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SCI 256 WEEK 4 INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
SCI/256
WEEK FOUR INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION OUTLINE WORKSHEET

Water Management
1) Describe Water Management and Use                                                                                                                  a) Freshwater sources
Freshwater can be described as any natural occurring water found not only on the Earth's surface but also in ponds, rivers, lakes and streams, as groundwater or in underground streams.
b) Water supply problems
Even though water is arguably the most vital renewable resource which exists on Earth, over 99% of the Earth's water is not available for beneficial human use because of either the water- salinity or the water- location.
c) Water conservation
Conservation is a key part of sustainable water utilization. Because the field of water protection is shifting fast, it is likely that in the near future many innovations will reduce the total amount of water taken for various purposes. However, it is predicted that water consumption will continue to increase into the foreseeable future. 
d) Water use
 Water is either consumed by plants, animals, or humans, or used for a wide array of industrial needs. Water enters human tissue or products, or evaporates during use and is not returned to its source. Increasing groundwater usage has led to a variety of ecological troubles, including overdraft, loss of foliage along watercourses, and land subsidence. Agriculture water use is the largest type of water usage. 
2) Effects of Water Use and Management Practices on the Environment
a) Short-term effects                                                                                                                                                 We need to control human population growth and conserve as well as sustain our vitally important water resources in the short term. 
b) Long-term effects                                                                                                                                                During the next several decades, it is expected that the total water withdrawn from streams and groundwater in the United States will decrease slightly, but the consumptive use will increase because of greater demands from a growing human population and an expanding industry.
b. Three Major Types of Environmental Pollution                                                                                                        1) Air Pollution
a) Causes
The two main types of pollution sources are fixed and portable. Motionless sources have a comparatively set position and include point sources, area sources, and fugitive sources.
There are two major groups of air pollutants: Chief pollutants are those emitted straight into the air, such as: particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons. Lesser pollutants are those formed through reactions between primary pollutants and various other forms of matter. A perfect example of a resulting pollutant is ozone, which takes shape over city areas through reactions between primary pollutants and natural gases in our atmosphere, or our sky. 
b) Treatments
The preferred method of reducing the discharge of air pollutants created from burning fossil fuels would be for us to begin practicing energy efficiency and conservation so that increasingly smaller amounts of fossil fuels are burned. Possibly a better option would be to increase the use of alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power, which do not emit harmful substances into our atmosphere. Ironically, electrically powered vehicles actually help to build up the ozone layer in the atmosphere.  
c) Effects on ecosystem health
The negative effects of air contamination on vegetation are substantial. They include harm to leaf tissue, needles, and fruit; decrease in growth rates or restraint of growth; increased vulnerability to a variety of illnesses, pests, as well as bad weather; and finally the disruption of reproductive processes
d) Effects on human health
Air pollutants can affect human health in several ways. The effects on an individual depend on the dose or application and other factors, including individual weakness. Some of the primary effects of air pollutants include toxic poisoning, cancer, birth defects, eye irritation, and irritation of the respiratory system; increased susceptibility to viral infections, causing pneumonia and bronchitis; increased susceptibility to heart disease; and aggravation of chronic diseases, such as asthma and emphysema.
2) Water Pollution
a) Causes                                                                                                                                                                        The major causes of water pollution: plastics and lubricants are the usual culprits. In addition to large industry, and man-kind   all make up the list of causes of water pollution. We pour our waste chemicals anywhere without regard. While boats and ships are responsible for spilling un-imaginably large amounts of oil and sewage into the oceans and waterways of the Earth. These pollutants are carried to even the most isolated places on earth.                                                                                                          b) Treatments
The need to come up with effective water pollution solutions guided us   to the endorsement of the Clean Water Act in 1972, which has been changed more than a few times to adjust to the ever changing water pollution and its effects.
c) Effects on ecosystem health
With the inflow of waste water, wastes decay, nitrates and phosphates takes place. This causes the growth of oxygen eating algae called algal bloom, especially the blue-green algae. The growth of oxygen eating algae, which takes out the oxygen in water then killing fish and from that other animals, is known as eutrophication. If algae kill the fish then the food chain is broken for many animals including humans.
d) Effects on human health
Water can become contaminated by pathogens. These also include but are not limited to typhoid, (a now somewhat common illness, it is transmitted by the ingestion of contaminated food or water) and intestinal parasites, diseases caused by bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Among the serious parasitic diseases are hookworms and amoebiasis (infection in the bowel). This is just to name a few of the effects of the contamination devastation.
