Archive for August, 2009

Introduction

Environmental education and training is one of the most effective and strong methods to ensure that all the sets of the desirable code of practice and legislation are followed which have been duly laid down in the larger interests of the environment.

However, to ensure the right implementation and formation of such guidelines, there are certain set of guidelines that govern the activity of this sector of the industry. However, the most important aspect of the guidelines for this are those associated with the processes involved in the training and environmental education.

Key Aspects

The principles and ethics of environmental education revolve around the entire gamut of the process of environment training, expertise and education. To begin with, one of the first ethics of environmental education is that all the basics of effective environmental education should be planned and developed through interactive materials for learners as well as educators. Government reports reveal that the capacity and lack of relevant and appropriate resource materials remain a major flaw in the system and negatively affect the implementation of environmental education program.

There are various publications and series of information material available that discuss and analyze the concept of ethics of environmental education. Apart from giving basic education and information about the ethics of environmental education, such publications also encourage universities to enhance their role in shaping the society’s future and seeking solutions to the various environmental and developmental challenges faced by communities across the e world.

Moreover, the special courses offered on the ethics of environmental education also give a broad overview of the concept of sustainable development, at the same time introducing teachers and managers to the range of possibilities for action that are currently available in teaching, research, community engagement and management.

The related study reports also examine the link and correlation between the ethics of environmental education and the everyday activities. With the processes and queries targeted at environmental educators, teachers, professors and students of environmental education, the ethics of environmental education go a long way in clarifying the basic concepts and imparting training about the very core of environmental education.

Another important aspect of ethics of environmental education is to ensure proper and righteous dissemination of information to all the classes of audience for whom the required set of information might be important enough. For instance, the code of ethics lays down that children, as a special group must be educated about their environment and all other related important aspects such as pollution and water early on in their lives so that they can understand and follow the concept of environmental protection in the right sense.

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When sulfur and nitrogen dioxides (both common by-products of coal and other fossil fuels) are emitted into the atmosphere, they often fall back to Earth as acid rain. While normal rainfall has a very slightly acid pH of about 5.6, acid rain can be so highly acidic that it is capable of literally melting rocks. In parts of the world with a great deal of atmospheric pollution, rain, snow and fog with a pH lower than that of vinegar has been reported.

This is a problem for urban Europe for many reasons, but perhaps most notably because the statues and buildings that have stood for thousands of years are now, suddenly, disintegrating due to the very crush of people who want to see them. Calcium containing stones such as marble, granite and limestone are particularly vulnerable, now noted in many historical districts as causing statues and buildings to quite literally flake away as bits of gypsum.
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Water pollution is a serious problem that affects everyone. When it rains the water travels down storm pipes, over the ground and ditches picking up any pollutants that are on the ground and bringing them directly into the streams, lakes and rivers. Everything that goes onto the ground has the potential to end up in the water supply. This includes garbage, oils, paint, wastes, fertilizers, pesticides and household detergents. Even making small changes can add up to a big difference in overall water pollution. Water pollution facts are designed to help people get a better understanding as to what attributes to water pollution and how to combat it. Water pollution fact sheets can be very informative and help people to see how every little thing counts and can add up to making a very big difference, either to make the water pollution problem get batter, or worse.
Here are a few water pollution facts:
• Septic systems are failing all around the country causing untreated waste materials to flow freely into stream, rivers and lakes and polluting the drinking water.
• Soaps and detergents can be harmful to the water supply when they are washed into the rivers and streams as a result of washing a car. A better place to wash a car is a commercial car wash where they have a system in place to deal with the watershed and detergents.
• Oil, antifreeze and gasoline leaking from cars contributes to water pollution when it rains and the rainwater picks up the chemicals and it runs into the nearby streams and river.
• Fertilizers and pesticides from gardens and commercial growers leak into the water system through the ground water or when it gets washed into storm sewers and drains into the rivers and streams.
• Pet waste adds to water pollution. It is better to bag up animal wastes and throw it in the trash.
• Livestock causes a lot of pollution due to the rain flowing over the wastes produced by the livestock and being transported into the streams and rivers. Livestock waste is full of bacteria and is very harmful to humans and causes many diseases.

