B3.4 Waste and deforestation Flashcards
Give two human-related causes of an increase in waste
- Rapid population growth
- Increase in standard of living
What three areas can be polluted?
- Land
- Water
- Air
How can the land be polluted?
-Toxic chem.s (herb/pesticides)
How can water be polluted? (up to three ways)
- Sewage
- Fertiliser
- Toxic chem.s (herb/pesticides)
How can the air be polluted and what does this cause?
- Smoke/gases (e.g. sulfur dioxide)
- Acid rain
What are four ways that humans reduce the amount of land available?
- Building
- Quarrying
- Farming
- Dumping waste/landfills
Give two causes of large-scale deforestation in tropical areas
- For timber
- To provide agricultural land
How has large-scale deforestation affected the amount of CO2 in the environment?
- Increased release (because of burning and m.organisms)
- Reduced the rate that it’s removed and ‘locked up’ as wood
Deforestation leads to a reduction in…
…biodiversity
Deforestation has occurred so that we can: (give 2 reasons)
- Grow more crops–> biofuels from ethanol
- Have more cattle + rice fields for food
How has deforestation led to an increase in methane in the atmosphere?
Less trees-> more space-> more rice/cattle= methane
Give another way other than deforestation in which CO2 is released into the atmosphere (in context)
Destruction of peat bogs and other areas of peat
What is a bog?
A POORLY DRAINED area containing PARTIALLY DECOMPOSED organic matter due to WATER LOGGING
How is peat formed? (4 marks)
- Mosses GROW
- LOCK away CO2 during photosynthesis
- Moss DIES, waterlogged bog=anaerobic
- With bog acidity, PREVENTS TOTAL DECOMP.
Why are ‘peat free’ composts of increasing importance?
- LESS GLOBAL WARMING
- Because burning peat=CO2,
- Peat+soil=aerobic conditions, peat decomposes–> CO2
- LESS HABITATS DESTROYED
