses, wild animals, fresh lake, steam water, fresh air and fertile soil. One important potentially renewable resource is biological diversity, which consists of the different life forms that can best survive the variety of conditions currently found on the earth.

 Kind of biodiversity: 1. Genetic diversity 2. Species diversity 3. Ecological diversity

Potentially renewable resources can be depleted. If a resources natural replacement rate exceeded, the available supply begins to shrink, this process known as environmental degradation. Several types of environmental degradation can change potentially renewable resources into non- renewable resources.

Non-renewable Resources
Resources that exist in fixed quantity in the earth crust and thus theoretically can be completely used up are called non-renewable resources. On a time scale of millions to billions years, such resources can be renewed by geological processes. However, on the much shorter human time scale of hundreds to thousands of years, these resources can be depleted much faster than they are formed.

 At that point, we can: 1. Reuse or reuse existing supplies 2. Waste less 3. Use less 4. Try to develop a substitute 5. Do without and wait millions of years for more to be produced.
Recycling involves collecting and reprocessing a resource into new products. Reuse involves using a resource over and over in the same form.

Renewable Resources and The Tragedy of the Commons

One cause of the environmental degradation is the overuse of common-property resources, which are owned by no one but are available to all users free of charge. One solution to use common- property resources at rates below their overload limits is by reducing population, regulating access or both. Another approach is to convert commonproperty resources to private ownership.

Pollution
Any addition to air, water, soil or food that threatens the health, survival, or activities of human or other living organisms is called pollution. Pollution can take the form of unwanted energy emissions, such as excessive heat, noise or radiation. Pollutants can enter the environment naturally or through human activities. Most pollution from human activities occurs near or in urban and industrial areas, where pollutants are concentrated.

 Pollution does not respect local, state or national boundaries. Some pollutants come from single, identifiable sources, such as the smokestack of a power plant, the drainpipe of a meat-packing plant or the exhaust pipe of an automobile. This is called point sources. Some pollutants come from dispersed nonpoint sources. Examples: the runoff of the fertilizers and pesticides into streams.

The End

Whats the use of the house if you dont have a decent planet to put it on? - HENRY DAVID THOREAU