Knowing about water pollution facts also helps to combat the problems by offering practical solutions that are easy to follow and implement. By sweeping a driveway clean instead of washing it with water pollutants are not carried into the water supply. When rivers get too much plant growth it can cause the fish to die due to lack of oxygen. A good way to prevent this is to make sure that lawn clippings and garden wastes that may contain fertilizers get used for compost and don’t end up in the streams. By knowing what water pollution facts are it is easier to find solutions to the problems.

In just a few years, between their creation in 1930 and when they were banned in the late 1970s, highly toxic PCBs (also known as Polychlorinated biphenyls) were used in countless products and dumped into soil and water all over the world. In the North America, the Monsanto company (the very same one that brought the world GMO crops) was responsible for most of the PCB production – several million tons of it. While also used as an insulating oil and lubricant, PCBs were also widely used as a pesticide. In one instance, PCB-laden sludge from another company was given to local farmers as a fertilizer in an effort to get rid of it.

Unfortunately, the highly stable and non-reactive characteristics that made PCBs useful to industry also makes them persistent in the environment. They are also “lipophilic” (attracted to fats) and are very likely to bio-accumulate in any organism higher up the food chain, such as meat animals or the people who consume them.
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Freshwater pollution may not get as much attention as the pollution of the oceans. However, what most people do not realize is that it is freshwater that is the most important for their survival.

Freshwater includes drinking water, which we need to live. Every living being need water to live. Animals and plants depend on us to make sure that they have the freshwater supply they need, free from pollution, to survive. That is why freshwater pollution prevention is a major priority.

Importance of Prevention

The important of freshwater pollution prevention can not be denied. Without a clean supply of freshwater we would all be in danger. However, freshwater pollution prevention may be as easy as it seems.

It is often thought that avoiding dumping waste and other polluting agents into water is enough to prevent water pollution. This is only part of the problem.

Water is polluted in many different ways. It can be polluted through overgrowth of algae or bacteria. It can happen through pollution on the surface that seeps into the groundwater. It can also be a side effect of air pollution.

Freshwater pollution prevention is not as easy as it may seem at all. To prevent water pollution there is a lot of regulations that must be put into place.

Prevention Measures

As mentioned, water pollution happens due to varying sources. Waste thrown directly into the water is w form of pollution that can be easily prevented. Through regulations and strict monitoring of waterways dumping can be stopped. People are not likely to dump trash in to water if they know they will pay a price for doing so.

Waste that is not thrown into water is another concern and far harder to monitor. Waste sitting above ground will seep into the soil below and eventually into the groundwater. Groundwater is the main source for all freshwater. Once it seeps t the ground water then the ground water is polluted.

Controlling this problem is also done through regulation. It requires educating businesses and individuals about the dangers of dumping trash anywhere, as well.

Another issue is the growth of bacteria. This is extremely hard to prevent. However, through careful monitoring of waterways conditions can be observed and changed as needed to prevent excessive growth.

Air pollution transferring to water pollution is becoming more of a concern as air pollution tends to get worse. The only way to prevent this pollution is to fight air pollution. So, prevention of air pollution and water pollution go hand in hand.

Controlling water pollution is anything but simple. It requires strict standards and constant patrolling to ensure that water ways are kept clean and pollution is kept out.

Most people are aware of the damage to cognitive development that arises as a result of lead poisoning. In fact, even thought it used as a sweetener for wine during the Roman Imperial Era, even Roman contemporaries knew it was a neurotoxin. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children, causing blood and brain disorders, accumulating in the tissues and shaving IQ points off entire neighborhoods.

