Wastes, Disposal and Strategies for Control

Type of Waste	Disposal	Strategy for control
Heavy Metals	Landfills. If not properly confined the leachate may pollute soil/ground water.	Mixed with cement and additive that encloses the sludge.
Nuclear Wastes	Depends on the type of waste: -For low levels, material is compressed and buried in landfills -For inter, level it may be solidified in concrete and buried -For high level, it is placed in a container Reuse (weapons, not cost-effective; hybrid reactors)	Very difficult. Confinement is needed wastes take thousands of years to decay. An option is to deplete highly radioactive materials
Organic Wastes	Pumping wastes into deep wells. The mulch is used as fertilizer. Land —> provides biogas.	Biotech processes open / closed composting use microorganisms or worms. Aerobic / anaerobic bacteria break down organic matter. Incinerators /pyrolysis
Plastic Wastes	Landfills Incinerators. Reuse/recycling	Efficient incineration provides useful thermal energy and control of the gases released. Treatment Conversion into fuels (Polymer Energy System)
Oils and Solvents	Small amount placed in containers and put in trash, landfills Larger amounts, containers for recycling; oil –> biofuels. Incinerators	Bioprocesses –> microorganisms break down molecules into simpler compounds.

 

 

Method	Description
Landfills	Confinement of wastes into an area, covered by soil
Incineration	Wastes are burned
Recycling	Materials are changed and used in other products
Reuse	A new use is find for materials or they are reused for the same purpose.

 

 

Indicator Species

Aquatic ecosystems
Oyster: They fed on organic material and pollutants in the water. They filter the water, removing the particles.
Vertebrate and invertebrate species: Found in rivers and streams. Can determine the grange pollution to kept in check.
Lilies: rivers, lakes, ponds and swamps. They absorb oxygen and sunlight. Indicate abundance of nutrients, which leads to eutrophication.

Mayfly larvae: Native specie that are adapted to live in certain biome. When its number decreases it is a very clear sign that the pollution levels are increasing. They reappear downstream as the effects of the discharge are diluted. This help to indicate the level of pollution in water.
Sludge Worm. Common in lakes and rivers. All fresh water ecosystems. They fed on the sediments and bacteria, hence a great population on them might indicate great pollution in the body water and oxygen-poor water. They indicate stagnant water unfit to drink.
Soil Indicator species
The plants that are found in certain soil might indicate the presence or absence of a specific substance.
Besides plants, there are many other indicators.
Birds eggs can be analyze to find out pesticide sin the soil.
Invertebrates:. Indicator species to identify the use of foreign soils, insecticides, pesticides, and other pollutants.
In Canada there are plans to use soil-living arthropods in order to quantify the pollution in the forests.
A good way to measure the healthiness of an ecosystem and to determine the presence of pollution is biodiversity. High biodiversity indicates a strong and healthy environment.

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Direct and Indirect Measurements

Direct sampling

• In situ. Actually, in the studied place.

Reliable and the best option because of the exact results gases
It is difficult to carry all of the instruments

• Ex situ. Off from the place where sample is established

Use of more methods and instruments, flexible
You cannot experiment instantly and so the sample could suffer some changes.
Shipping and handling is necessary.
When measuring pollution, direct measurements could be use to measure the concentration of:

• gases
• particulate matter
• pH
• dissolved oxygen
• biomass content
• salts
• conductivity
• turbidly

Most of the measurements are giving in units per area, or per
Indirect sample
These measurements are the ones where we measure one factor in order to study or get conclusions for other factor. They don’t really tell you the concentration, you need to interpret them.
Examples of it are

• Indicator species,  They define an specific area or a specific biome
• Biodiversity indexes
• Chromatography
• Spectroscopy

Atmospheric layers, Air Pollution and its effects over environment

Behavior of the atmospheric layers.

As we can appreciate in the diagram above, the conditions of pressure and temperature at each level.

The ozone layer, which shields the earth from the direct radiation of Sun’s UV rays, is located in the stratosphere. Ozone is vital for life in Earth, but at ground level, ozone could be very harmful due to its high oxidation levels.

In the troposphere we find the harm of the green house gases. Carbon dioxide and methane directly contribute to global warming and its effect over climatic conditions.

Primary pollutants are the ones that come directly from sources like volcanic eruptions and dust storms. Methane (SO2) and CO2 are generated by natural and anthropogenic (human activity) sources. Human activity generates pollution mainly by combustion and industrial activity (SO2).

Secondary pollutants are the ones that have already changed in composition from the primary ones due to chemical reactions in body waters, soil or even by the effect of Sun’s radiation (sunlight).

Pollution Management

Introduction of contaminants into the environment that harm the ecosystem.

