Globalisation and Environmental Problems.pptx

Globalisation and Environmental Problems.

1. Globalisation: Environmental Problems Muttahir Ahmed Khan (Author, Journalist, Analyst, Educationist)

2. The impact of the human population on the environment. An ecosystem is “a particular location on the Earth distin-guished by its particular mix of living and nonliving com- ponents . (Friedman, Relyea, and Courard-Hauri , 2012: 58). Thus, a coral reef is an ecosystem; a redwood forest is an ecosystem; and on a much smaller scale, a playground is an ecosystem. When all of Earth’s ecosystems are put together, they make up the biosphere. Nature performs many ecosystem services—valuable, practical functions that help preserve ecosystems.

3. For example, if the atmosphere is not overburdened, it can maintain a proper balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen, and provide ozone for protection against ultraviolet radiation. Ecosystems do not have an infinite ability to support population growth or environmental depletion or destruction. In fact, some scientists believe that humans have already exceeded their carrying capacity—the maximum population that an ecosystem can support without eventually being degraded or destroyed. In the 1970s, Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren developed a formula for determining the effect that human beings have on their environment: I = P * A * T, or Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology (Ehrlich and Holdren , 1971).

4. TECHNOLOGY AND AFFLUANCE Thus, the size of the population, its level of affluence, and the technology available in the society are major contributing factors to environmental degradation—disruptions to the environment that have negative consequences for ecosystems. Environmental degradation involves both removing natural resources from the environment and adding to environmental problems through pollution. People who have access to automobiles, airplanes, speedboats, computers, cell phones, year-round air conditioning and heating, and other amenities consume resources and generate pollution at a greater rate than people who do not. The greater a person’s demand on natural resources, the greater is that person’s ecological footprint, the amount of biologically productive area needed to sustain a person at his or her level of consumption.

5. ECONOMIC GROWTH-EVVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION During most of the twentieth century, economic growth in the United States was based on increased output in the manufacturing sector. The environment is affected at all phases of the manufacturing process, from mining and transportation to manufacturing and waste disposal. Industrial production involves extracting raw materials—natural resources—from the environment, usually through mining. Mining depletes mineral resources and fossil fuel reserves—coal, oil, and natural gas. Mining also disturbs ecosystems, particularly surface mining, which strips bare the land, destroying natural vegetation and wildlife habitats. Other problems typically follow, including erosion of the land by wind and water and runoff of acids, silt, and toxic substances into nearby surface water and groundwater, which leads to the pollution of rivers and streams with toxic compounds that kill fish and other aquatic life.

6. AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE Air pollution is caused by the release of chemicals into the air from a variety of sources. The largest contributors to air pollution are the combustion of coal, oil, gas, wood, and other fuels for generating electricity, for transportation, and for heating and cooking, as well as the release of pollutants from fertilizers and animal wastes. Burning fossil fuels is also a contributor to the greenhouse effect the process that occurs when carbon dioxide and other gases are released into the atmosphere, preventing the sun’s heat from radiating back into space, thereby causing Earth to heat up). Other air pollutants deplete the upper atmosphere ozone layer—a gaseous layer thirty miles above Earth’s surface—that shields Earth from ultraviolet radiation .