3) Soil pollution
a) Causes
Soil pollution is a result of many activities done by mankind and some of the leading soil pollution causes are: pesticides, fertilizers Acid rains, and insecticides are only some of the significant causes of soil pollution. Not to mention fuel leakages from automobiles, that get washed away seep into the nearby soil killing the soil.
b) Treatments
Soils can be aerated, heated up in a process called thermal remediation, to rid the soil of some of the contamination. New processes are being developed to combat the problem in a natural, less arduous way.
c) Effects on ecosystem health
 The effects are potentially catastrophe: small chemical changes in soil can render an area unlivable to plants, stiffening the food chain at its most elemental foundation.
d) Effects on human health
Chemicals that runoff through soil into rivers and streams can contaminate drinking water. For farmers, pollutants can reduce crop and lead to contamination of the plants grown making the food unfit to consume.
c.  Global Warming
1) Background
a)   Describe the Earth- atmosphere.
The atmosphere is the thin layer of gases that envelops Earth. These gases most of the time are   moving across the Earth's surface. The atmosphere's gas molecules are held near to the Earth's surface by gravity and pushed upward by thermal energy, heating the molecules. Major gases in the atmosphere are nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), argon (0.9%), carbon dioxide (0.03%), and water vapor. The atmosphere also contains trace amounts of ozone, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, and a number of small hydrocarbons, as well as artificial manmade chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
b) Describe the Earth- energy budget.
 The climate- heat engine must not only reorganize solar heat from the equator toward the poles, but also from the Earth- surface and lower atmosphere back into space. Or else, the Earth would continuously heat up. Earth- temperature doesn’t noticeably rise because the surface and the atmosphere are all together radiating heat back to space. This flow of energy into and out of the Earth system is Earth- energy budget.
2) Global Warming Concepts
a) What makes the Earth warm? Explain the greenhouse effect.
Global warming is an overall state that is the effect of hundreds of natural and unnatural factors. The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere
b) What natural greenhouse gases are associated with the greenhouse effect?
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane are all associated with the greenhouse effect.
c) What anthropogenic greenhouse gases contribute to global warming?
The main source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is fossil fuel combustion.
3) The Future
a) Predicted climate, weather, and ocean changes of increased global warming
Changes resulting from global warming may include rising oceans due to the melting of the Antarctic ice, as well as an increase in frequency and intensity of storms and weather events, also a slow rise in surface temperatures over time.                                                                                                                                b) Potential environmental, ecological, and societal effects from increased global warming
Ecosystems are already showing negative effects under current levels of climate change. Which is modest compared to anticipated changes. In addition to warming temperatures, more extreme weather events and changing patterns of rainfall and drought are to be expected.
c) Provide evidence that supports or refutes increased global warming predictions and effects.
The problem with trying to gain any evidence that global warming doesn't exist is who will say it doesn’t in the scientific community when they are getting grants and fat checks to prove it does exist. How can you expect to demonstrate the effects until after they have happened? Also, as the problem continues to grow, there's always room to doubt whether it's real or not.                                                                                            4) Prevention
a) How might global warming be mitigated?
Businesses can play a key role in the mitigation of global warming through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures (n.a, 2007).
b) What can you do to decrease the effects of global warming?                                                                               Some of the strategies that have been estimated for the decoration of global warming include: renewable energy such as biodiesel, wind power, solar power, electric or hybrid automobiles and more importantly energy conservation
c) What political constraints might influence decisions on global warming?
Government and science never mix science needs funds to continue and government needs proof of threat to give funding. So how can we be sure the research being done is not just engineered toward the means of getting funds rather than finding the truth?   And then what is to be done with the findings can the findings be refuted? and if so can the outcome changed for the betterment of its benefactors’?
d) As a global society, how can nations and individuals influence policies and practices to mitigate for increased global warming?
Emission limits discussed in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, but some aspects of the agreement divided the delegates. The United States eventually agreed to cut emissions to about 7% below 1990 levels. but, that was far short of the reduction suggested by scientists, whom recommended reductions of 60-80% below the for mentioned 1990 levels. “Kyoto Protocol” resulted from this meeting, was signed into law by 166 nations, and became a formal international treaty in February 2006. The United States, emits about 25% of the atmospheric carbon dioxide. The fast-growing economies of China and India are swiftly increasing their emissions of carbon dioxide and are not held accountable to the Kyoto Protocol. California, by itself is twelfth in the world in emissions of carbon dioxide, passed legislation in 2006 to reduce emissions by 25% by 2020. Other states are now considering how to control greenhouse gases. By reducing our carbon footprint on the world the nations can then help to reduce the impact of global warming.

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