Biodiversity and waste management Flashcards
Define biodiversity
Variety of different species within an ecosystem
Why is High biodiversity important ?
- makes sure the ecosystem is stable because different species depend on each other for different things such as food, different species can also help to maintain the right physical environment for each other
- For human species survival, good level of biodiversity must be maintained
What is reducing biodiversity ?
human actions such as waste production, deforestation and global warming which we have recently taken measures to try stop
Biodiversity of humans
Population of the world rising quickly w/o stopping
- due to modern medicine and farming methods = reduce number of people dying from disease and hunger
means we’re having a bigger effect on the environment we live in
When the earths population was much smaller, effects of human activity was actually small and local. Nowadays our action can have far more widespread effect.
What are the widespread effects ?
1) increasing population puts pressure on the environment as we take the resources we need in order to survive
2) more people demanding higher living standard , we use more raw materials and energy for manufacturing process = means we’re taking more resources from the environment very quickly
3) many raw materials used quicker than it is used = one day it’ll run out
What happens if you make more
Make more = produce more waste including waste chemicals and if not dealt with properly = more harmful pollution caused. Pollution affects water, land, air and kills animals, plants reducing biodiversity
Waste we produce
Water = sewage and toxic chemicals from industry can pollute lakes, rivers, oceans affecting plants, animals that rely on them for survival and chemicals used on land can be washed into water
Land = We use toxic chemicals for farming. We also bury nuclear waste underground , and we dump a lot of household waste in landfill sites
Air = smoke, acidic gas released into atmosphere can pollute the air
