Archive for January, 2009

Introduction

Education, as a tool can become an easy solution to all sort of problems, ranging right from those related to humanity’s problems, and going up to those created by industrial advancement and progress, such as environmental hazards.

However, in order to be able to combat such problems with the tool of education, it is important the individuals and professionals concerned be given a sufficient amount of knowledge and expertise in handling such issues, so that they are in a sound position to tackle any issues that might surface.

The Analysis

To begin with, the need for environmental education arises from the fact that environmental hazards created by the rapid pace of development in the world have gone up to alarming levels, thereby making it difficult for the authorities to handle it on their own.

To face such a situation, it is important that an awareness be created at all levels of community and amongst all levels of users. To handle a global problem of such proportions, a handful of officials and professionals are just not enough. Instead, there is a need to address the problem at grassroots level. The sources from which such problems arise have to be approached and given the required amount of knowledge, which clearly explains the need for environmental education.

Moving on, the need for environmental education is especially critical in small children who are just beginning to gain awareness of their surroundings and nature. In fact, experts suggest that such learning should even start before the school begins. The need for environmental education in children can be gauged from the fact that such early learning helps in shaping the children’s values, perspectives and understanding of the environment. It also helps in teaching the children about different ways to interact with their environment.

In today’s age when computers, video games and school work dominate a child’s routine; it is important every child be given an opportunity to learn about and interact with his surroundings, which exactly explains why the need for environmental education is so critical.

The need for environmental education in children also gets highlighted by the fact that regular interactions with their environment have proven to improve the children’s sense of wonder, imagination and creativity, apart from providing them with as sense of beauty, calmness and intellectual development.

In wake of such a critical importance for the need for environmental education especially in small children, experts advise starting early with kids at home. Parents can simply achieve such objectives by talking to their kids about nature and explaining small things about their environment which they might encounter in the routine life.

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An ecosystem diagram can be used in determining the affects of outside influences and conditions on a terrestrial or aquatic ecosystem. The ecosystem diagram will enable researchers and developers to see how different parts of the food chain or environment will be impacted by changes. Differing climatic conditions or human influence can alter the ecosystem diagram. This will show in the numbers of plants and animals and insects that survive and multiply. If the ecosystem diagram shows radical changes, researchers can strive to offset adverse reactions through understanding and knowledge.

The ecosystem diagram will begin with the fundamental landscape of the ecosystem. If a terrestrial ecosystem is involved, the ecosystem diagram will map the ground strata, the drainage, soil types, the water catchment, the underlying types of rock and the topography of the area. The ecosystem will then record the covering of the strata. The rocks, shale, sands, soil and water that cover an area are all mapped in the ecosystem diagram. From there the plant life will be included in the ecosystem diagram.

Once the plant life is mapped, from the smallest flowering plant, fungi and spores, to the largest trees and lianas, the ecosystem diagram will begin to look at living organisms like insects, mammals, birds, reptiles and humans. The ecosystem diagram will name and correlate numbers and placement of these creatures and species.

Climatic conditions, the average daily temperature and the diurnal range will be noted in the ecosystem diagram. Humidity, rainfall, precipitation averages, drainage and frost levels will all become part of the ecosystem diagram.

The ecosystem diagram will then begin to look at the interaction between species. From the water-table through to the canopy the way in which each flower blooms or each insect feeds will become an item on the ecosystem diagram. It is through the interaction of each species of plant and animal, insect and bird that the food chain is brought into focus. As a plant absorbs water, light and air to grow, the ecosystem diagram will take that into account.

As the plants grow, they become fodder for herbivores, or insects. This is another aspect of the ecosystem diagram. The food chain is an important function of an ecosystem diagram. It helps to map where needs are met and needs are not fully achieved. When a species declines or is in crisis the ecosystem diagram can help find and alleviate the problems. When human encroachment is part of the problem an ecosystem diagram can help save endangered or threatened species before they become extinct.

