Environmental Risks of Economic Development Flashcards
Environmental risks of economic development: desertification
- Desertification is the process by which land becomes drier and degraded, as a result of climate change or human activities, or both.
It is caused by a mixture of climate change and the issues raised by population pressure. - As population increases, they increase the numbers of animals they keep, such as goats, which eat morevegetation. They also farm the land more intensively, which extracts nutrients and removes the natural vegetation. People also collect more firewood to keep warm at night or for cooking.
- In addition, Climate change is making temperatures hotter and rainfall less reliable and more variable.
- All of these things reduce the amount of natural vegetation.
- There are no plants or leaves to intercept rain and soil is left exposed to hot sun so the sun bakes the soil and it cracks.
- When it rains, the rainwater runs over the surface of the soil rather than soaking in which means that soil can often be washed away. This means that the soil is degraded; losing fertility and structure.
- This completes the cycle, as even less vegetation can be supported, and the environment declines further.
Environmental risks of economic development: Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of any body of water (lakes, groundwater, oceans, etc). Some examples of water pollution:
* Raw sewage running into lake or streams
* Industrial waste spills contaminating groundwater
* Radiation spills or nuclear accidents
* Illegal dumping of substances or items within bodies of water
* Biological contamination, such as bacteria growth
* Farm runoff into nearby bodies of water
Water pollution in Bangladesh:
- Many rice paddies are now inundated with toxic wastewater. Fish stocks are dying. And many smaller waterways are being filled with sand and garbage, as developers sell off plots for factories or housing.
- Some factories treat their wastewater, but many do not have treatment plants or chose not to operate them to save on utility costs.
- Economic growth often comes before environmental concerns
- To keep the costs low (the chemical water from dyes is not treated)
Effects of pollution:
* Eutrophication in the river
- 56 million tonnes of contaminated water is dumped into bodies of water every year
- The poorest part of the population live next to contaminated water
- River is biologically dead (less than 1 milligram of dissolved water. 8-9 is normal)
- Most of the energy is coming from coal fired power plants which releases toxic gases
Environmental risks of economic development: Air polution
Air pollution is the contamination of air by smoke and harmful gases, mainly oxides of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen. Some examples of air pollution include:
- Exhaust fumes from vehicles
- The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, or gas
- Harmful off-gasing from things such as paint, plastic production, and so on
- Radiation spills or nuclear accident
Environmental risks of economic development: Noise pollution
Noise pollution is any loud sounds that are either harmful or annoying to humans and animals. Some examples of noise pollution:
Traffic
Air traffic
Construction sites
Catering and night life
Animals
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines noise above 65 decibels (dB) as noise
pollution.
Environmental risks of economic development: Visual pollution
Light pollution is the brightening of the night sky inhibiting the visibility of stars and planets using improper lighting of communities. Some examples of what causes light pollution:
- Streetlamps that shine light in all directions, instead of with a hood to point light downward toward the street.
- Extra, unnecessary lights around the home
- Cities that run lights all night long
Light pollution uses more energy, may affect human health and our sleep cycles. It can also affect animal behaviour.
Environmental risks of economic development: Industrial pollution
Any large-scale economic activity may have a negative impact on the natural environment. Manufacturing industries in particular can cause air, water and noise pollution. Industrial pollution can affect the environment in a number of ways:
- It may damage the wellbeing of humans and other species. For example, industrial waste can pollute drinking-water supplies or poison plants and animals.
- It may interfere with natural processes. For example, industrial waste could change local climatic conditions or destroy wildlife habitats.
- It may impact on people’s livelihoods. For example, pollution of the sea will affect people who are involved in the fishing and tourism industries.
Some governments have introduced legislation to try to cut down on avoidable pollution and to encourage industries that are more sustainable. These laws need to be enforced by courts.
Environmental risks of economic development:
Global warming
A natural function of the Earth’s atmosphere is to keep in some of the heat that is lost from the Earth. This is known as the natural greenhouse effect.
*The atmosphere allows the heat from the Sun (short-wave radiation) to pass through to heat the Earth’s surface.
*The Earth’s surface then gives off heat (long-wave radiation).
*This heat is trapped by greenhouse gases (e.g., methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide), which radiate the heat back towards Earth.
*This process heats up the Earth.
Some human activities increase the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere:
*Burning fossil fuels, e.g., coal, gas and oil - these release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
*Deforestation - trees absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. If they are cut down, there will be higher amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
*Dumping waste in landfill - when the waste decomposes it produces methane.
*Agriculture - agricultural practices lead to the release of nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere.
This is leading to the enhanced greenhouse effect whereby an excess of greenhouse gases traps more heat in the earth’s atmosphere causing global temperatures to rise.
