Environmental Issues Report Paula Debenedetti
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The purpose of this report is to see what problems/issues are caused by people on the environment, and to see if there is a solution, so that they do not have a bad effect for the future generations of people, animals and living/non-living things that live on earth. In the following paragraphs, there is a description of each problem and some details of the things that are done to solve them. The first problem is air pollution. It is caused by many different factors, but there are two that are very important, or the main ones, that are the smokes of factories and cars/vehicles. Another factor could be the different types of aerosols that are used nowadays, that contain different gases that pollute the air. The effect that the air pollution cause is mainly on animals and humans. They need to breathe clean air. If people pollute it, the air they breathe will contain toxic gases that were left previously in different places. It is really dangerous and sometimes it can kill humans and animals. There are some campaigns and projects that propose vehicles with special fuels that are made from renewable resources. These do not pollute the air and do not over use fossils (fossil fuel). This projects and campaigns are a good idea but people should realize what is happening. There can be many good things for people, but if they do not know the purpose or the reason, they will not use them. Everyone should know about air pollution and the main effects that it is causing on the environment, so that they start using these new options of fuels that do not pollute air.
The second problem is water pollution. This is caused by garbage (previously thrown by people in rivers, oceans or maybe streets- later wind would take them to places with water), in mines, people use cyanide, which is then dragged through water streams down to places where people consume it, oil and fuels thrown by ships in the ocean, and industries (glass industries, for example) that emit tons of water pollutants. There are organizations that try to find solutions to these problems. But the ones, who should solve them, are the ones who pollute water and emit toxic chemicals. People who throw garbage should know that it can ‘fly’ into oceans, rivers and places with water. This can pollute and also kill animals (for example, turtles confuse plastic bags with jellyfishes, so
when they eat them they die). In relation to mining, there is an option were people have to dig tunnels to get the precious/semi-precious rocks they want to get. Industries can apply a method that process all that garbage and, before throwing it, they transform it into useful things or things that do not pollute. There are many bad effects that water pollution can cause: a) b) c) d)
Many animals can die People who drink that water can die Plants in rivers/oceans can die When that water evaporates, all those toxic/dangerous things, can be “floating� in the air, and people/animals can breathe them (this is related to air pollution too) e) The water that contains cyanide (which later would be consumed by people living there) can cause cancer.
The future effects this can cause, is the extinction of species (animals, humans and plants)
This photo shows that water pollution also affect air & soils/land. It would be like a chain, in fact air pollution is also connected to water and land, and soil pollution is connected to air & water.
Another problem is soil pollution. This is also caused by garbage thrown, not only in water but also in the soil, by toxic chemicals, the excessive use of fertilizers and other products used in agriculture, can cause soil infertility. Possible solutions to these problems are: a) Throw garbage in the correct places b) Farmers should not overuse agriculture products or at least, leave the ground for some years until the fertilizers disappear The effects that all these can cause, are: a) Plants now will not grown in soils
b) The toxic chemicals can go inside some fruits that later some animals eat The future effects are mainly related to the extinction of species that eat those plants that grew in polluted soils, or maybe the plants they eat do not grow in unfertile soils.
In that photo there are some other problems that pollute soil, and the places where they come from. The last problem is deforestation. Humans are cutting down trees to make more room for houses or hotels. Organizations like Greenpeace, protect animals and their habitats. But as we can see, this does not work with some forests. People should see all the harm that deforestation cause to some animals. Big companies of hotels or houses, should use some other places to construct so that they do not ‘destruct’ families/groups of animals living there. The effects this cause is that the habitat for some species disappear. Some animals do not adapt themselves to new conditions so they die. Future effects are the extinction of species and the disappearing of plants that produce oxygen that humans breathe. This is really dangerous because if there is not, in a way, enough oxygen humans will die too. In the following picture, you can see a representation of the miss of oxygen for humans and animals.