ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

1. Introduction

There are many environmental issues that are due to human activities. A variety of
environmental problems now affect our entire world. As globalization continues and the earth's
natural processes transform local problems into international issues.

Some of the largest problems now affecting the world are:-

i) deforestation,

ii) soil erosion,

iii) landslide,

iv) green house effect and

v) thinning of ozone layer.

Every environmental problem has causes, numerous effects, and most importantly, a solution.
This paper will outlay briefly on 5 major environmental problems facing our earth today.

2. Deforestation

Deforestation is the clearance of naturally occurring forests by logging and burning. The trees or
derived charcoal are used as, or sold, for fuel or as a commodity, while cleared land is used
as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities, and settlements.

2.1 Causes of Deforestation

i- Deforestation has many causes. Population pressures, profits, and internal

social and political forces can all push up the rate of forest loss.
ii- Access to markets, requiring roads and capital, is an additional powerful force,
recently expanded due to the suite of changes referred to as globalization.
iii- Poor countries with expanding populations, inequitable distribution of wealth
and power, and possibly corrupt governments are especially vulnerable.
 2.2 Effects

Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently
degrade into wasteland. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has
resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It has adverse impacts
on bio sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The whole phenomenon will create the environmental problems as per illustrate
in the following diagrams:-

Soil Erosion
Land Side
Deforestatio Flash Flood
n Green House Effect
Thinning Ozone Effect

3. Soil Erosion

Soil erosion could be described as the removal of soil material by wind or water.

3.1 Causes

i) Deforestation. When trees and vegetation are removed from soil, soil loses its
fertility. If left fallow, soil gets loosened, causing soil erosion especially on steep
slopes when rainwater has increased surface flow.

ii) Huge windstorms, bad irrigation methods, overgrazing and other poor farming
practices, will also result in soil erosion.

3.2 Effects

i) Reduced land fertility. As a consequence, increased eutrophication, land is no

longer suitable for crop growth, or grazing animals. As land loses fertility,
reduced income of farmers, less plant growth leads to further erosion,
environment suffers like faces with a prospect of famine, when more trees will be
cut down.
 ii) Excessive soil degradation will make people starve. They will get no choice,
but to migrate to another place.

iii) The eroded top soil forms excessive amounts of sediments in rivers, causing
rivers to overflow their banks. Moreover, flooding becomes more frequent. Lastly,
it damages fish breeding areas.

4. Landslide

Landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground

movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in
offshore, coastal and onshore environments.

4.1 Causes of landslide

i) Natural causes include:

• Elevation of pore water pressure by saturation of slope material from either
intense or prolonged rainfall and seepage;
• vibrations caused by earthquakes;
• undercutting of cliffs and banks by waves or river erosion; and
• volcanic eruptions.

ii) Human causes include:

• removal of vegetation;
• interference with, or changes to, natural drainage;
• leaking pipes such as water and sewer reticulation;
• modification of slopes by construction of roads, railways, buildings, etc;
• overloading slopes;
• mining and quarrying activities;
• vibrations from heavy traffic, blasting, and excavation or displacement of rocks
• deforestation

4.2 Effects

i) Landslides caused fatalities, environmental degradation and damage to buildings,

roads, railways, pipelines, communication networks and agricultural land.

ii) Landslides kill people, destroy trees, crops and other plantations. The floods that
could be caused by landslides will tremendously damage them.

iii) The above will effect the economic and losses to public and government.
5. Flash flood

Flash flooding occurs when a barrier holding back water fails or when water falls too quickly on
saturated soil or dry soil that has poor absorption ability.

5.1 Causes

Generally they are the result of heavy rainfall concentrated over one area. Most flash
flooding is caused by slow-moving thunderstorms, thunderstorms that repeatedly move
over the same area or heavy rains from hurricanes and tropical storms.

Flash flooding occurs when a barrier holding back water fails or when water falls too
quickly on saturated soil or dry soil that has poor absorption ability. The runoff collects in
low-lying areas and rapidly flows downhill.

5.2 Effects

A flash flood is a dangerous thing. It carries debris and great volumes of water that can
destroy whatever is in its path. It can wash away good topsoil and livestock.

Flash floods have raged through towns and taken bridges, people, cars, even whole
houses with it. Most times a flash flood gives no warning and people underestimate the
power that is involved until it is too late.

6. Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain
gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example)
trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s
average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these
gases are referred to as greenhouse gases.