If you have been shopping for something to cool off your house, you will have noticed that there is a great deal of difference in air conditioning prices. While any air conditioner is going to be moderately expensive, not all of the low cost or all of the very high cost air conditioners are cost effective over the long run. Low cost air conditioners tend to be very poor quality and may not stand up with continued use, resulting in high maintenance and repair bills. Low cost or very cheap air conditioning prices tend to be found on the discount or store type brands, some which have very low energy efficiency ratings. Basically the lower the energy efficiency rating, the less effective the unit is in producing cold air with regards to how much power it requires. Even a very low cost air conditioning unit with a low energy rating will quickly result in much higher monthly power or electricity bills, easily costing you hundreds of additional dollars over the summer months. So, in the case of low cost, air conditioning prices are only telling a small amount of the total story.

Very expensive air conditioning prices are typically associated with the top of the line, highly energy efficient units. If you live in a warm climate where you use this type of cooling system over several months, it may be well worth your while to invest in the more expensive model. If, however, you live in a moderate climate where you only use the system for a month or two over the summer, it may take several years of use before you make up the difference in the price of saving on the energy bill. In this case it is important to do some additional calculation about your energy saving and the air conditioning prices to see if the installation will actually save you money. Keep in mind that new innovations in energy efficiency, “green products” and even alternative sources of energy and therefore what is a highly efficient and energy saving system today may be outdated in just a few short years.

Another consideration with regards to air conditioning prices is the type of model you are buying. Window units are often the least expensive, however they are usually only effective in smaller spaces. Portable units can be moved from room to room and may allow you to purchase one or two units and move them throughout the house as needed. Wall mounted units do require some installation and are permanent fixtures of a room or space. Conventional systems are the most expensive, but they do provide air conditioning throughout the entire physical structure, as long as there is a heating vent in the area. Carefully considering what you want and how much you plan to use your air conditioner will help determine what are reasonable air conditioning prices for your home or office.

The control of air pollution lies within the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division (APPCD) of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory. Involving research and development of air pollution prevention, while it also controls advanced technologies for electric power plants, sources for greenhouse gases, key industries, and incinerators. The APPCD is in the International clean technology developmental project division which is a major aspect for the control of air pollution, while maintaining a close relationship with industry, academia, trade, and professional organizations. A large area, it offers a very large umbrella over the average home in the United States, which produces more than 12 tons of CO2 a year with electricity, water, and heating alone. With over 103 million homes in our country, that brings up 1,236,000,000 tons for the United States amount of CO2 annually.

The control of air pollution is concentrated in the APPCD within these main areas—air topics, ozone, global climate change, fine particles, indoor Aair quality–with engineers, administrative professionals and scientists doing the researching and management. There are also six branches within the APPCD for the control of air pollution:

• Administrative Operations Staff
• Air Pollution Technology Branch
• Atmospheric Protection Branch
• Emissions Characterization and Prevention Branch
• Indoor Environment Management Branch
• Technical Services Branch

Research plays a big picture within the APPCD, a major characterization of air pollution sources in addition to the verification of innovative technology performances. The working processes involve a variety of ways to achieve the control of air pollution—research that is in house, interagency agreements with many other federal governmental entities, cooperative agreements with non-profit organizations and academia groups, along with contracts with for-profit companies and environmental consultants.

Key facts for the control of air pollution through the World Health Organization:
• Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health and is estimated to cause approximately 2 million premature deaths worldwide per year.
• Exposure to air pollutants is largely beyond the control of individuals and requires action by public authorities at the national, regional and even international levels.
• The WHO Air quality guidelines represent the most widely agreed and up-to-date assessment of health effects of air pollution, recommending targets for air quality at which the health risks are significantly reduced.
• By reducing particulate matter (PM10) pollution from 70 to 20 micrograms per cubic metre, we can cut air quality related deaths by around 15%.
• By reducing air pollution levels, we can help countries reduce the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer.
• The WHO guidelines provide interim targets for countries that still have very high levels of air pollution to encourage the gradual cutting down of emissions. These interim targets are: a maximum of three days a year with up to 150 micrograms of PM10 per cubic metre (for short term peaks of air pollution), and 70 micrograms per cubic metre for long term exposures to PM10.
• More than half of the burden from air pollution on human health is borne by people in developing countries. In many cities, the average annual levels of PM10(the main source of which is the burning of fossil fuels) exceed 70 micrograms per cubic metre. The guidelines say that, to prevent ill health, those levels should be lower than 20 micrograms per cubic metre.

