‘Environment’ Archives
Acid Deposition
Acid Deposition: causes, effects, and resolutions Acid deposition is a growing danger with industry booming throughout the world. What acid deposition is, its many forms, including why it occurs, how it affects the earth, and methods that are used to try to minimize the damage. Acid deposition is any combination of airborne dry acidic [...]
The Environment
The Environment The environment is everything that surrounds us: plants, animals, buildings, country, air, water - literally everything that can affect us in any way. The environment of a town, with its buildings and traffic and its noise and smells, where everyone is on top of everyone else, is a far cry from that of the countryside, with its [...]
Environmental Racism
Environmental Racism Studies have shown that not all individuals are equally exposed to pollution. For example, worldwide toxic waste sites are more prevalent in poorer communities. In the United States, the single most important factor in predicting the location of such sites is the ethnic composition of a neighborhood. Three of the five [...]
Dangerous Waste
Dangerous Waste Most industries produce waste products which can be difficult or dangerous to dispose of. Coal and oil fired power stations produce enormous amounts of waste. A large coal power station will send 17 million tons of flue gas out of its chimney each year. It will also make around 2 million tons of ash, a fine white powder which is [...]
POPULATION
POPULATION A very important world problem, if not the most serious of all the great world problems which affect us at the moment, is the increasing number of people who actually inhabit this planet. The limited amount of land and land resources will soon be unable to support the huge population if it continues to grow at its present [...]
An Inconvenient Truth: Global Warming
An Inconvenient Truth: Global Warming Global Warming or Climate Change, measurable increases in the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and landmasses. Scientists believe Earth is currently facing a period of rapid warming brought on by rising levels of heat-trapping gases, known as greenhouse gases, in the [...]
Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels I INTRODUCTION Fossil Fuels, energy-rich substances that have formed from long-buried plants and microorganisms. Fossil fuels, which include petroleum, coal, and natural gas, provide most of the energy that powers modern industrial society. The gasoline that fuels our cars, the coal that powers many electrical plants, and the [...]
Biodiversity
What is Biodiversity? Biodiversity is life. Short for biological diversity, biodiversity refers to all life on Earth. It includes everything from micro-organisms to towering trees, tiny insects to large mammals, including humans. It is also the ecosystems in which organisms live and the differences within species. Between 10 and 100 million [...]
Desertification
Desertification What are deserts? Deserts are very dry places. They receive very low rainfall and in hot areas evaporation causes high water loss. There are many types of deserts with a variety of climates (hot, cold), locations (inland, coastal), appearance (sandy, rocky), and levels of vegetation (none, low ground cover, shrubby bushes). [...]