Remember when we talk about pollution last semester. Now, it is time to go deeper on this topic. We must understand how pollution is generated by human activity and how we can reduce pollution.

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, Earth have had to endure a variety of new and increased amount of pollutants.

Fossil fuels + big factories around the world + increased of population and production = Poll

Nowadays, governments of all around the world and the global society have started to be aware about the harm that human activity is causing to the world and are trying to reducing it working towards a sustainable development.

Pollution Management

The following concepts have been already established in a previous post

Point source: The origin of the pollution can be tracked down easily to an specific agents

Non-point source: There are many damaging agents that might cause the pollution

We could classify the sources of pollutants according from where they are found: air, soil, water.

Water pollution generated by the oil spills by the British Petroleum Company in the Gulf of Mexico is an example of point source pollution.

Another point source pollution: The wastes left by  the activity of “the mining and metals company Molymex’s plant in the city of Cumpas in northern Mexico’s Sonora state, is severely contaminated with baked trioxide molybdenum, according to a University of Arizona study release last week. (Business News Americas).

http://www.bnamericas.com/news/metals/Study_Detects_Molymex_Soil_Pollution

Air pollution in Mexico city due to mostly due to vehicle exhausts. Pollutants include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, benzenes and aldehydes.

http://www.sbg.ac.at/ipk/avstudio/pierofun/mexico/air.htm

Water pollution in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, a factory directly discharges wastewater into Poyang Lake.

http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/photosvideos/slideshows/china-water-pollution-slidesho

Lightning is a major natural source of nitrogen oxides pollution.

Natural sulphur dioxide pollution come from different sources. They include release from volcanoes, biological decay and forest fires. Actual amounts released from natural sources in the world are difficult to quantify.

http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/acid_rain/older/Natural_Sources.html

Food Production and Distribution

 We have already begun talking about the food supply and its unequal distribution. Now let’s discuss the issues arose by this problem and how do they are handled.

Stuff and terms that you might want to know 

Food security. This expression means that every person in a given area has a daily access to enough nutritious food to have an active and healthy life.

Food insecurity. The opposite of the first one. There are not enough food supply or simply people have not the needed resources to access them.

*This two guys are directly related to the poverty and most be treated by the government in order to secure the insecure and maintain the security.

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Undernutrition. The food consumed doesn’t provides enough energy.
Malnutrition. Food has enough energy but lacks certain essential vitamins, minerals or proteins.
Overnutrition. The food consumed exceeds energy use and causes excess of body fats. Yeah… Not big deal in the LEDC’s but we need to take it into account.

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Some of the essential components needed to avoid malnutrition are: Lack of Iron: “Derives into a case of anemia (lack of iron). Increases fatigue, risk of infection and mortal danger at childbirth”. It is necessary for the hemoglobin which captures oxygen and derives it around the body. Lack of Vitamin A. “More likely to get sick or die of common infectious diseases (flu, diarrhea, measles). Blindness” - retina, thus eye-sight dependents on it Vitamins are nutrients, but a catalyzer to the absorption of nutrients. Lack of Iodine. Affect the processes of the metabolism. It causes stunted growth, metal

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Famine. A famine is a situation of severe shortage of food supply in an area accompanied by mass starvation, many deaths, economic chaos, and social disruption. It is typically generated by a catastrophic event.

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*It is important to analyze famines’ impact over societies and the environment. Obviously there is a great disruption over the social structure of the community. Food becomes the main asset and its acquisition the final goal. The power if for whom has the control over the limited food supply. The environment is harmed by the reaction of the population against the famine. People start to slaughter their livestock and grains and, instead of rationalized it, they finished up the remaining food supply.

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Now that we know what’s the roll with this terms we can analyze the situation and present the actual management of the issues.

ACTUAL SCENARIO

We have already discuss the possible causes of this unequal food distribution in a previous blog entry. Let’s extended this explanation.

Our food supply is generated in both terrestrial and aquatic systems.

From the terrestrial systems we get grains and other crops, and livestock. Most of the world population’s diet is based upon wheat, rice and corn. As the income of certain sectors of the population increases, more meat and livestock's derivate products, such as milk and cheese, are consumed.

Aquatic systems generate food supply based on fish and shellfish.

It depends on the resources of each community or country which is its main source of food. But these three are the BIG THREE of food supply.