Water is a free natural resource for everyone, with water pollution considered as any change in the natural composition of water due to any type of human activity that formed the pollution. The majority seems to be caused by polluting a substance which at first does not seem offensive at all, or even harmful, yet eventually develops into it. The pollutants involved are either toxic or non-toxic, depending on what they are—food production waste, industrial toxics, manure slurry, or silage effluent—but the results will be the same when they end up in large bodies of water. With water considered a vital aspect to the planet, the long process of effective control of water pollution has been around awhile, beginning with the Water Pollution Control Ordinance and its ongoing series of amendments—with the same goal of control of water pollution.

Concern in the United States over water pollution dates back to the 1899 Federal Rivers and Harbors Act—the Refuse Act—which prevents any refuse disposal from entering any lakes, navigable rivers, streams, or any other body of water without a permit. In 1948 the Water Pollution Control Act gave the Surgeon General authority to reduce water pollution, with water being considered contaminated when it was unfit to support human life and is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants. To maintain the control of water pollution, this act was established to regulate the pollutant discharges into the U.S. waters, regulating the standards for quality surface waters. Implementing specific water pollutant programs, a water quality standard was developed for all surface water contaminants—beginning with setting industry standards for wastewater—making it illegal to allow any point-source pollutant enter navigable water without a permit.

The control of water pollution begins with a source or point-of-origin that are divided into categories: point-source pollution refers to some form of contaminant that enters the waters through a subtle or discreet point source; the non-point source pollution refers to a contamination which originates from a not-so-subtle or discrete source–with more attention being derived from point sources. Legislature and control of water pollution agencies have primarily focused on point sources at the beginning, but lately greater attention is on non-point sources because of the rapid spread of urbanization and suburbanization of developing areas. Homes that are not connected to a public municipal system use septic systems of some form, while industrial or municipal industries require permits for their discharges to enter directly into surface waters.

The EPA has regulations divided up into ten areas, serving as a a staff member enforcing a compliance with regulations for control of water pollution.
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Composting with worms is a method to recycle your unused food that would normally be thrown away. Recycling unused food garbage by composting with worms yields an earth scented soil conditioner that is rich in nutrients. This method of composting can be done year round either indoors or outdoors. In addition, composting with worms provides people in the confines of an apartment a way to recycle their food waste into rich compost.
To perform composting with worms you will need a container that equals about one square foot of surface area per weekly pound of food waste. Your container should be made of either plastic or wood. Wood seems to be absorbent of the excess liquids created by the fermenting process combined with the worms digestive process. Your container needs to have holes drilled into the bottom for aeration, venting and moisture drainage. You container must also have a cover to help provide cool, dark conditions for the worms.
After you have acquired a container, you will need to furnish the container with a layer of bedding. This is where the worms will live and to bury food waste. For bedding, you may use shredded newspaper or cardboard, sawdust, seaweed, chopped straw, dead plant material, shredded aged and dry leaves or even mature compost or aged manure. You must moisten any dry bedding materials used before adding them to the container. The bedding should be moist like a wrung out sponge, filling about three quarters of the container and loosely packed with air pockets for odor control and ease of movement for the worms.
Next, you will need worms. The two types of earthworms that work best for composting with worms are Eisenia foetida, also known as red, red wiggler, brandling or manure worms and Lumbricus rubellus, which are often found in mature compost and aged manure.
Finally, if you keep your bin for composting with worms indoors you will want to store your compost bin in the basement, under the sink or any other warm dry and dark spare space that is between 40-80 degrees F in temperature. If you decide to store your bin for composting with worms outdoors, you will want to store it on the patio or balcony, in the shed or garage or even in the yard out of the hot sun or pouring rains. Anytime the temperature drops below 40 degrees F where your bin is stored, it must be moved inside or insulated well.
If your bin for composting with worms is set up correctly, there will be little or no maintenance beyond dumping the composted contents every 2-3 months.

