Environmental Issues

Environmental Issues and Management

This topic deals with problems that occur within our environment; causes, effect on living things and how to mitigate these problems. This topic deals with problems that occurs within our environment, causes, effect on living things and how to mitigate these problems.

In this topic we are going to deal with the sub topic called environment conservation.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

Concept of environmental conservation

Refers to the protecting of environment from being destructed through practicing various ways of environment protection such as destocking, afforestation and planting of cover plants.

WAYS OF CONSERVING THE ENVIRONMENT

Destocking, refers to the process of reducing number of animals on the environment because when the number of animals increase on the environment, they can feed on all the plants which help to prevent soil erosion or land slides.

Afforestation and Reforestation refer to the process of planting trees in bare land and re planting trees in the presence of other trees.

Control industrial gases and industrial sewage system, industrial location should be far apart from the water sources

Practicing proper irrigation skills. When irrigation is practiced improperly especially on the land with slope the water can wear out the nutrients and cause poor production.

Control of industrial fertilizers instead of depending on industrial fertilizer we can use manure since manure has no effect on the soil while industrial fertilizers add acid on the soil

To control fishing activities, bad fishing method should be discouraged for example charging and punishing for those who practicing bad methods.

Control construction of road and buildings to avoid construction of building on steep slopes because this can accelerate soil erosion.

PRACTICING ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT AT SCHOOL LEVEL.

This part is practically based on students in groups to practice various ways of conserving the environment such as planting trees, flowers, cleaning environment around the school campus.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF FAST RATE OF POPULATION AND URBAN GROWTH ON ENVIRONMENT.

Population can be higher in particular areas due to the availability of social services, (food, shelter, hospital), good economic activities, agriculture, trade, good infrastructure, climatic condition. When the population is high, it can cause the following effect on the environment.

EFFECT OF FAST RATE POPULATION AND URBAN GROWTH ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Soil erosion. This is because when the population grows high, it leads to expansion of settlement and residence because they will need to build houses which involves digging the land for setting the foundation of the houses.
Deforestation when the population is higher it leads to the expansion of settlement and residence. That people will cut trees in order to create space and for building.
Loss of biodiversity, This is due to risky human activities that endanger the life of living organisms for instance using chemicals in agriculture and fishing and deforestation also cause biodiversity.
Desertification is a condition where the land is bare that it allows the sun to heat directly on the land since there is no land cover
Air pollution since the number of people increasing on the environment improve industrialization. That will produce large amount on gases.

DESERTIFICATION

Is the development of desert-like condition in regions that have experienced human disturbance such as deforestation, overgrazing, poorly managed agriculture. Although the extent of the world deserts expand and contract in response to naturally changes in climatic condition

CAUSES OF DESERTIFICATION

Overgrazing, overgrazing was not a problem long ago because animals would move in response to rainfall. Now, animals can graze in a single area for a long time.
Farming of arable land. Farming of arable land is causing desertification worldwide farmers are clearing arable land and using it takes away the richness of the soil
Destruction of plants in dry regions this is causing desertification to occur. People are cutting down trees to use them as a source of fuel once these trees are cut down there is nothing to protect the soil.
Incorrect irrigation in arid regions cause a build up of salt in the soil. This is commonly used in poorer areas farmers use poor techniques because of lack of water.
Deforestation since it involve cutting down of trees without planting more trees causing the land to be bare that the soil can be easily carried by the wind

EFFECT OF DESERTIFICATION.

Soil becomes less usable, The soil can be blown away by wind or washed away rain nutrients in the soil can be removed by wind or water. Salt can build up in the soil which make it hard for plant growth.
Damaged loose soil may bury plants or leave their roots exposed also when overgrazing occur plants species may be lost
Places that have war and poverty are most likely to have famine occur. Drought and poor land management contribute to famine.
Food loss. The soil is not suited for growing food, Therefore the amount of food being grown will decline. If the population is still growing this will cause economic problems and starvation.
Desertification can cause flooding, poor water quality, dust storms and pollution. All of these effects can hurt people living near an affected region.

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON ENVIRONMENT

Poverty influences environment degradation. Environment degradation is the process induced by human behavior and activities that damage the natural environment.
Poverty considered as a great influence of environment degradation in many regions of the world, regional overgrazing has resulted in destruction of grazing lands, forest and soil
The carrying capacity of the natural environmental has been reduced, As the people become poorer they destroy the resources faster
They tend to overuse the natural resources because they don’t have anything to eat or any means of getting money except through the natural resources so starting to depend more on natural resources
Due to the lack of sufficient income people start to use and overuse every resource available to them when their survival is at stake.

GLOBAL CLIMATIC CHANGE

Is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years.

CAUSES OF GLOBAL CLIMATIC CHANGE

Both natural and human factors change earth’s climates
Before human changes in climate, changes resulted entirely from natural causes such as changes in Earth’s orbit, changes in solar activity or volcanic eruptions
Since the industrial era began humans have had an increasing effect on climate particularly by adding billions of tons of heat trapping green house gases in the atmosphere.
Most of the observed warming since the mid 20^th century is due to human caused greenhouse gas emission.

CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBAL CLIMATIC CHANGES

Loss of biodiversity, since when the climate change there is occurring of drought that can cause plants and micro-organism die

Causes disease such as skin cancer, when the ozone layer is destructed it can cause the sun rays to penetrate directly to the earth surface since the ozone layer previously acting as a blanket to prevent the sun rays is now destructed

Famine or hunger. It is difficult to practice agriculture when climate is changing. it may cause drought making it difficult for plant growing

Increase in sea levels since the climate change can cause the melting of ice due to increase in temperature on the earth surface that cause increase of the sea level.

Loss of habitat for living organism since there are some living organisms living in cold areas or in ice so when the climate changes due to increase in temperature those organism fail to survive and die.

7.1 THE CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENT

The term “environment” refer to the surrounding and the influence surroundings have on living things. Surroundings include the living and the dead things. Thus environment include land, water, atmosphere and living things. In the environment, human beings are taken to be the centre because they influence the environment and in turn it influences them.

Simply environment includes everything surrounding us including ourselves.

THE COMPONENTS OF ENVIRONMENT

Our environment is often divided into three components. These are the physical, the living and the cultural environment.

The Physical Environment
It consist of air, water, soil and rocks form the non – living or physical environment.
The living Part of the Environment
The second component is the habitat which is the home of living things (all living things). The habitat provide conditions necessary for life to prosper. The various creatures depend on each other for survival E.g. animals depends on plants for foods, plants depends on insect for pollination and dispersal.
The Cultural Environment.
The cultural or human environment is unique for two ways

People are part of the living environment
People are capable of influencing each and every other part of the environment

Thus the cultural environment reflects the impact of human being such as;

Homes, industries, ports, transport and communication
Their capability for agriculture
Their capability to conserve or destroy the environment.

THE ENVIRONMENT AS A SYSTEM

Environment is made up of independent components and processes, hence what is part of the environment can relate to something else. The destruction of one of these mean damaging a lot others E.g. If we destroy a forest;

We destroy habitants for so many other creatures.
We are destroying natural cycles which involve the production or consumption of gases for sustaining life.

Therefore we should note that environment is a big system of parts, in which none can work alone.

Environment is important for the following aspects.

General life support
The environment contains ingredients essential for live, health and human welfare
Supply of raw materials and energy necessary for production and consumption.
Absorption of the waste products of the social and economic activities. This absorption is done through air, soil or water.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND MANAGEMENT.

Environment problems refer to the issue of harmful processes which are introduced or natural occurrences to the environment and make it unsafe for the users.

Environment management: Refer to the solution of controlling or conserving or caring of environment for the future use.

The main environmental problems facing the environment are,

Pollution, these includes Air, Water, Soil, and Noise pollution
Environment hazards which include, Floods, Drought, Desertification, Famine and loss of Biodiversity both plants and animal (flora and fauna)
Global warming
Global climatic change.

CAUSES OF VARIOUS ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS

ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION.

Environment pollution these are problems which lead to pollution of environment due to addition of unwanted product or substance, these includes Air pollution, Soil pollution, Water pollution and Noise pollution.

WATER POLLUTION;

Water pollution is the addition of unwanted substance to the sources of water example River, Lake, Ocean, Dams, Swamp

CAUSES OF WATER POLLUTION.

Mining activities, due to the exploitation of minerals when rain falls it sweeps the soil to the source of water resulting in pollution.
Disposal of untreated sewage (effluent) into the water bodies from various sources e.g. Industrial wastes or domestic wastes.
Dumping of waste from the industries into the water bodies from various sources e.g. industrial waste.
Oil spills from the leaking oil containers of pipes during the transportation of such raw materials
Some chemicals and other waste from the farms can get into the water bodies through the surface run-off
Volcanic eruption, Eruption of magma on the surface could lead to water pollution because it can flow to the source of water
Testing of bombs.
Wind
Use of chemicals by fishermen

AIR POLLUTION;

Air pollution refers to the addition of unwanted substances to the atmosphere.

CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION.

Industrial activities. These industries produce some gases which affect the atmosphere e.g. carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide
Automobiles, The presence of cars lead to air pollution due to the burning of oil which produce gases like CO₂ .
Casual burning lead to air pollution due to gases produced
Mining activities lead to air pollution due to the dust moved by wind
Construction activities also pollute the air by dust.
Agricultural activities
Volcanic Eruption.

SOIL POLLUTION;

Soil pollution refers to the introduction or addition of any substance in the soil which is unwanted or harmful to plants and animals and having adverse effects to the soil quality.

CAUSES OF SOIL POLLUTION;

Poor dumping of waste products from various sources e.g. industries, homesteads
Mining activities, this lead to soil pollution due the fact that when these activities take place they leave a hole to the land as the result of soil erosion
Agricultural activities through shifting cultivation. E.g. the use of chemical fertilizers.
Acidic rain, this can lead to the killing of vegetation over which protect soil from destructive means.
Overgrazing lead to pollution of soil as the result of erosion caused by large number of animals kept.
Deforestation due to the cutting down of trees
Monoculture which affects the fertility of soil due to the monotonous production of one crop.

