L1 - Introduction To Water Pollution Flashcards
What is interdependence?
- The relationship between all living things and the environment is important
- People, nature and the Earth form a delicate balanced system
- We use resources extensively and then we are NOT RESPONSIBLE for the consequences?
Example of interdependence
Ozone has a rare form of oxygen that is poisonous to human beings at ground level but is necessary in the upper atmosphere to absorb deadly UV radiation from the sun
Definition of Environmental Pollution
Pollution is defined by the US EPA as the “presence of a substance in the environment that because of its chemical composition or quantity prevents the functioning of natural processes and produces undesirable environmental and health effects”
What are the types of pollution?
- Air pollution
- Water pollution
- Land pollution
- Global warming
- Noise pollution
- Thermal pollution
- Radioactivity
- Light pollution
- Aesthetic damage
What are the types of water pollution?
- Organic sewage (e.g. from homes, schools, workplaces etc.)
- Eutrophication (e.g. caused by agricultural runoff)
- Infectious agents (e.g. pesticides)
- Inorganic and miscellaneous chemicals (e.g. industrial effluents)
- Sediments from land corrosion
- Radioactive substances
- Waste heat from power plants and industry
- Plastics
Contemporary water issues:
What are the United Nations strong focus on water?
- Climate change
- Disasters
- Ecosystems
- Finance
- Gender
- Human rights
- Water quality and waste water
- Scarcity
- Transboundary water
- Urbanisation
- Sanitation and hygiene
- Food and energy
What is the total volume of water on earth?
~1.4 billion km3
What amount is freshwater?
~35 million km3 (~2.5% of total)
What percentage of the worlds freshwater is stored as groundwater?
~30% (97% of all water potentially available for human use)
What is the total usable freshwater supply for ecosystems and humans
~200,000 km3 (<1% of all freshwater resource)
How much of industrial waste is dumped into waters untreated by dev. countries?
70%
Since 1900 how much wetlands have been lost?
Half of the world’s wetlands
What is the rate of deaths of children due to poor sanitation?
One child every 20 seconds
1.5 million preventable deaths
How many people live without basic sanitation today?
2.5 billion people, including one billion children
What are sources of freshwater pollution?
- Organic matter
- Pathogens and Microbial contaminants
- Nutrients
- Salinisation
- Acidification (precipitation or runoff)
- Metals
- Toxic organic compounds and micro-organic pollutants
- Thermal
- Silt and suspended particles
