Environment

Genetically modified (GM) crops are altered in a number of ways that change
their behaviour in the environment. They may have genes added so the crop is
no longer killed by chemical weedkillers (herbicides) so farmers can spray the
chemicals and kill the weeds but not the crop. Or genes may be added which
produce a toxin so that insects feeding on the crop are killed.
GM crops are living, able to grow and multiply. There are concerns that GM
crops will end up in wild plants or in non-GM crops. There are also concerns
that altered farming practices used to grow these crops will affect the
environment.
Scientists have highlighted the kinds of effects growing GM crops may have on
the environment:
Other crops and wild plants may become contaminated with the foreign
genes added to the GM crop.
New 'super-weeds' may evolve which will be difficult or even
impossible to eradicate.
Pollution arising from the use of harmful chemicals may increase or
decrease.
Wildlife may be harmed by new toxins in the environment or changes in
agricultural practices.
Genetic contamination: Crops were developed by farmers over thousands of
years from plants that were once wild. Many crops have wild relatives growing
close by that they can cross-pollinate. In Britain, it is sugar beet and oilseed rape
- two of the GM crops that may be grown here first - that have wild relatives
which could be contaminated. In tropical countries, where most crops evolved,
there is a greater potential for genetic contamination. Already, GM maize
imported into Mexico has contaminated native varieties.
Crops grown by organic and non-GM farmers may also be affected. Pollen can
travel long distances on the wind or via insects. Separating GM from non-GM
fields may help reduce contamination, but farmers and consumers could be
forced to accept contamination if GM crops are grown here. Seed mixing can
also occur accidentally on the farm or in the supply chain.
Super-weeds: One potential outcome of growing GM crops is that they may
become problems themselves as happens when some exotic species are
introduced into a new country. In the UK, the introduction of grey squirrels and
rhododendrons have caused considerable environmental damage, some of which
may never be put right. In Canada, where GM oilseed rape is grown, super-
weeds that are resistant to three herbicides are a problem for farmers. GM
oilseed rape has pollinated other rape and the seed left in the field after harvest
grows as a weed in the next crop. Farmers are turning to more toxic chemicals
such as 2,4 D and paraquat to control them. Superweeds are now spreading in
the US and South America as a result of the use of large applications of
weedkillers on herbicide-tolerant GM crops.
Pollution: The biotechnology industry has claimed that GM crops will allow
farmers to use less chemical weedkillers and insecticides. The majority of GM
crops being grown worldwide are tolerant to Monsanto's weedkiller, Roundup,
or Bayer's weedkiller, Liberty. The companies making the chemicals also sell
the GM seed. However, in North America - where GM soybean, cotton and
maize are grown on thousands of acres - the use of weedkillers has not been
reduced. Sales of Roundup and Liberty have increased and new factories are
being built to make more.
Recycling is the processing of waste materials in order to make them reusable.
This helps conserve energy and reduce the consumption of natural resources.
Recycling used products is one of the best ways to save the environment. It is
important to recycle, so as to avoid environmental harm. Used plastic bottles,
glass, and newspapers can be effectively recycled to make useful items. Here are
some pros and cons of recycling.

Positive Effects of Recycling

Preserves the Environment :
The process of recycling protects the environment. With the world witnessing a
global environmental decline, this can be considered as one of the most important
benefits of recycling. As we all know that paper is manufactured from trees. As the
demand for paper increases, a number of trees are being cut to produce paper. By
recycling paper, we can prevent the destruction of forests. Today, a number of
forests are being destroyed to meet the ever-increasing demand of paper. Recycling
a ton of mixed paper or newspaper, is equivalent to saving 12 trees. A significant
74% drop in air pollution is observed if paper is made from recycled material as
opposed to new wood pulp, indicating that recycling paper is environmentally
friendly. Given that the trees keep the surrounding environment clean by sucking
up carbon dioxide from the air we breathe, it would be wise to use recycled paper
as much as possible.

