The importance of recycling

              

              What is the purpose of environmental science? Is this something that we the people need to know? The answer to these questions, YES!!!!! We all need to know. Environmental science is the study of the interactions between humans and the world, or living and non-living. In other words, it is environmental hazards.

            What is some environmental hazard that has occurred? Well, we know about pollution, water, oil, global climate change, habitat destruction, air, etc. All of these effect our environment. Agriculture can be a hazard because of the land that is needed. Human’s growth is growing rapidly and in order to provide food the growth, the amount of land is taken. This is affecting the habitats. While taken the land may be good for the humans for food, it hinders other species from growing. Also, the land may be used for houses, parking lots, buildings, etc. All these things contribute to pollution.

            In order to survive we must protect the earth. By killing more trees to build and make paper, it also affects the oxygen, since trees give off oxygen. The green earth campaign has been going on for awhile to get people to recycle more and be aware of their waste. This is a way to help protect our environment.  B y recycling we conserve both raw materials and energy. This also will reduce the amount of waste that we produce. For this reason it makes since to shop for products that can be recycled. If we would reduce all of our home’s waste; newspapers, cardboards, metal, and glass we can reduce carbon dioxide by 850 pounds a year. That is a huge improvement!!!

Councilor Linda Neal, Leader of South Kesteven District Council, states that, “It is not enough to just recycle. We should ensure that we buy products that are made from recycled materials. Plastic bottles collected from Bourne are supplied to a firm, which produces recycling boxes” (Neal, 2003). Now that we are aware of the importance of our environment lets learn better so that we will do and be better!!!!

                                                                                                   http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/importance.html

http://greenerthinking.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/the-importance-of-recycling/

http://homepages.which.net/~rex/bourne/article11.htm

Zoo Animals and Pollution

            Animals at the zoo suffer from pollution that is in the world today. There are so many animals that are becoming extinct because of the pollution. All pollution is harmful, however the water that the animals drink are polluted. This issue was even address from the Bush administration. “The Bush administration announced new standards today for the largest animal feedlots that call for a reduction in water pollution” (BECKER, 2002). This issue is notice. A lot of the water pollution comes from agriculture.

 

            This is a problem that has an effect the entire world. Here is a picture of a lion playing with a plastic bottle.  This is an awful thing, just think about what they are drinking because of pollution. This was a picture taken at the Nehru Zoological Park (Singh, 2010). Animals at this Zoo have died because of pollution that was found in their systems. They have found that the disease that minors died from is the disease that these animals are dying from, chronic lung disease. The animal’s lungs are shrunken and darken.

            What can be done about the lost of these animals? Awareness on how pollution is affecting our environment and it is harmful for all species. We need to recycle and reuse.  We also need to educate ourselves and others on pollution and the effects of it. We are the only ones that can change this situation and make our environment safe for all. This is our planet in it is up to us to keep it from pollution. It is not an easy task but it is durable. Let’s all pull together and save ourselves and our animals by stopping the pollution as much as possible.

   

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/us/us-sets-new-farm-animal-pollution-curbs.html, By ELIZABETH BECKER Published: December 17, 2002

http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/21/stories/2010052158700200.htm

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-01-28/hyderabad/28124151_1_nehru-zoological-park-animal-keepers-city-zoo

The Lumber Industry

      

Lumber industry is when production and harvesting of trees uses for several reasons. Such as in the fabrication of telegraph poles and railroad ties, and in building construction, shipbuilding, and furniture manufacture. The lumber industry includes the various businesses that convert trees, or timber, into lumber products. There are other industries that convert timber into pulp and paper, chemicals, or fuel wood.

The million acres of forest was in the way of moving forward. In the  19^th and 20^th century people thought of the forest as something that needed to be removed in order to develop farms and business. People then just lived off the land by hunting, trapping and raising animals, such as hogs and cattle.

On the coast of the Mississippi Gulf, a few small mills for sawing logs had been built by the 1840’s. These saw mills had to be near bodies of water for the transportation of logs from the ships to the mills. From this the lumber industry began to expand. Who would have thought that the lumber industries would take them so far. Because of the increase of the lumber industry, money was to be made. Many job opportunities came because of the lumber industry.

Thanks to this money making industry and the excessiveness of the industry, the forest is being depleted. This is an environmental problem. This has a strong effect on our natural resources. Our plants and other things of nature depend on the trees for nurture. Also the particle from the trees when they are being process sends pollution into the atmosphere.   

Can we as the people make an effort to help change this situation? Yes!!! It will take some time; of course we all use lumber so much, for our houses, furniture, etc. It may need to be suggested to the lumber industry to be regulated so every organism can live happily together. Recycling is by far one of the greatest ways to save trees.

                      

http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/171/growth-of-the-lumber-industry-1840-to-1930

http://www.history.com/shows/ax-men/articles/history-of-logging

http://ecology.com/features/paperchase/

http://autocww.colorado.edu/~toldy2/E64ContentFiles/IndustryMiningFuels/LumberIndustry.html

World Hunger

Today our society is growing. The numbers of people are growing more in developing countries versus developed countries as the United States. As we grow in numbers, this brings about hunger and poverty in the world. One might ask how this is an environmental problem. Well it is a problem because of our population we build more buildings, parking lots, houses, etc, and we also use more land for crops and agriculture. Our food supply is not adding up to the high demand of our population.

