Environment is derived from a French word “Environia” means to surround. It refers to both abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) components.Environment is the sum total of conditions in which an organism has to survive and maintain its life process, it influences the growth and development of all life forms.
The major components of the environment are the Atmosphere (air), Lithosphere (soil, rocks), Hydrosphere (water), and the Biosphere (living organisms).
Over the years the environment have been changing from its natural setting,slowly to semi-natural and rapidly to what cannot be mentioned in the context of naturality due to human activities.
According to NASA The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit (1.18 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century,Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%.
WHY THE RAPID CHANGE?
Environmental change is a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural ecological processes. Environmental changes include various factors, such as natural disasters, human interferences, or animal interaction. Environmental change encompasses not only physical changes, but also factors like an infestation of invasive species.
Global environmental changes includes climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, changes in ecosystems due to loss of biodiversity, changes in hydrological systems and the supplies of freshwater, land degradation, urbanization, and stresses on food-producing systems.
The gases release to the atmosphere as result of human activities are naturally found in the atmosphere in minute quantities, they only became harmful when the concentration exceeds what is required, Human activities responsible for triggering global environmental changes include but not limited to the following:
MINING
The extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit is known as mining, minerals extracted in mining activities include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay.
Mining operations can create a negative environmental impact, both during the extraction, transportation and processing of the minerals and even after the closure of the mine.
Modern life is highly dependent on the mining and metallurgical industry. Metals and minerals are the raw materials used in the construction, transportation and manufacturing of goods. From extraction to delivery, this market accounts for 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
FOSSIL FUELS
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel.
The main fossil fuels are coal, crude oil and natural gas, Fossil fuels are used to provide heat for use directly (such as for cooking or heating), to power engines (such as internal combustion engines in motor vehicles), and to generate electricity, other uses of fossil fuels is refining it into derivatives such as kerosene, gasoline and propane before burning.
The massive use of fossil fuels is obviously the first source of global warming , as burning coal, oil and gas produces carbon dioxide - the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere - as well as nitrous oxide.
DEFORESTATION
Deforestation is the illegal cutting or felling down of trees by humans in other to make room for agricultural expansion, wood processing, fuel wood, or other economic activities.
The exploitation of forests has a major role in climate change. Trees help regulate the climate by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. When they are cut down, this positive effect is lost and the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere.
INTENSIVE FARMING
Intensive farming also termed intensive agriculture is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area, intensive animal farming involves large numbers of animals raised on limited land,
Intensive farming causes environment pollution and induces major health issues due to poisonous agents,increased chemical applications are dangerous both to nature and the human body.
Intensive farming is also a cause of global environmental changes , not only with the ever-increasing livestock, but also with plant protection products and fertilizers. In fact, cattle and sheep produce large amounts of methane when digesting their food, while fertilizers produce nitrous oxide emissions.
WASTE DISPOSAL
Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use to the disposer at a given point in time. According to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of 1989, Art. 2(1), "'Wastes' are substance or objects, which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of national law".
Waste management methods like landfills and incineration emit greenhouse and toxic gases - including methane - that are released into the atmosphere, soil and waterways, contributing to the increase of the greenhouse effect.
All the above mentioned anthropogenic activities contribute greatly to global change in the environment, because they all leads to air pollution which is the starting point of our environmentally changing world.
Despite the scientifically proven evidence that the global environment is changing mainly because of human activities, and effective control and preventive measures in mitigating it such as Increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy, Implementing climate-smart agriculture and nurture forest landscapes, changes in agriculture, reforestation and forest preservation and improved waste management, sustainable consumption etc have been proposed by expert, the level of global atmospheric pollution is still rising.
Almost all countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. In 2010, Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2 °C (3.6 °F) relative to the pre-industrial level. With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed, why is the global atmospheric pollution still rising instead of decreasing?
Is it because man as the caretaker and user of the environment refuse to fully take action, or the control and preventive measures put in place to mitigate it are no longer effective.
Based on thorough research and experiment all the control and preventive measures were proved effective, but man failed in taking care of the environment.
Man failed in taking care of the environment because of the perception that the world is an endless frontier including its water land and air. And that environmental changes such as the climate change is not real, so the environment needs not to be taking care of.
There are several myths going around about climate change some of which are:
Myth1: scientist don't agree on climate change
Myth 2:“Earth’s Climate Has Always Been Changing. This is No Different.”
Myth 3: “It’s Cold Outside So Global Warming Isn’t Real.”
Myth 4: “Humans Release An Insignificant Amount of CO2. We Can’t Be the Cause of Global Warming.”
Myth 5:"there is nothing we can do about it."
Many people believed that Scientists manipulate all data sets to show a warning trend.
If we keep on believing in this myths, turning a blind eye to all the environmental changes we have witnessed so far its adverse effects will be worse in the future.
We need to change our perception and believe to stop the global environment from changing.
REFERENCE
WHO: Climate change and human health
Johnson, D.L.; Ambrose, S.H.; Bassett, T.J.; Bowen, M.L.; Crummey, D.E.; Isaacson, J.S.; Johnson, D.N.; Lamb, P.; Saul, M.; Winter-Nelson, A.E. (1997). "Meanings of environmental terms". Journal of Environmental Quality. 21 (5): 581–89.
"Scientific Consensus: Earth's Climate is Warming". Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. NASA JPL. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.; Gleick, 7 January 2017
"The State of the Global Climate 2020". World Meteorological Organization. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
NASA, Mitigation and Adaptation 2020.
NASA. "The Causes of Climate Change". Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2019
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