Save the environment for future generations

As the environment becomes degraded due to things like deforestation, destructive fishing practices and pollution, impacts on people's lives and livelihoods mount. For example, forests protect soils. When trees are cut down the top layer of earth, that is vital for growing food, is washed away by rain or blown away by the wind. Yes, this undermines important habitat for beloved and necessary species such as impressive gorillas and spectacular birds, but it also translates into food shortages that cause malnutrition in children and jeopardize maternal health. When children are hungry and mothers are dying, people turn to acts of desperation including the slashing and burning of more forests. This cycle is in no way sustainable, but it puts food on the table today. Similarly, water is increasingly hard to find and when it is found it is often contaminated. Rivers carry pesticides, silt and sand and human waste downstream and when the river meets the sea, dead zones erupt wherein no plants or animals survive. But contaminated water is also killing children and is, in fact, the second most common cause of death in children under the age of five.

The collapse of food and water supplies is driven not only by local actions but also by changing climactic conditions. And let's be clear, the term "changing climactic conditions" is not a futuristic sci-fi fantasy buzzword. It is a here and now reality for billions of people. Right now I am sitting in the middle of Kenya's rainy season and, simply put, there is no rain. When the dry season comes, there is often flooding. Seeds do not grow where they have always grown and farming practices that have always worked do not work anymore. Food and water shortages grow longer, less predictable and more calamitous.

It is not all doom and gloom. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity and there is a growing assemblage of organizations who understand and work toward finding solutions for the interconnected problems of poverty and environmental degradation. Some of these are environmental organizations or organizations focused on the protection of species. The aforementioned David Sheldrick Wildlife Center finds and fixes baby elephants but also works with communities to grow new forests to protect food sources for children. The Jane Goodall Institute, long loved for its important work with chimpanzees, knows that supporting the human condition is mission critical.

Just as importantly, there are development organizations that were established to fight poverty and increasingly understand that in order to be successful, the environment must be safeguarded. Heifer International is a spectacular example of that. Finally, there are sustainable, thoughtful businesses that know environmental work and community empowerment are one and the same. The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust was formed by the folks at the beautiful, sustainable ecolodge, Campi ya Kanzi. They understand that cervical cancer screenings and new primary school classrooms are necessary right alongside anti-poaching and carbon credit programs.

What can you do to support these efforts? Find organizations that understand the solutions for poverty and environmental degradation are interconnected and support them with your money, your time, your effort. Future generations matter. Long-term sustainability matters. But we will not win the long game if we do not recognize that protecting the lives of children today matters more. It makes us better people. It makes us better environmentalists.

Green House Gasses

There is no doubt that CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere. The record from Mauna Loa, in Hawaii charts a continuing rise in CO2 concentration since measurements began in 1958, when the level was 315 ppm; the value had reached about 370 ppm by the end of the 20th century, and hit more than 378 ppm in 2004.
Important as changes in atmospheric CO2 undoubtedly are, we need to be aware that this is not the whole story of human-induced greenhouse forcing. In particular, monitoring programms established during the 1980s reveal an upward trend in the levels of two other natural greenhouse gases as well - methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).
The change in atmospheric CO2 during the period covered by the Mauna Loa record shows a rising trend that seems to have started towards the end of the 18th century.

For some 800 years before that, the CO2 level fluctuated little about a mean value close to 280 ppm. Similar patterns are evident for both methane and nitrous oxide. For each gas, the average level over the first 750 years of these ice-core records (i.e. up to 1750) is taken as a measure of its ‘pre-industrial’ concentration.

The increase in the atmospheric burden of these gases since pre-industrial times is not linear, rather it appears to be accelerating. For example, it took over 200 years for the level of CO2 to rise from 280 to 330 ppm (1750 to around 1975); it has taken just 30 years for it to increase by the same amount, i.e. a further 50 ppm.
But how do we know that the build up of all three gases over recent decades is due to human intervention?

One strong line of evidence that it is comes from an unlikely source - the vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.
As glacier ice is formed by compaction of successive layers of snow, small bubbles of air become trapped. When a sample of ice is drilled out, these air bubbles can be dated quite accurately, and when analysed, provide an archive of past atmospheric composition - including the levels of CO2 , CH4 and N2O.
For the most part, the human impact on the atmospheric burden of natural greenhouse gases can be traced back to activities that effectively add a new source of the gas and/or increase natural emissions in various ways.

In the following pages we will review:

• Carbon dioxide,
• Methane,
• Nitrous oxide, and
• Ozone.

Carbon dioxide

Despite being the feature that characterizes the industrial age, burning fossil fuels is not the only anthropogenic source of CO2. For centuries, people have been clearing forests, burning the wood and turning vast tracts of land over to agricultural use in order to feed an ever-expanding population. The process of deforestation and land-use change also adds to the CO2 content of the atmosphere.

Methane

Methane is generated during the breakdown of organic matter by bacteria that thrive in anaerobic (i.e. oxygen-free) environments - principally in waterlogged soils (bogs, swamps and other wetlands, whence methane's common name of ‘marsh gas’) and in the guts of termites and grazing animals.