            In develop countries as the United States, there is a huge amount of waste or over eating that leads to diseases and obesity, while undeveloped or developing countries have malnutrition and starvation. According to Anup Shah, food scarcity part of the problem in the population debate is an interesting one however, people are hungry not because the population is growing so fast that food is becoming scarce, but because people cannot afford it. Food may be scarce, but it is international trade, economic policies and the control of land that have lead to immense poverty and hunger and therefore less access to food, not food scarcity due to over population (Shah 2010, World Hunger and Poverty).

            Agriculture plays an important role in helping the problem if world hunger. The use of agricultural biotechnology is promising to help with the problem, but the climates are often unfriendly for producing agricultural products effectively. Agricultural biotechnology is simply a science that includes modifying organisms by manipulating, replacing or removing genes (Strickland, How Stuff Works). By modifying different organisms and the process of biotechnology in agriculture, more food can be produce.

            World hunger continues to be a problem that exists in our society and has brought about many debates on how to correct the problem and also why the problem continues to exists. Many people go to bed hungry everyday and this is a problem that is killing millions of people.

http://www.globalissues.org/issue/6/world-hunger-and-poverty
http://dreamer.me/world-hunger
http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/Y5160E/y5160e07.htm
Strickland, Jonathan http://.science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/agricultural-biotechnology.htm

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/hung-d19.shtml

Commerial Farming

A large-scale production of crops that is for sale is what they all Commercial Agriculture. Crops that are grown are wheat, maize, tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana, and cotton. These are intended for a widespread distribution to wholesaler retail organizations. This is the main purpose of the Commercial Agriculture, for monetary gain.

 According to Douglas County 18, the purpose of the AC-10 commercial agriculture district is to encourage agricultural development through the maximum cultivation and reclamation of lands by restricting incompatible uses within such areas. It is also the purpose to preserve and encourage existing and future agricultural land uses as viable, permanent land uses, and as a significant economic activity within the community (Douglas County18,36).

This helps our environment by giving us organic products. Naturesnovel.com says that, agricultural producers make a positive difference in our environment by enhancing soil quality (naturesnovel.com). By investing in commercial agricultural it helps with jobs as well as the soil. This is also a great way of training our young to have a trade and they will also learn how to survive and grow their own food and make a living for themselves.

http://www.naturesnovel.com/

http://www.acgov.org/cda/awm/agprograms/commercial/index.htm

http://www.codepublishing.com/WA/DouglasCounty/html/DouglasCounty18/DouglasCounty1836.html

Oil Pollution

How can oil pollute our environment? Oil pollution is one that is not talked about as much as water pollution and air pollution. However it is a problem for our environment. This is a huge problem for humanity today. It is also a danger to animals.

There have been oil spills in the ocean, and because of it animals are dying. When the whales come up to the surface and find that other fish are dying because of the oil that is affecting them. This is a danger to all animals that are in the ocean.  Oil spills can occur when oil is release from tankers, offshore platforms, wells and or drilling rigs. Spills also come from fuel use for gasoline, diesel, ships, bunker fuel and could be just waste oil. When these spills happen, it could take months to clean. Therefore since it takes time for them to clean up the spills, it affects the animals in the ocean.

The birds are also affected by the oil spills. When they land on the water, they are caught in the oil and it is hard for them to escape the oil. Also when the birds eat from the ocean, the oil that has infected the fish goes inside the birds and affects their system causing damage to them. Some birds live because a human rescues them in time where they can be helped.

It takes time to clean up oil spills and unfortunately for the animals time is not always on their side.  According to the article from How Stuff Work, agencies like the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency  have some clever and relatively simple methods (How Stuff Work 2010). These agencies have a protocol that the follow to clean up oil spills. They work as fast as they can to clean up the oil spills. Laws has also been put into effect since the big oil spill happen not long ago, for clean up in the future (2008 Dawn Anderson, Environmental literacy council)

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Oil_spill  September 5, 2010 Stanislav Patin

http://www.offshore-environment.com/oil.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04enviro.html  JOHN M. BRODER and TOM ZELLER Jr. May 3, 2010

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/cleaning-oil-spill.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070730172426.htm

http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/540.html

Water Pollution

What is water pollution? Water pollution happens when water is badly or harmfully affected due to the addition of large amounts of materials added to the water. An example of water pollution is when a pipe spewing toxic chemicals directly into a river, and when fertilizer from a field is carried into a stream by surface runoff.

          There are different types of water pollution. One is toxic. Toxic in water pollution can happen when pesticides are sprayed. The chemicals in the pesticides are not a natural substance in the aquatic ecosystem.   Thermal pollution is another type of water pollution. This happens when water is used as a coolant near a power or industrial plant and then is returned to the aquatic environment at a higher temperature than it was originally.  Another type of water pollution is called ecological pollution takes place when chemical pollution, organic pollution or thermal pollution are caused by nature rather than by human activity. A volcano eruption might be an example of ecological pollution (http://www.mbgnet.net/fresh/pollute.htm).

Power plants help contribute to water pollution also. According to Michael Hawthorne, a Tribune reporter, “Records obtained by the Tribune show that staggering numbers of fish die when pulled into the screens of water intake systems so powerful that most could fill an Olympic swimming pool in less than a minute. Billions more eggs, larvae and juvenile fish that are small enough to pass through the screens are cooked to death by intense heat and high pressure inside the coal, gas and nuclear plants” (Hawthorne, M 2011).

It is time for us as a society to recognize the dangers of water pollution and begin one by one to change pollution. This can happen by educating those who we come in contact with about water pollution and the effect of it. It’s time for a change in our environment.