Reduces Pollution:
Pollution means the introduction of hazardous substances in the form of plastics,
empty cans, chemicals and ordinary waste into the environment. These substances
contaminate our environment. Plastic waste is responsible for causing increased
soil and water pollution. Plastic recycling is an effective solution to this problem.
The recycling process involves recovering used materials from the plastic waste,
which is then used in the manufacturing industry.

Recycling can also help reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, thereby
helping to mitigate global warming effects. In a study that involved recycling
35,116 tons of material, it was found that the reduction in green gas emissions was
equivalent to taking 22,140 cars off the road. Using recycled aluminum is
definitely one step closer to protecting the environment. This is because recycling a
ton of aluminum means a reduction of 12 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Lowers Carbon Footprint :
Manufacturing plastics and paper from recycled material, requires less amount of
energy as compared to making them from new or virgin materials. Additional
energy is consumed to extract and transport these virgin materials. Transportation
means using vehicles that run on fuels like diesel and gasoline. These fuels are
considered the main source of green gas emissions. As recycling conserves energy,
this results in less fuel being utilized. Thus, a lower amount of carbon dioxide will
be released into the environment.

Conserves Natural Resources:
Recycling can also help to prevent indiscriminate use of natural resources. For
instance, recycling a ton of steel means saving approximately 2500 tons of iron
ore, a fast depleting natural resource on a global scale. Plastic that is often used to
make bottle, requires considerable amount of fossil fuels. Consider this; 17 million
barrels of crude oil is being utilized every year to make plastic in United States. By
recycling plastics, several tons of fossil fuel can be saved for other purposes, such
as for running cars.

Negative Effects of Recycling
There any harmful effects of recycling? There can be a few, if the sites, where
recycling is done, are not managed properly. As lot of debris is collected every day
for recycling, the recovery sites can become unhygienic. Abandoned dump sites
can severely damage the surrounding environment. Harmful chemicals in the trash,
can mix into water and soil. This can cause water and soil pollution and harm
plants and fish in the streams and lakes. When it gets mixed with rainwater, a
poisonous mixture known as leachate, is formed. This mixture can be highly
dangerous if it reaches the water supplies. When rainwater falls on open dumps,
most of the contaminated water (leachate) percolates deep into the ground and
pollutes the ground water.

The issues with the effects of recycling paper are often associated with cleanliness
and transportation. Paper recycling can be a bit costly, as additional industrial
processes such as bleaching, are required to make the paper reusable. There is no
guarantee that the new recycled product obtained will be of good quality. This is
because recycling involves manufacturing products from used materials. Also, in
the process of bleaching, harsh chemicals are used that can cause health problems
on exposure. Although many find plastic convenient for everyday use, it is quite
difficult to recycle this material. There are different kinds of plastic and one has to
sort them systematically so as make a useful recycled product. One cannot simply
manufacture a new product by combining different kinds of plastic.
Environmental Impacts of Oil Sands Development in
Alberta:
The oil sands are an issue of global importance. As conventional sources of crude
oil are depleted, unconventional sources of oil, such as the bitumen found in oil
sands, play a larger role in offsetting declining conventional production. The
Canadian oil sands are the second largest proven oil reserve after Saudi Arabia.
1

Most of the Canadian oil sands are located in Alberta, with 175 billion barrels of
recoverable bitumen underlying approximately 140,800 square kilometres of the
province,