The control of air pollution lies within the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division (APPCD) of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory. Involving research and development of air pollution prevention, while it also controls advanced technologies for electric power plants, sources for greenhouse gases, key industries, and incinerators. The APPCD is in the International clean technology developmental project division which is a major aspect for the control of air pollution, while maintaining a close relationship with industry, academia, trade, and professional organizations. A large area, it offers a very large umbrella over the average home in the United States, which produces more than 12 tons of CO2 a year with electricity, water, and heating alone. With over 103 million homes in our country, that brings up 1,236,000,000 tons for the United States amount of CO2 annually.

The control of air pollution is concentrated in the APPCD within these main areas—air topics, ozone, global climate change, fine particles, indoor Aair quality–with engineers, administrative professionals and scientists doing the researching and management. There are also six branches within the APPCD for the control of air pollution:

• Administrative Operations Staff
• Air Pollution Technology Branch
• Atmospheric Protection Branch
• Emissions Characterization and Prevention Branch
• Indoor Environment Management Branch
• Technical Services Branch

Research plays a big picture within the APPCD, a major characterization of air pollution sources in addition to the verification of innovative technology performances. The working processes involve a variety of ways to achieve the control of air pollution—research that is in house, interagency agreements with many other federal governmental entities, cooperative agreements with non-profit organizations and academia groups, along with contracts with for-profit companies and environmental consultants.

Key facts for the control of air pollution through the World Health Organization:
• Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health and is estimated to cause approximately 2 million premature deaths worldwide per year.
• Exposure to air pollutants is largely beyond the control of individuals and requires action by public authorities at the national, regional and even international levels.
• The WHO Air quality guidelines represent the most widely agreed and up-to-date assessment of health effects of air pollution, recommending targets for air quality at which the health risks are significantly reduced.
• By reducing particulate matter (PM10) pollution from 70 to 20 micrograms per cubic metre, we can cut air quality related deaths by around 15%.
• By reducing air pollution levels, we can help countries reduce the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer.
• The WHO guidelines provide interim targets for countries that still have very high levels of air pollution to encourage the gradual cutting down of emissions. These interim targets are: a maximum of three days a year with up to 150 micrograms of PM10 per cubic metre (for short term peaks of air pollution), and 70 micrograms per cubic metre for long term exposures to PM10.
• More than half of the burden from air pollution on human health is borne by people in developing countries. In many cities, the average annual levels of PM10(the main source of which is the burning of fossil fuels) exceed 70 micrograms per cubic metre. The guidelines say that, to prevent ill health, those levels should be lower than 20 micrograms per cubic metre.

The world has been faced with many environmental concerns in recent years. In the last couple years environmental problems have been thrust into the forefront of media coverage and have garnered a lot of attention. There has been a lot of talk about water pollution. So what is water pollution? Water pollution is the contamination of water supplies and resources by harmful wastes such as sewage, asbestos, nitrates and phosphorus. These pollutants case a lot of damage to the water supply, polluting drinking water and killing fish and marine animals. So now that we have answered the question of what is water pollution we need to look at how water pollution happens and what can be done to fix the problem.

What is water pollution? Where does it come from? Most of the water pollution in the United States is a direct result of industries. Many manufacturing facilities use fresh water to carry away a wide variety of wastes which is then released into streams, lakes, rivers and oceans. The National Water Quality Inventory has recently announced that over 40% of the lakes, rivers and estuaries in the United States are too polluted to fish in or swim in. Because they are so polluted they can not be used as a viable water source for drinking water either. So what is water pollution going to mean for future generations? If the current situation is not altered there is going to be less and less viable water in the future. The overabundance of fertilizers that make their way into the water supply through run off causes a type of water pollution that results of what is called “dead zones” This is where an excess of algae builds up robbing the water source of oxygen and blocking sunlight from filtering down to lower aquatic plants. This results in dead plants which leads to even lower levels of oxygen in the water. Dead zones cause the death of many fish and marine life and negatively effects the ecosystem and the delicate balance of the water systems.