NOISE POLLUTION;

Noise pollution is any disorganized loud sound. Sound is a form of energy but when it become so loud it cause negative effects

CAUSES OF NOISE POLLUTION;

Automobile e.g. Dar es salaam there so many cars so it facilitate noise
Presence of factories or workshops
Low flying air crafts
Homesteads like slamming of the doors
Thunderstorms and explosion of bombs.

DESERTIFICATION.

Desertification is the process by which the deserts are encroaching on potential agricultural land

Is the process in which the fertile land is demanded and degraded to initiate a desert – producing cycle that feeds itself and cause long term changes

CAUSES OF DESERTIFICATION

Mismanagement of land leads to desertification
Deforestation, meaning that cutting down of trees make the land bare and as a result rainfall decreases because trees act in rain formation.
Scarcity of water, this lead to death of some flora.
Population explosion, this accelerate desertification due to cutting down of trees in order to establish settlement.
Global warming this is the gradual increase of temperature on the earth’s surface that kills vegetation and leads to desertification.
Burning of vegetation also lead to desertification.

DROUGHT

Drought is a state of an area facing prolonged condition of dry weather without precipitation. OR

Is the long period of dry weather when there is no enough water

CAUSES OF DROUGHT

Desertification due to long term changes
Global warming due to high temperatures which lead to evaporation of water
Population growth which lead to deforestation of trees which contribute to rain formation.
Casual burning of natural fire due to eruption of volcanoes.
Location of the place e.g. Lee ward side of the mountain therefore experience dryness due to rain shadow effect.
Overgrazing, this leads to drought because the cattle will use all water available for consumption and lead to destruction of water sources.

FLOODS

Floods refer to the period of either high river discharge (when a river overflows its banks because of excess water) or overflow of water along the coast due to extremely high tides and storm waves

Is the surface run-off of water from one place to another due to the influence of high rainfall.

CAUSES OF FLOOD.

Earthquake; that place below the sea tends to lead to the formation of a large wave called Tsunami.
Blocked up drainage system in town or cities can also trigger the problem
Damming of the river by human beings or by lava spewed out during volcanic eruption
Presence of many distributaries of the river can cause flood
Clearing of vegetation accelerates flooding because of the bare surface, water run faster.
Shallowness of the soil due to the presence of impermeable rock layer just near the surface

GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming is an unusual increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere caused by green house effects. Green house effect refer to the situation in which the atmosphere traps and retain heat energy from the sun in the lower levels leading to the rise of temperature.

The atmosphere traps the heat with green house gases that hang in it such as carbon dioxide, methane(CHg) released from ruminant animals, decomposing wet rice paddies, chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’S), Nitro oxide (N₂ O) and sulphur hexafluoride

CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING

Green house effect these are gases like CO₂ ChlorofluoroCarbons (CFC’S)
Industrial activities these produce gases like CO₂ CO, (Carbon Noxide)
Casual burning.

POPULATION EXPLOSION /POPULATION PRESSURE

Population explosion/population pressure refer to the increase of the total number of people in a given area compared to the resources available

Is the increase of the number of people in a geographical area compared to the resources available

CAUSES OF POPULATION EXPLOSION

Soil fertility; People tend to concentrate in areas with fertile soil because of high production than in infertile soil
High birth rate this is due to increase of births in a given area without using family planning
Immigration, due to incoming people from various parts due various problems eg civil war, hunger and famine
High life expectancy
Availability of social services like Water, Hospital, Schools
Mining activities eg Geita, North Mara, and Buswagi
Presence of Transport and Communications

DEFORESTATION

Deforestation is the process of cutting down trees or is the destruction of the forest through depletion or disappearance of different trees species

CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION

Population growth this lead to deforestation due to the establishment of settlements
Construction of road and railways causes cutting down of trees
Source of energy eg charcoal, wood
Industrial activities like mining activities
Lumbering activities also facilitate deforestation
Poor organized agriculture activities example shifting cultivation.

ACIDIC RAIN

Acidic Rain is the rainfall that result from solution of gases like carbon dioxide that react with water to form acids. Therefore acidic rain is the rain containing more acids than normal amount.

FORMATION OF ACID/CAUSES OF ACIDIC RAIN

It is formed in the air from sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide which are emitted by thermal power stations, Industries, Motor vehicles, burning of coals and also industrialization.

LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY.

Biodiversity; refer to a variety of species of living organisms both plants and animals (flora and fauna)

Loss of biodiversity; Refer to the disappearance of different plants and animal species in a particular geographical unit or community

Ecosystem. Is a natural system in which plants and animals (fauna) interact with each other and the non-living environment.

CAUSES OF LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY

Bush fires, this lead to the disappearance of plants and fauna because some of the fauna will die due to the fire and some plant also die and disappear completely.

Poaching, this is facilitated by hunting illegally the animals in various places example killing of Elephants, Rhino and Zebra for various purposes.

Introduction of new species in a geographical unit for example Lions introduced to the place where there are herbivorous animals.