Impacts of climate change
- sea level rise will affect 80 million people
- tropical storms will increase in magnitude (strength)
- species in affected areas (e.g. Arctic) may become extinct
*diseases such as malaria increase, an additional 280 million people may be affected
Managing the impacts of climate change
*Alternative energy - using alternative energy such as solar, wind or tidal can reduce the use of fossil fuels. This will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
*Carbon capture - this is the removal of carbon dioxide from waste gases from power stations and then storing it in old oil and gas fields or coal mines underground. This reduces the amount of emissions into the atmosphere.
*Planting trees - encouraging afforestation, means that there will be more trees to absorb the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis.
- International agreements
Adaptation strategies
Adaptation strategies do not aim to reduce or stop global warming. Instead they aim to respond to climate change by limiting its negative effects. Strategies include:
*Agriculture - farmers will have to adapt as some crops may not be able to grow in a warmer climate. However, other crops (eg oranges and grapes) will be able to be planted.
*Water supply - water transfer schemes could be used. This is where water is transferred from an area of water surplus to an area of water shortage.
*Reducing risk from sea level rise - areas at risk from sea level rise may use sea defences to protect the land from being eroded away.
Causes of deforestation in Amazon rainforest
Agriculture - crop plantations and cattle grazing.
In Brazil, cattle ranching accounts for 80% of deforestation. In Brazil, soybeans, palm oil
and sugar cane (for biofuel) are major crops.
Logging - Trees such as mahogany and teak are highly valued (selective logging) for furniture and
other uses. Smaller trees are used for fuel, pulped or made in o charcoal. Vast amounts
of the rainforest are cleared in one go (clear felling).
Road building - In Brazil, the Trans-Amazonian Highway stretches for some 4 000 kilometres through the rainforest. This is accounted for in the 2% other category of the causes if deforestation in Brazil.
Mineral extraction - Mineral extraction such as gold mining fall into the other category that accounts for 2% of the causes for deforestation in Brazil. In 1999, there were 10,000 hectares of land being used for gold mining. Today, there is over 50,000 hectares of land being used for
gold mining.
Energy development - This involves flooding vast amounts of rainforest. Often, the dams have a
short life. In Brazil, the Belo Monte Dam will block the Xingu River flooding more than 40
500 hectares of land and displacing 15 000 people. The submerged forest eventually
rots, making the water very acidic which then corrodes the HEP turbines. The dams also
become blocked with soil washed down deforested slopes by the heavy rain.
Settlement and Population Growth - Many people migrate to the rainforest for work in the industries mentioned above. In turn, this means that land needs to be cleared to make
way for settlements where workers and their families can live.
Impacts of deforestation
Soil erosion - Soil erosion also leads to the silting up of river courses. Even when the soil is protected, it quickly loses the little fertility it has when covered by trees. Grazing and plantations do little if anything to keep the soil fertile. The decline in soil fertility leads to pastures and plantations being abandoned, so more areas of the rainforest are cleared.
Loss of biodiversity - extinct. It has been
estimated that 137 plant, animal and insect species are being lost each day due to deforestation. This amounts to 50, 000 species each year. 25% of the active ingredients in today’s cancer-fighting drugs come from the organisms found only in the rainforest. Recent research has shown that the Amazon rainforest could lose between 30 and 45% of their main species by 2030.
Climate change - change. The Amazon stores around 100 billion tonnes of carbon. Deforestation is responsible for at least 15% of global CO2 emissions each year. In addition, trees give off moisture from the process of transpiration; deforestation reduces the moisture in the air resulting in a drier local climate. With less moisture comes less condensation and in turn rainfall. The natural recycling of water is like a cooling system, once the recycling is reduced (through less moisture) the local climate becomes warmer.
Economic development - In 2008, Brazil
made $6.9 billion from trading cattle, Brazil is also the world’s second biggest exporter of soy bean. The mining industry creates jobs for local people, for example the Buenaventura mining company in Peru employs over 3100 people. The livelihoods of some local people are destroyed as deforestation can cause a loss of animals or plants that they rely on to make a living.
Extraction - In the Oriente region of the Amazon in Ecuador Oil has discharged 4.3 million barrels of toxic waste into the environment each day. Toxic contaminants in drinking water have
reached 1,000 times the safe standard Increases in gastrointestinal problems, skin rashes, birth defects and cancers (stomach cancer 5x more in areas with oil extraction).
Possible strategies to stop deforestation include
- Agroforestry: growing trees and crops at the same time. This lets farmers take advantage of shelter from the canopy of trees. It prevents soil erosion, and the crops benefit from the nutrients from the dead organic matter.
- Selective logging - trees are only felled when they reach a particular height. This allows young trees a guaranteed life span and the forest will regain full maturity after around 30-50 years.
- Forest reserves: areas protected from exploitation.
- Eco-tourism: low impact tourism that does minimal damage to the rainforest environment, whilst educating visitors about the importance of rainforest preservation.
- Extractive reserve farming: where resources that occur naturally in forests are harvested, rather than planting which involves cutting down trees to make way for crops.
- Carbon offset schemes: Developed countries pay developing countries for carbon offsets
- Medical research: Medical researchers take samples from rainforest plants in order to lab test them for valuable compounds that might fight disease.