an area that is roughly the size of the state of Florida. This
unconventional oil is currently extracted using surface mining or in situ (in place)
drilling methods, depending on the depth of the deposit. Mining is used for the
bitumen that is closer to the surface (less than 75 metres), and drilling for in situ
extraction is used when the bitumen is more than 75 metres deep. Each extraction
method presents its own challenges.
To fully understand the costs and benefits of the oil sands requires more than an
appreciation of the size of the resource and the financial rewards of exploiting it.
An understanding of the environmental effects and the context of a growing global
imperative to reduce our global carbon footprint is essential. The Pembina
Institutes work is designed to help policy makers and others guide energy
development with eyes wide open and with a clear idea of the challenges that need
to be overcome to achieve responsible development of the Alberta oil sands.
Problems in your local environment
Abandoned vehicles
Abandoning a vehicle is a criminal offence. You can be fined and/or imprisoned
for abandoning a vehicle.
A local authority must, by law, remove a vehicle which is abandoned on a
highway, or on any other open land in their area. However, this does not apply to
vehicles abandoned on private land where the costs of moving the vehicle to the
nearest highway would be exceptionally high.
To report an abandoned vehicle, you should contact the environmental health
department at your local authority. It is possible the vehicle may have been
involved in crime, and the local authority will liaise with the local Police.
The local authority must give 24 hours (seven days in Wales) notice of removal for
any vehicle which is in such a poor condition that it will need to be destroyed. The
notice must be attached to the vehicle.
If the local authority or police thinks a vehicle has some value, they must attempt
to trace the last registered keeper, and send them a written notice seven days (21
days in Wales) before removal.
The Police also have powers to remove a vehicle which appears to have been
abandoned. If the vehicle is likely to be a danger to the public, the local authority
can ask the police to remove the vehicle straight away.
A local authority may recover costs from the person who has abandoned the
vehicle for removal, storage and disposal charges. It is not allowed to charge a
private landowner for the costs of removing an abandoned vehicle from their land
Air pollution
The effects of air pollution can include smoke, smells, and chemical emissions. Air
pollution may affect your health or damage your property, for example, smoke
may affect paintwork. The effects of the pollution may be delayed, and only
become clear some time after the pollution occurs. Air pollution may be created
either by an industrial chemical process, or a private individual, for example, by
lighting a bonfire, or burning waste plastic or car tyres.
If you want to complain about air pollution created by, for example, a neighbour,
you should first try and resolve the problem by speaking to your neighbour. If this
does not work, you can complain to the environmental health department of your
local authority. Your local authority will also deal with complaints about smaller
industrial processes, for example, an incinerator or a foundry. If you want to
complain about pollution from a larger industrial process, for example, a power
station or oil refinery, you should contact in England the Environment Agency, or
in Wales Natural Resources
Flooding
If you think that your property is in an area which is prone to flooding, you should
contact the Environment Agency's special helpline, called Floodline. You can call
Floodline to:
get general information and advice, in English or Welsh
get recorded information about the latest flooding information in any part of
England or Wales
register for Floodline Warnings Direct. This is a free service that provides
flood warnings by telephone, email and text message
report a flooding incident in an emergency
request a free Flood Warning Information Pack, including a set of Floodline
factsheets in several language
You can also contact your local authority to check that sufficient defences against
flooding are provided in your area. In some areas, the Environment Agency, or
Natural Resources Wales.
If sufficient defences are not provided, or the Environment Agency, or Natural
Resources Wales claims they would be too expensive, you can complain, using the
Environment Agencys complaints procedure.
If your property and possessions are damaged as a result of flooding, or you incur
extra expenses, you should make a claim on your insurance. You may also be able
to get help from the Social Fund or from a welfare assistance scheme.
For information about how to claim on your insurance as a result of flooding to
your property, see Buildings insurance and household contents insurance
in Consumer fact sheets you are made homeless because of flooding to your
property and you are a tenant, you should ask your landlord if they can provide you
with alternative accommodation until you can move back into your own home. If
this is not possible, or if you are a homeowner, you may be able to make an
application to your local authority housing department as a homeless person.
Mobile phone masts
If you want to complain about the siting of a planned mobile phone mast in your
area, you can object to the planning department of your local authority. You may