Now, the roll must go back a little bit. By talkin’ about the terrestrial systems of food production, we must take into account the different agricultural techniques that are being used…

Imbalanced Food Supply

As we have studied, human population differs a lot from all of the other organisms’ population. This is basically established because the economic model that build up our society determines the distribution of the resources. We are governed by the world’s currency and the capitalism. This, combined with the environmental conditions that make up a biome, are mostly the reason of the gap that has been established between countries in different economical levels. This gap is presented also in the FOOD SUPPLY.
It is important to establish that in fact, there IS enough food in the world BUT there is gross imbalance in its distribution. The imbalanced repartition of food supply leaves part of the people of different countries, or even inside the same country, in precarious conditions.

FOOD FACTS

• World food production is concentrated in the northern hemisphere temperate zones.
• There are approximately 3 chickens for every person.
• 90% of land is not adequate for crops.
• LEDC’s have 80%of the population but eat only 56% of the world’s meat.

In the LEDC’s where a greatest part of the population has no an appropriate access to the food supply, we can find cases of undernutrition and malnutrition

Undernourished those that do not obtain enough energy from the food they eat

Malnourished those whose food has enough energy but lacks certain essential vitamins, minerals or proteins.

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Stick to the roll in order to find more about food supply. Techniques, needed measures and new concepts will be reviewed in the next posts…

Measures of Population Changes

Population change around time by the action of factors such as birth and death rate and migration.

The basic rate for measuring the fluctuations in population are the following:

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The number of births per 1000 individuals in a population per year.

Number of births x 1000

population size

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Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The number of deaths per 1000 individuals in a population per year.

Number of deaths x 1000

population size

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Natural Increase Rate

NIR = (CBR - CDR) / 10

Doesn’t consider immigration and emigration.

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Doubling time

The time in years it takes a population to double its size.

Doubling time = 70 / NIR

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Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

It is the average number of children that each woman has over her life time. It shows the potential of population change.

• A TFR > 2.0 results in a population increase
• A TFR < 2.0 results in a population decrease
• A TFR = 2.0 results in a stable population

In developing countries, the fertility rate is usually higher than in MEDC’s

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Humans impact on the environment is not just given out by its growth, but also by resource use and pollution. It’s impact is affecter by:

• It’s affected by the amount of wealth
• Resource desire
• Resource need

Individuals in a population, specially in a human population, interact with the environment in different ways. We cannot generalize for all the organisms within a population.

Wait for a detailed list of identification of resource use and waste profiles in a further post.

Human Populations Around The World

As we have talked before, the resources of Earth are unequally shared between the organisms of human population. Of course all of these is influenced by the three spheres (social, economical and environmental)

Human Development Index

Adopted by the UN Development Programme as a measure of the well-being of a country.

Combines measurements of:

• Education
• Life expectance
• Standards of living
• Income
• GDP per capita (Gross Domestic Product)

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Countries might also classified based on their industrial development and GDP

MEDCs (used by modern geographers to specifically describe the status of the countries referred to: more economically developed)

• industrialized nations
• rich population small poverty
• high level of resource use per capita
• relatively low population growth rates

LEDCs  (less economically developed)

• less industrialized 
• natural capital unprocessed
• lower GDP and poverty rates
• Large population sector with low standard of living
• High population growth rates

Defining Sustainability

In simple words: sustainability is to endure. To exist for a long period of time. If you ask me, sustainability is “the responsible manage of resources that work towards using them while maintaining an equilibrium.”

Introduced in an actual context.
Sustainability is a term that has gained importance in the social world’s context because the arise of concern about the actual Eath’s natural capacity to sustain human life as it is know. That’s why the concept, in means of development, has been defined as: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

As a social issue, sustainability enters in means of maintaining the resources for future generation. We must understand that for the world natural equilibrium to be maintained, we need to start taking greater conscience about damage we are making to the environment and how we are wearing down its sustainability. That’s why society and specific institutions are working to create policies for the regulation of the human activities that act against sustainability.

In an economic context. The concept of sustainable yield enters into the picture. It is the increase of natural capital. The natural income that can be exploited each year without getting rid of it. MSY (maximum sustainable yield) is based on this last idea.

It’s equal to
-(The total biomass or energy at a time) T1 – (total biomass of energy at a time) T
-Annual growth and recruitment – annual death and emigration.

A few points to achieving a sustainable way of living:

• To control the exploitation of natural resources.
  
• To look for alternative practices that help prevent a loss of equilibrium.
  
• Understand the entire human society structure and the economic system as part of the global environmental system

Sustainability is involved in three different spheres. Each one of the spheres functions as an individual particle, but at the same time are affected by the others.

What's a key?

In the environmental studies, a key refers to a guide for the classification of organisms based on its specific and unique characteristics.

Keys might be dichotomus or polichotomus depending of how many variables do each one use for each branch of the classification.

The use keys make easier to place each new organism in a certain area and to understand the specifications of each species and how they differ form other. It might also make reference to evolution processes that species have underwent.