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ENVIRONMENT AND

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

What is Environment?• The environment encompasses the

whole of life on earth and the complex interactions that link the living world with the physical world.

• In a general sense, this covers everything contained within the air, land and water

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Environmental Change• Sudden and dramatic natural

changes to the environment have occurred in the distant past, but only relatively recently has one species had the potential to upset the whole balance of the Earth's ecosystem

• The global population has risen dramatically during the last century

• The rise of industry and its rapid expansion has been a major source of pollution. This has caused changes in the balanceof our environment

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Environmental Aspects and Impacts-Definition

• ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

Elements of an organization’s activities, products or services which can interact with the environment. For example: wastewater discharges, air emissions, resource consumption, energy usage, ecosystem alterations, etc.)

• ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partly resulting from an organization’s activities, products, or services (based on the aspects, for example: air emissions impacts the air by degrading the air quality).

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES• POLLUTION• GLOBAL WARMING• GREENHOUSE EFFECT• OZONE DEPLETION• DEPLETION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

ACTION• MONTREAL PROTOCOL• KYOTO PROTOCOL

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• The action of degrading an environment by discharging harmful substances into the air, soil or water or by increasing noise to an unacceptability high level, so that the site area or surroundings ( means the environment ) is less desirable for residential, commercial, or for social purposes.

• The major pollutions are:-

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• Air pollution, the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere. Common examples include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and nitrogen oxides produced by industries and motor vehicles.

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PollutionAir Pollution has No Boundaries

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• Water pollution• A change in water quality that

impacts on living organisms.• surface runoff, leaching to

groundwater, liquid spills, wastewater discharges, eutrophication and littering.

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Pollution

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Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground storage tank leakage. Among the most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Pollution

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• Light pollution, includes light trespass, over-illumination and astronomical interference.

• Noise pollution, which encompasses roadway noise, aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as high-intensity sonar.

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Pollution

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• Major Polluted Areas• The Blacksmith Institute issues annually a list of the world's

worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru, Russia, Ukraine and Zambia.

• This report is available online at www.blacksmithinstitute.org

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Pollution

Pollution can be controlled byproper choice of preventive

and remedial measures

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Observation/ Experiencing• The earth’s surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree

Fahrenheit in the past century.

• We are experiencingexperiencing global warming ,as the consensus among scientists is that earth’s temperature will continue to increase over the next 100 years.

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Global Warming

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Graphical Presentation 15

Global Warming

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View Global warming is the name given to an expected increased in

magnitude of the greenhouse effect, whereby the surface of the earth will almost inevitably become hotter than it is now.

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Global Warming

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EvidenceEarth is gradually warming up

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), earth’s temperature has increased by 1 deg.F in the last century, precipitation has increased by 1% and sea level has risen by 2 to 5 centimeter. This is a strong evidence for a small but significant increase in global average temperature.

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Global Warming

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Disastrous Consequences• Sea level could risen.• Desert could expand dramatically.• Precipitation patterns would change in unpredictable ways.• Food shortage could occur.• New breeding sites for pests and Increasing the range of

infectious diseases might be produced.

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Global Warming

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• Warmer temperature would increase cooling demands but decrease heating requirements, in a result, there will occur:-

i. ice melting

ii. increased flooding.

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• Forest susceptibility to fire, diseases and insect damage could change.

Global Warming

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Cause• Many researchers are convinced that global warming is directly

related to increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere.

• Naturally occurring GHGs include water vapors(H2O), carbon dioxide(CO2), methane(CH4), nitrous oxide(N2O) and ozone(O3).

• Synthetically produced powerful GHGs include hydroflurocarbon(HFC), perflorocarbon(F2C) and sulfurhexafloride(SF6).

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Global Warming

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View

The greenhouse effect is the name applied to the process which causes the surface of the earth to be warmer than it would have been in the absence of an atmosphere .

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Greenhouse Effect

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Phenomenon1) Infra red radiation from the sun passes through the atmosphere

and warms the surface of the earth.2) Warmer surface of the earth also radiates infra-red radiation

having longer wave length.3) Most of the radiation is absorbed by GHGs in the atmosphere

and re-emitted in all directions. Consequently , some of the infra red energy is trapped by the

GHGs.This trapping of energy is known as the greenhouse effect and it warms the earth.