Until the 1970s, lead paint and leaded gasoline were common in North America. Unlike many of the other neurotoxic metals, it also happens to be rather common, naturally. It is still used extensively in car batteries, though most of these are caught in the hazardous waste recycling stream as per federal, state and provincial law. It’s use in paint has proven particularly difficult to remediate given how long these substances are capable of persisting in soils, particularly in urban areas. The long time use of lead in gasoline has resulted in a very widespread soil contamination.
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The United States’ version of EPA pollution control in India is the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), developed in 1974 under the Water Act under the Control and Prevention of Pollution—later on additionally entrusted with the 1981 Air Act under the Control and Prevention of Pollution’s powers and functions. The purpose of the Central Pollution Control Board is to serve as a field formation, also providing technical service to the Ministry of Environment and Forests under two provisions:

• The Central Pollution Control Board will promote cleanliness of steams and wells through prevention, control and abatement of water pollution in different State areas
• The Central Pollution Control Board will improve air quality and prevent, control and abate air pollution in India

The Central Pollution Control Board supplies New Delhi with an automatic monitoring station at ITO Intersection, with Air Quality updated every two weeks and with regular monitoring of: Sulphur Dioxide (SO2); Resirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM); Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2); Carbon Monoxide (CO); Ozone (O3); and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM). On the Central Pollution Control Board website is a real time pollution monitor in Delhi (check it out at: http://www.cpcb.nic.in/Introduction.php) which programs four different locations of pollutants in different area, available in one hour, eight hour and 24 hour increments for studies saying which pollutant is bad and its measurements.

The Central Pollution Control Board provides two functions to its country—under the National Level and as State Boards for the Union Territories—responsible for implementing legislations relating to the prevention and control of environmental air and water pollution. Whenever an industry is began in India, it first is cleared from an environmental angle—reviewing its pollution potential and environmental impact through the State Pollution Control Boards and the State Environmental Committees or Site Clearance Committees.

Yet the new industry, even though it is cleared of pollution through standards set up by the Central Pollution Control Board, will still cause a certain amount of allowable tolerable levels of discharge/emission pollutants. These levels are based on two things: technological and economic feasibility, as the appropriate or inappropriate site may be using pollution control equipment not operating at its peak efficiency, realistically implying a higher risk of pollution than usual. Additionally, data for air quality cannot be read accurately when it is raining based on the last readings in February 13-14 of 2007. The Central Pollution Control Board utilizes special monitoring data, such as the Ambient Air and Noise Pollution Levels and Noise Monitoring Data.

Additional monitoring of by the Central Pollution Control Board is a nation-wide program of ambient air quality monitoring, referred to as the “National Air Quality Monitoring Program (NAMP). This network involves 342 stations that operate over 127 cities and towns, 26 states, and 4 Union Territories of India with an agenda of determining the status and trends of ambient air quality, preventing violation of ambient air quality standards. The monitoring system of water pollution under the Central Pollution Control Board involves collaboration with the SPCBs/PCCs, which established a large network of 1019 water quality monitoring stations in 27 states and 6 Union Territories. Done on a monthly or quarterly basis, it covers three creeks, 200 rivers, 13 canals, five tanks, 60 lakes, 17 drains, three ponds, and 321 groundwater stations.

Emissions control systems have been used in vehicles since the mid 60’s, actually 1966 was the first year when manufacturers switched to engines with emissions control components. Systems have become more advanced, self-adjusting and computerized, however they still function to help reduce the amount of harmful hydrocarbons that are produced by the individual engine during the combustion of fuel.

There are three different types of emissions measurements used within modern vehicles. Each one provides the car, or more specifically the computer chip in the car, with the information needed to make the adjustments in the fuel to air ratio to provide a cleaner combustion with fewer hydrocarbons. In addition the various types of emissions can be tested during vehicle inspections and are routine in some areas of the United States, Europe, Canada and the United Kingdom. They include the tailpipe emissions, life cycle emissions and evaporative fuel emissions. The emission control system within the vehicle needs to be repaired whenever a vehicle fails to pass the emissions standards within the area it is licensed.