also want to contact the mobile phone company direct.
In England, the Campaign to Protect Rural England can provide information and
advice about challenging planning applications for mobile phone masts. This
information may also be useful in Wales
Noise
If you are suffering from noise nuisance, for example from a neighbour,
construction site or local business, this may be treated as a criminal offence. You
should first try to resolve the problem by speaking to your neighbour or the people
concerned. If this does not work, you can complain to the environmental health
department of your local authority, which must investigate the complaint.
If your local authority accepts the complaint is justified, it can serve an abatement
notice, which will order that the noise nuisance is stopped and not repeated.
Someone served with an abatement notice can appeal. If they do not appeal, or the
court upholds the notice, they must comply with the notice. If they do not comply,
they may be committing a criminal offence.
All local authorities have the power to deal with noise nuisance from vehicle
alarms. They have the power to break into the vehicle and silence the alarm if it is
creating a nuisance.
Streets and pavements
If you have a complaint about the condition of a street or pavement, you should
contact the highways department of your local authority. You should tell your local
authority if you believe that defective or icy pavements or roads may cause an
accident. If you have suffered a personal injury because of the condition of a street
or pavement, for example, you have tripped on a paving stone, or slipped or
skidded on an untreated icy street or pavement, you may be able to claim
compensation.
You should also complain to your local authority about problems resulting from
street works by utility companies (for example, gas, water, electricity) or cable
companies. You should ask your local authority to help if:
they make it hard to get to your property but try to take it up first with the
company responsible for the works
you are worried about noise nuisance or air pollution
the works are dangerous, either when they are in progress, or when they
have been finished
a road or path is not put back to its original condition.
The highways department is also usually responsible for the maintenance of street
furniture, for example, traffic lights, street lamps, crossing controls and litter bins.
However, in some cases, another organisation may be responsible, for example, a
bus stop or bus shelter may be the responsibility of a private company, or a
particular street lamp may be the responsibility of the parish council. The highways
department should be able to tell you which organisation is responsible.
Traffic management and parking
The highways department of your local authority department is responsible for the
management of traffic and parking. Its powers include:-
setting speed limits
imposing traffic calming measures, for example, road humps, islands,
chicanes and rumble strips
establishing permanent or temporary parking restrictions.
Before they bring in new traffic management or parking controls, your local
authority must publish details of their proposals in the local papers. They may also
put up notices in the streets concerned. You have a right to comment on these
proposals or object to them. If you believe there should be new traffic or parking
controls in a particular street, you can ask your local authority to consider bringing
them in.
Nuisance parking
It is against the law to park two or more vehicles in the street in order to sell them.
It is also against the law to repair or service a vehicle in the street. This law applies
mainly to businesses operating for profit who are causing a nuisance. It does not
apply to private individuals who are selling their cars or carrying out minor repairs
by the roadside. However, in exceptional circumstances, it could be applied to
private individuals if their vehicles are causing a nuisance.
Disposal of electrical appliances
If you are buying a new electrical appliance, the shop that sold it to you must offer
you a free disposal service for your old item. This includes all large and small
household appliances, fridges and freezers, IT equipment and many other electrical
goods such as tools and sports equipment.
Shops must offer you at least one of three options for getting rid of your old
appliance. These are:
to take your old item back to the shop
direct you to a special local collection site where you can get rid of your old
item for free
to have your old item collected when your new appliance is delivered.
Shops only have to offer you one of these options. They don't have to offer you
free collection from your home or to let you return your appliance to the shop.
Fridge and freezer disposal
If you need to dispose of an old fridge or freezer and are not buying a new one, you
should make sure that it is done safely to prevent accidents or harm to the
environment. The refuse department of your local authority must provide a
collection service for bulky items, but they can charge you a fee for this.
Alternatively, you can take your appliance to your local civic amenity site for
disposal free-of-charge. They will ensure that your old appliance is disposed of
safely.
Further help
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Initial contact with DEFRA should always be made through the DEFRA Helpline.
There are more organization is forward to help our environment form natural
disaster .