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Effects of air and water pollution essay paper
Globalization and its impacts on the environment
Impact of humans on the environment
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Author John Green once said, “We can never know better until knowing better is useless.” What he meant by this is that humans are incredibly short-sighted in what consequences their actions may have. Humans can accomplish a great deal in short periods of time, sometimes without realizing the change is happening. Although changes to the environment are expected as nations grow and societies evolve, more often than not these changes prove detrimental to our quality of life in the long run. Humans have shaped their environment over time for the worse through insufficient water sanitation, rapid industrialization, and air pollution. England, being an island nation, has always heavily relied upon its access to the ocean for subsistence fishing, international trade, and naval activity. However, many of England’s most important centers of culture and trade, such as the cities of London and Oxford, are landlocked, and thus had to develop a reliance upon the Thames River. As the British Empire expanded across the globe, the level of activity and traffic on the Thames also increased. An unfortunate byproduct, then, was the subsequent pollution left behind by this high level of human activity in the 19th century. This climax of pollution was brought about by local residents, slaughter houses, and factories alike being legally allowed to dump raw sewage and human waste into the river for seven years, in a period now known as The Great Stink. In 1855, Doctor Michael Faraday published a letter to British newspaper The Times detailing the current unacceptable state of the river. “The whole of the river was an opaque pale brown fluid...The smell was very bad, and common to the whole of the water; it was the same as that which now comes up from... ... middle of paper ... ...ould sell, such as coal, crude oil, and steel, not to mention the air pollution the hundreds of new factories were responsible. If not for his isolationist economic policies, over-cultivation, and poor quality of overly produced goods, Stalin could have prevented the great hardships his nation’s environment faced in that time period. Works Cited Faraday, Michael, and Barbara Becker. "Observations on the Filth of the Thames: A Letter to the Editor of the Times of London." (2008). Kaiman, Jonathan. "China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists."theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 15 May 2014. . Trueman, Chris. "Stalin." Stalin. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. .
Gillis’ focus on the conservationists dealt with their concern for the environment and the general public’s health. Gillis stressed the conservationist’s beliefs that navigation through the Ottawa River was blocked and became dangerous due to the backup of sawdust and also bacteria that lead to spontaneous explosions within the waterways caused by concentrations of methane gas. (93) Gillis explained how the careless dumping of waste into the rivers is detrimental to the beauty of nature. He stated that the main goal was to gain the general public’s interest to pressure the government to abolish dumping of waste by generating other methods for sawdust such as fuel or the use of waste burners. (90)
In Stephanie Kaza’s, “Healing the Earth,” she poses the question “in the midst of such a challenge to planetary stability, what can one person really do?” (63). I was this type of person with the same type of mindset. Like most people looking after the environment was on the back burner. Until last summer, when I was slapped in the face and horrified at the conditions of the Flint River. Last summer, I was introduced to floating the river. Before we floated, I had always imagined what it would be like. I imagined pretty water, trees, grassy riverbanks, and to be able to enjoy all the scenery as well as the animals. Boy, was I wrong. We had not been long put into the Flint River when I began to be horrified at the site before me. There was trash everywhere. I spent the next six hours disgusted at what I saw. That's when I became involved in cleaning up the waterways. Cleaning up our waterways can
In the early 1880s, Chicago was a bustling city on its way to becoming one of great cities in the world. There was a problem though. Horrible sanitation problems plagued the city. The Chicago River was virtually an open sewer covered with visible filth. Most of the river’s worst pollution came from homes and bathroom waste thought the city. “Bubbly Creek” was one of the worst branches of the river. It was filled with enough stockyard waste to equal the pollution from a sizable city. To further the problem, all of the contents of the river flowed into Lake Michigan, polluting Chicago’s drinking water causing a sever outbreak of water born diseases.