All vehicles sold as new vehicles since 1976 have come with a catalytic converter, which is actually an addition to the exhaust system that provides additional oxidation of the hydrocarbons, reducing the total amount of emissions. The catalytic converter is an essential part of any emissions control system in a vehicle, converting the harmful hydrocarbons to water and carbon dioxide before they even get to the muffler. There are also a series of valves within the vehicle that adjust with the emissions measurements to make the vehicle’s engine burn cleaner, producing less harmful emissions.

The three different types of emissions are measured in different ways. The tailpipe emission measurement can be used at any time to actually test how the catalytic converter and other emissions control systems in the vehicle are working. It literally tests the exhaust from the tailpipe for unburned fuel and emissions. The lifecycle emissions are calculated over the live of the vehicle and include the emissions in maintaining, manufacturing and disposing of the vehicle. This type of emission measurement is an estimate based on the age of the vehicle.

The evaporative fuel emissions measurement is a test of how well the closed gas tank system within the car handles the evaporation of the gas due to weather changes. If the system is inefficient not only does the vehicle loose gas but it also releasing heavy molecular gases and other hazardous emissions.

By having your vehicle routinely maintained and tested it is possible to both help your gas mileage as well as decrease the amount of dangerous materials released into the environment by your vehicle.

The emissions control canister contains charcoal and is designed to prevent the gasoline vapors emitted by the gasoline in the fuel tank of automobiles from entering the atmosphere. The emissions control canister is mounted in a non-conspicuous, safe place, usually in one of the rear wheel wells. When the car’s engine is not running the gasses radiating from the gasoline in the fuel tank are stored in the emissions control canister. The vapors are stored within this charcoal filled canister to be purged and burned when the running engine has reached certain predefined conditions. The emissions control canister in some automobiles will store any liquid fuel that has entered the canister in a reservoir designed into the bottom of the canister. The liquid fuel is stored in a separate reservoir to protect the integrity of the charcoal contained in the main emissions control canister housing.
There are three control methods used to purge the vapors from the emissions control canister, the first of which is controlled by the throttle’s position without a valve on the canister. A throttle body system may have a vacuum connecting the canister to a ported vacuum source designed as part of the throttle body. At any level higher than idle, the throttle may be positioned in will fresh air will be pushed into the emissions control canister. When the fresh air is added to the canister, it causes the fuel vapors to be purged into the throttle body through the port at a constant rate.
The second control method is by a vacuum valve that modulates the flow, also by throttle position. A diaphragm valve on the top of the canister opens when the vacuum ported from the throttle body opens it. When this valve is opened oxygen and fuel vapors are drawn into the intake manifold normally through the same port used to control the PCV system. The valve cycle under this control cycle is considered to be “slaved” to the throttle. The more you open the throttle the more the emissions control canister is purged.
The last of the three control methods is when the ECM activates a solenoid valve on the emissions control canister. This control method may be used only when the following pre-determined conditions are reached: The engine is within normal operating temperature, the engine has been running for a pre-determined amount of time, the vehicle speed has exceeded a predetermined rate and the throttle is open more than a predetermined level. As the solenoid is activated, full vacuum is applied from the manifold to the diaphragm of the purge valve, opening it completely. When the diaphragm fully opens the valve, fresh air rushes into the canister at a high rate, quickly purging the fuel vapors. When this happens, the ECM solenoid valve on the emissions control canister purges the canister.

For most applications, there are two major types of small combustion engine that are available: the two-stroke and four-stoke cycle engines. They differ greatly in the amount of airborne pollution they emit, especially in the form of fine particulate matter.

This is largely a consequence of the way lubricating oils are used in the combustion process. In the case of four-stroke cycle engines, the oil is contained in a separate chamber and recycled for lubrication purposes only. By way of comparison, two-stroke cycle engines, as are commonly found in lawnmowers, jet-skis and chainsaws use the oil directly in the fuel, burning it along with the gasoline.

It is thought that a single lawn mowing with a two-stroke cycle engine is responsible for emitting as much unfiltered pollution as a typical car or truck emits over the course of an entire year. The problem of unburned hydrocarbons in waterways was so bad that in the 1990s, many states and provinces banned the sale of such engines in personal watercraft.
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