Nitrous oxide

Nitrous oxide is part of the natural nitrogen cycle. It is produced by the activities of micro-organisms in soils and sediments. Again, the increase in its atmospheric concentration is thought to result mainly from agricultural activities, such as the application of nitrogenous fertilizers to boost crop yields. Some of the nitrogen ends up in the air as N2O.

In addition, the high-temperature combustion of fossil fuels (or indeed, any kind of vegetation) in air produces some N2O (through reaction between N2 and O2 in the air), along with other nitrogen oxides (notably nitric oxide, NO).

Ozone

Ozone is also a natural component of the lower atmosphere (due in part to transport down from the stratosphere), but the normal background level is low. However, enhanced concentrations of tropospheric ozone are now found in many polluted environments, especially over densely populated industrialized regions.

Here, ozone is generated close to the surface by the action of sunlight on the mix of gaseous pollutants that is typically found in vehicle exhaust fumes - unburnt hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide (CO) and nitric oxide (NO). Ozone is one of the more noxious components of ‘photo-chemical smog’ , since exposure to enhanced levels of the gas is harmful to both human health and plant growth.

Water Pollution, a real view to please

Water is the main component for life as we know it. We all need this fluid to function and live a full life. When we go for a day out for fun in the sun, there is usually water involved.
SO WHY IS IT THAT WE POLLUTE THIS RECOURSE?

When you go to your local lake for a day of fishing or boating, the least thought about issue on your mind is the containers that you bring your drinks or food in and what will happen to them once you emptied the content. Where will you discard your waste after your day of fun. Your last worry is cleaning your boat or your fishing tackle of the dirty water that the equipment came in contact with.

But you did place those empty containers in a bin that are provided, yes? But those bins were so full that people started putting their waste next to the bin hoping that somebody else would clear the waste away. But instead, the wind blew some of the waste into the water due to the fact that the waste was not contained for collection.

 Wast from weekends n the sun that get into the waterways collect in the water and those that do not sink out of sight is at the mercy of the prevailing wind. At some place on the waters edge all the floating debris collect and make for an unsightly scene.

Now this becomes every bodies problem. The water is becoming foul from the residue left in the containers.

 If nobody decide to take action and help to clean up other peoples messes, the waste start to break down in the water due to the chemical reaction of the container material with the water helped by the sun shining down. Unwanted chemicals get released into the water that can adversely affect the lives of the marine fauna and flora.

Animal life is effected greatly by the changes in the chemical composition in the water. In many cases the chemicals released by these containers are toxic to the fish and when concentrations are high enough, will kill most of the fish in the water.

Other forms of pollution also reach dams and lakes. These pollutants are brought from up-stream with the rivers and streams that feed the dam or lake. Most of these pollutants are manufacturing discharge, some are from the agricultural sector and do not forget the discharge from sewage plants.

These sewage plants treat the water before it gets discharged back into the environment, but in some cases the treatment process eliminate some bacteria but introduce other harmful chemicals.

I have seen cases where a plant has been so overwhelmed by the amount of sewage directed at it from a nearby city, that some of the waste gets dumped directly untreated into a local river.

The discharge directly into the river caused the deaths of a lot of fish and pollution from other things that people flush down their toilets that should not be there.

Then there are the agricultural contribution to the pollution. Most commercial farmers use chemicals to accelerate growth of their crops and to keep pests away. These chemicals are usually full of nitrates that accelerate the growth af toxic algae in the dams. Usually these toxic algae is kept under control in a natural way, but with the introduction of these extra nitrates in the water, the growth can not be curbed and it grows out of control suffocating the animal and plant life that exist.

Think before polluting.

Air, Water and Soil pollution

Human activities release a variety of substances into the biosphere, many of which negatively affect the environment. Pollutants discharged into the environment can accumulate in the air, water, or soil. Chemicals discharged into the air that have a direct impact on the environment are called primary pollutants. These primary pollutants sometimes react with other chemicals in the air to produce secondary pollutants.

A wide variety of chemicals and organisms are discharged into lakes, rivers and oceans daily. Left untreated, this sewage and industrial waste has a serious impact on the water quality, not only in the immediate area, but also downstream.
The eight classes of air pollutants are:

• oxides of carbon,
• sulfur,
• nitrogen,
• volatile organic compounds,
• suspended particulate matter,
• photochemical oxidants,
• radioactive substances and
• hazardous air pollutants.

Oxides of carbon include carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

All these pollutants have some effect on the environment that we live in. Most of them are Toxic to human and animal life on this planet.

Yes, these pollutants do occur naturally in the environment and are essential for our survival, but what make them toxic, is the concentration of the elements that make them toxic. Like the saying goes "too much of a good thing is not always good for you" This is the case when these elements gets concentrated, the benefit becomes a threat to the environment.

We need to look at a better way of disposing of the concentrated elements that we as humans release back into the environment. Researchers are working on solving this exact problem. The question is, will the solution come too late?