Environmental Risks of Economic Development

Question 1

Water pollution in Bangladesh:

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

Causes of deforestation in Amazon rainforest

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Impacts of deforestation

Answer 3

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).

Question 4

Possible strategies to stop deforestation include

Answer 4

• 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.