It isn’t correct to suggest that London had no regards towards public health prior to Dr. Snow’s efforts. The city had organized a sewer to clear away waste water from the streets, private companies cleared out cesspits and outhouses, and others companies delivered plumbed water to those who could afford it to name just
While humans are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental issues that are occurring in the world, most human systems are still unsustainable. Being sustainable in a society means that humans treat Earth like it has a limited supply of resources that need to be carefully managed in order to prevent damage to the world around us (Chiras, D. D., 2016). So, being unsustainable is the opposite; when humans treat the world like they are dominant over it, as well as believing that the Earth has an unlimited supply of resources that should be consumed by humans. Human beliefs and practices influence unsustainability, which can, and often do, correspond with the root cause of the problem.
This book follows an esteemed doctor and a local clergyman who, together, are the heart of an investigation to solve the mystery of the cholera epidemic. In 1854 London was ravaged by a terrible outbreak of cholera, where within the span of mere weeks over five hundred people in the Soho district died. London, at the time, was a city of around two and a half million people, all crammed into a small area with no system for sewage removal. With overflowing cesspools, improper drainage of all the human and animal waste, and no system for guaranteed clean water, the people of London were in a bad state. They were essentially dumping all of their feces into their drinking water supply, a perfect environment for cholera to thrive.
One of the key factors of Richmond, Virginia is the James River. The James River has been a part of Virginia’s history from way before the first settlers, and before it was even Virginia, up until present day. A problem the James River has faced is that some businesses abused it. Back then, the manufacturing plants on the James did not care or realize the harm that occurs when they persistently dumped waste into the James. Since the James is such a huge factor in Richmond, it is imperative to keep it clean and healthy. All that the James has provided us with, it isn’t fair the way it has been treated in the past.
Overall, humans impact the global environment in multitudinous ways whether positive or negative. While creating issues such as overpopulation, pollution, biomagnification, and deforestation they also intrude into many other factors such as environmental, social, political, and economic. Problems caused by society itself are leading up to solutions to fix these environmental problems and may also just benefit the world as a whole.
The small Cornish town of Camelford, in the South Western part of England finds itself being commonly referred to as the centre of Britain most serious water pollution incident due to a water contamination event, which took place on 6th July 1988. This report aims to apply the framework of Environmental Health to analyse the environmental health issues and the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, it will also explain the principles of environmental health and sustainable development associated with this incident.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
Human Impact on the Environment Introduction = == == == ==
Jacques-Yves Cousteau once said, “Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today” (“Population,” Internet). With the current statistics, Jacques could not be more accurate. Every second, 4.2 people are born and 1.8 people die, which would be a net gain of 2.4 people per second (“Population,” Internet). At this steady rate, the environmental health is spiraling downwards, and it is safe to assume humans are responsible for this. As the population increases, harmful effects on the land, water, and air also do.
During the past several hundred years, humans have begun to industrialize rapidly. Tons of new technologies with all sorts of capabilities have sprung up. In many cases, these added capabilities have been used to manipulate natural things for human benefit, often at the expense of other things. On the other hand, technological advancement has required that humans come to a better understanding of the world, bringing with it a greater potential to do good, to manipulate things for the benefit of the planet. Technological advancement has essentially given us the “can”, and so now the question becomes “should”. Should we do something because we can? Industrialization has increased the effect humans have on the environment, for good or for bad.
Efforts to improve the standard of living for humans--through the control of nature and the development of new products--have also resulted in the pollution, or contamination, of the environment. Much of the world's air, water, and land is now partially poisoned by chemical wastes. Some places have become uninhabitable. This pollution exposes people all around the globe to new risks from disease. Many species of plants and animals have become endangered or are now extinct. As a result of these developments, governments have passed laws to limit or reverse the threat of environmental pollution.
We all belong to the same world and all of us have the same responsibilities towards the world and its environment. This fact might be hard to digest, but if we continue to pollute the Earth at the current rate, all of the world’s ocean waters will become one-hundred-thirty percent acidic. This means that the ocean will be unable to sustain most of its marine life and only a few creatures will be able to survive in the water. A big population of people think that they do not or have few responsibilities towards the environment. People think that the governor of a country should take steps to help the environment. They leave it to scientists since they have the technology to prevent pollution, or that is what most people think. There are more responsibilities to the world each individual has than most of realize. The amount of negligence and ignorance of humans towards the Earth is taking a heavy toll.