Another question to consider when thinking about water pollution is what is water pollution going to cost in terms of fixing the problem? Fixing the problem of water pollution may seem like an insurmountable task, but can actually be doe one small step at a time. Individuals can do their part to reduce water pollution by picking up their trash and disposing of it properly. There are also other practical things that can be done to stop water pollution such as using less, or no, fertilizers and pesticides, using environmentally friendly cleaning and personal products, planting buffer zones of plants around rivers and lakes to act as natural filters, and enforcing the tough water purity laws that are already in place. Individuals can also do their part by spreading the word and helping to educate other people on the dangers on water pollution and how to stem the tide and turn things around. If everyone does their part it is possible that in the future people will ask what is water pollution, because there won’t be any more polluted waters anymore.

Pollution doesn’t only affect human health directly. It also has a tremendous impact on the natural environment and the organisms that inhabit it. This is especially true for endangered and threatened species that rely heavily upon specialized environments or lie high upon the food chain. Whether as a consequence of habitat destruction, direct poisoning that kills outright or the invasion of invasive species, pollution is directly or indirectly responsible for exterminating and creating endangered species.

By the onset of the 21st century, there were no parts of the Earth free from some type of chemical pollution. Furthermore, the threat posed by atmospheric pollution and climate change threatens to degrade and destroy habitats for creatures from polar bears to plankton.

Were that not enough, these threats tend to multiply. Amphibians are one example: pesticide poisoning of the water weakened their natural immunity to fungus that has already wiped out several species and critically endangered many others.
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The prevention of air pollution is world wide concern. There have been many investigations into what causes air pollution and the exact methods that work best in the prevention of air pollution.

Through the use of many different methods air pollution is becoming easier to control. It is only through various measures, though, that the prevention of air pollution is possible.

Government Role

The government plays a very important role in prevention of air pollution. It is through government regulations that industries are forced to reduce their air pollution and new developments in technology are created to help everyone do their part in the prevention of air pollution.

Legislation, such as the Clean Air Act, helps to make sure that the main culprits of air pollution are properly regulated and mandatory laws are in place to ensure that air pollution prevention is taken seriously. The government also helps by continuously making regulations stricter and enforcing new regulations that help to combat any new found source of air pollution.

Indoor Air Pollution

Indoor air pollution may seem like an individual concern, but it actually is not just something to worry about in your own home. Indoor air pollution contributes to outdoor air pollution. In the prevention of air pollution it is important to undersatnd about indoor air pollution.

Indoor air is much easier to clean up and regulate than the air outside. However, if you do not know what causes indoor air pollution then you certainly can not prevent it.

Some things that contribute to indoor air pollution are smoking, appliances, the use of chemicals and animals. You can prevent indoor air pollution by not smoking indoors, not using harmful chemicals, buying new energy efficient appliances and keeping animals outside.

Ways to Prevent Air Pollution

Prevention of air pollution can be done in many ways. Some of the larger scale methods of preventing air pollution include urban planning, technology development and legal regulations.

Urban planning involves designing traffic patterns to flow outside of populated areas. It also includes working with the design of roadways to prevent congestion and stop and go traffic situations. The more a vehicle sits and idles, the more pollution it is creating.

Technology is one of the greatest tools in preventing air pollution. The creation of new vehicles that produce less pollution is a major step towards clean air.

Legal regulations are one very effective way to ensure that all possible measures are taken to prevent air pollution. The government sets regulations that prevent individuals and businesses from doing anything that can cause air pollution if it is not absolutely necessary. These regulations also help to reduce pollution in the cases where the polluting activity can not be avoided.