6.1 Cause

One of the man-made causes of the Green House effect is deforestation. Deforestation
increases the amount of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere. Also, due to the
disappearance of trees, photosynthesis cannot take place. Deforestation causes of the
greenhouse effect. Deforestation is rampant today due to the increase in human
civilisation. The levels of deforestation have increased by about nine percent in recent
times. Also, the burning of wood causes it to decay, therefore releasing more carbon-
dioxide into the atmosphere.CO2 is produced by fossil fuel burning and other activities
such as cement production and tropical deforestation. The greenhouse effect has been
widely used to describe the trapping of excess heat by the rising concentration of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere.
 6.2 How Greenhouse Works

Most greenhouses look like a small glass house. Greenhouses are used to grow plants,
especially in the winter. Greenhouses work by trapping heat from the sun. The glass panels of the
greenhouse let in light but keep heat from escaping. This causes the greenhouse to heat up,
much like the inside of a car parked in sunlight, and keeps the plants warm enough to live in the
winter.

The Earth’s atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's
atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface,
land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent
back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains
trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up. This would
cause the global warming.

The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm
enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the
Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants,
and animals.
7. Thinning of Ozone Layer

The ozone layer is a region in the stratosphere, situated between 17 & 25 km above the earth
surface. The ozone layer contains high concentration of ozone molecule, Oз that absorb
ultraviolet radiation and shield organisms from its damaging effect.

7.1 Cause

The thinning of the ozone layer is mainly due to chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). Once in the
stratosphere, CFC are broken down by ultraviolet rays. As a result, the highly reactive
chlorine
radicals (Cl) are release. These chlorine radicals break down ozone molecules, O3 n a
chain reaction
 7.2 Effects

• Excessive entering of ultraviolet radiation to the earth surface.

• Lead to higher risk of skin cancer, cataracts and sunburns due to prolonged
exposure to the ultraviolet radiation.
• Reduce the nutrient content and crops yield due to the ultraviolet radiation
• Lead to the increase of the earth’s temperature.
• Reduce the nutrient content and crop yields due to ultraviolet radiation

8. Ways to Save the Environment

There are few actions could be taken to preserve our environment from being polluted and
harmed by the human wrongdoings.

8.1 Importance of Forests

Forests provide important products for human use and consumption, and they provide
valuable ecosystem services. Awareness on the importance of plants to the environment
could reduce the environmental problems. To improve the eco-system followings actions
are to be taken:-
 • Rotation harvest- to maximize annual harvest while ensuring that the area
harvested is consistent with forest re-growth rates and total area under
management.
• Reforestation is the restocking of existing forests and woodlands which have
been depleted. Reforestation can be used to improve the quality of human life by
soaking up pollution and dust from the air, rebuild
natural habitats and ecosystems, mitigate global warming since forests
facilitate bio sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and harvest for
resources, particularly timber. Increasing forests with reforestation and
discouraging deforestation will help mitigate global warming.

If each of us plants one little tree, it can amount to a great amount of afforestation making
the environment healthier.

8.2 Stopping CFC's and other chemicals from destroying the Earth's ozone layer saved
millions of people from skin cancer, and saved the world's fishing industry and agriculture
from the effects of UV radiation damage. If the ozone layer had not been protected there
would have been losses in food production from reduced plant photosynthesis and a
lower fish catch from the disruption of aquatic food chains.

8.3 One of the most important constituents of the environment is water. Preventing the
wastage of water and curbing water pollution is one of our primary duties.

8.3 Recycling is one of the best measures of saving the environment. Try to use
renewable sources of energy. Resort to the use of renewable natural resources. A simple
way to do this is to lessen the use of rubber and plastic.

8.4 Reduce the usage of electricity. A careful use of these gadgets is a good way to
save the electricity.

8.5 Minimize the use of animal products, which involve their killing. Animal fur and ivory
are some of the excessively used products that are gradually leading to the extinction of
the animals that provide them.

8.6 Activities like composting can be of great help in recycling of garbage into useful
manures. Avoid an extensive use of chemical fertilizers and synthetic nutrients. Natural
manures are a better option for farms and gardens.
 8.7 Making laws to protect the environment is using coercion to restrict people’s behavior
in order to protect the environment.

These are some of the simple ways in which we can contribute towards saving nature. A small
step by each of us can make a huge leap towards saving the environment.

9. Summary

The green cover is rapidly shrinking on Planet Earth and the pollution levels are rising. Today,
humans have to combat many such manmade effects that have harmed the Mother Nature in
many ways over the years. Alarming climatic changes, deforestation, destruction of habitat and
extinction of species, rising pollution levels are only some of the current environmental issues we
are faced with today. With an effort from each individual, we can only hope to save our planet
from being destroyed.

References

1. Adress : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_problems

2. Adress : http://environment.about.com/

3. Adress :http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global warming/deforestation-

overview.html

4. Adress : http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/global_warming/Older/Deforestation.html

5. Adress : http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/87-040.htm