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Greenhouse Effect

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Greenhouse Effect

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Benefit A little greenhouse effect is a good thing as it maintains earth’s

average surface temperature. If it were not, life can’t exist.

Problem The question is, can we have too much of good things? Yes or No

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Greenhouse Effect

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Origin Of all the greenhouse gases, Carbon dioxide causes the most concern as CO2 levels in the atmosphere have increased steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

GHGs are produced as a by-product during the consumption of energy to perform any specific task.

CH4 + O2 CO2+ H2O+Energy (Energy consumes to perform any specific task)

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Greenhouse Effect

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CO2 Emission from Industrial process 27

Greenhouse Effect

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Consequences Human activities have altered the composition of the

atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases causing the increase in the global average temperature and hence GLOBAL WARMING.

Acid rainfall is also an important Consequence resulting from greenhouse gases.

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Greenhouse Effect

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How Problem is fixing?• If global warming is occurring and humans are

causing it, what should be done about it?

• It is clearly a matter of public policy and political process.

Action • The united Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCC) provides a vehicle for discussion and continuing scientific research into this difficult problem.

• The first step on international level was taken in the form of UNFCC followed by KYOTO protocol.

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Greenhouse Effect

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Introduction

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Kyoto Protocol

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Sources The sources of kyoto credits are the Clean Development

Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) projects.

• The CDM allows the creation of new reduction projects in developing countries to globally equalize atmospheric effect.

• The JI allows the creation of projects in developing countries already having low GHG emission.

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Kyoto Protocol

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AtmosphereThere are various layers of the

atmosphere around the earth globe, such as:

• Troposphere• Stratosphere• Mesosphere and • Thermosphere

Ozone layer forms in stratosphere to protect the earth from most harmful ultra violet (UV) rays of radiation from the sun.

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Ozone Depletion

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Ozone cycle / Formation Ozone formation is a continuing process. Oxygen molecules

photodissociate after absorbing an ultra violate photon. This produce two oxygen atoms. The atomic oxygen atom then combines with O2 to create O3.Ozone molecules absorbs UV light ,following which ozone splits into a molecule of O2 and an oxygen atom. The oxygen atom then joins up with an oxygen molecule to regenerate ozone.

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Ozone Depletion

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Ozone Formation 36

Ozone Depletion

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Benefit Ozone layer acts as a filter, to filter out the harmful UV rays as

it can enter into the living cells causing distortion of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which controls all functions of a cell.

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Ozone Depletion

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Ozone Layer Depletion Describes two distinct, but related observations: • A slow, steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total

amount of ozone in Earth’s stratosphere since the late 1970s.• And a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratosphere

ozone over Earth’s polar regions during the same period (this phenomenon is commonly referred to as the ozone hole.

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Ozone Depletion

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Ozone Depletion

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Origin / sources All ozone-depleting substances have both natural and

anthropogenic (manmade) sources. But human activity has dramatically increased the chlorine and bromine.

CFCs were used in air conditioning/cooling units, as aerosol spray propellants prior to the 1980s,and in the cleaning processes of delicate electronic equipment. when they reach the stratosphere, they are dissociate by ultra violet light to release chlorine atoms. The chlorine atom act as a catalyst and break downs the ozone molecules.

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Ozone Depletion

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Consequences Ozone layer depletion is expected to increased surface levels UV, which leads to

following effects.a) Effects on Humans• UV radiation is generally accepted to be a contributory factor to skin cancer.• Increased surface UV leads to increased troposphere ozone, which is a health risk to

humans as ozone is toxic due to its oxidant properties.• The increased UV also represents an increased in vitamin D, synthetic capacity of the

sunlight.• Studies are suggestive of an association between ocular cortical cataracts and UV

exposure.

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Ozone Depletion

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b) Effects on Crops A number of economically important species of plants, such as rice, depend

on Cynobacteria residing on their roots for the retention of nitrogen. Cynobacteria are sensitive to UV light and they would be affected by its increase.

c) Effects on Plankton Plankton are vitally important to marine food webs and particularly

susceptible to effects of UV light.d) Effect on Earth Ozone depleting chemicals are also greenhouse gases hence contribute to

global warming and related hazards.

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Ozone Depletion

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Action

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Ozone Depletion

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