TOPIC 9 OBJECTIVES
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
1. Describe how an environmental change may affect the living and non-living systems of our Earth.
Two examples are:
Acid rain: Living--Killed large sections of forest, killed lakes.
Non-living--Building, bridge, and statue destruction.
Rain forests: Living--By burning forest all plants and animals die.
Non-living--With out plants O2 and CO2 level are effected.
2. Examine how technology has stressed the natural environment.
A couple of examples:
Cars: Car exhaust pollutes the air. In the past lead in the gas polluted waterways.
Plastics: Until recently they were not recyclable, toxic chemicals are produced during the manufacture of plastics.
3 a. Define pollution.
Any change to the environment that is harmful or makes it less useable to humans.
b. List 3 classes of pollution and identify examples of each.
1) Thermal: Heat pollution, nuclear power plants.
2) Radioactive: Nuclear power plants, medical supplies.
3) Organic: Human waste.
4. Identify a graph showing the human population changes over the past two thousand years.
Two thousand years ago population growth was very slow. Since the industrial revolution the growth has been increasing at an exponential rate.
5. Judge how exponential population growth has influenced:
-Pollution: Increased
-Technology: Increased
-Disease: Our ability to fight it has increased, the number of diseases has increased.
-Food production: Increased
-Natural resources: Decreased
6. Generate ways people would be able to preserve our limited terrestrial resources.
Recycle, reduce our consumption, reuse materials, and use more renewable energy sources.
7. Describe how local and world politics have influenced environmental quality.
At the international level there have been use attempts to limit environmentally damaging practices. The Gulf War is an example of a political action that hurt the environment. At a nation and local level many laws have been passed to improve the quality of the environment. For example the clean air and water acts, bottle laws, and recycling laws.
8. Identify examples of how alternative resources have been used to maintain our quality of life.
Energy production: Wood--coal--oil--(hydro, wind, solar, nuclear)
Building materials: Wood--metal--plastic
9. List reasons why continued research is needed to solve environmental problems.
We still have not stopped: Acid rain, destruction of the ozone, ground water contamination.
10. Name two main types of human activities that may help to preserve environmental quality and improve our lives.
1) Education
2) Research
