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PATIL PRAVIN & NITIN GAWALI Environmental Imbalance 9th • culminates in the from climate change. These activities some time may result in desertification, deforestation, flooding and pollution of the water tables and myriads of other challenges. Whether we agree or not, the challenges we have as a resultant impact of our activities culminate in the climate change and the other environmental problems we are faced with. It is fast becoming very evident that humans have caused most of the past century’s warming through the release of heat - trapping gases called green house gases, as we power our modern lives. Their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years. It must be recalled that excessive carbon dioxide generated through human activities released into the atmosphere causes global warming and this result in the increase of the heat budget of our planet, this however climate change. have violated the environment. And at some other time it may be an experience quite different Climate change: An environmental imbalance By Segun Imohiosen environment has been placed serious siege for too long due threat posed by human activitie paradox in this regard is so pro that it is almost as if there is goin possibly no way out of the chal Human activities in terms of que more meaningful life by way of r and advancement in technology doubt accounted Our Environmental Imbalance • How the environmental imbalance is created ?1.What is green house effect? 2. What are the reasons of the green house effect? How to control the green house effect? Effect on EARTH IMPACT ON LIVING THINGS • • • What is Global Warming? • Everybody is talking about "climate change" and "global warming". But what is global warming, actually? • more • • • What Is The Greenhouse Effect? • Seen from space, our atmosphere is but a tiny layer of gas around a huge bulky planet. But it is this gaseous outer ring and its misleadingly called greenhouse effect that makes life on Earth possible – and that could destroy life as we know it. • What Is The Greenhouse Effect? • Seen from space, our atmosphere is but a • tiny layer of gas around a huge bulky planet. But it is this gaseous outer ring and its misleadingly called greenhouse effect that makes life on Earth possible – and that could destroy life as we know it. The Greenhouse Effect (click image to download graphic) • Global warming causes and effects at a glance • The Greenhouse Effect (click image to download • • graphic) Global warming causes and effects at a glance The sun is the Earth’s primary energy source, a burning star so hot that we can feel its heat from over 150 million kilometers away. Its rays enter our atmosphere and shower upon on our planet. About one third of this solar energy is reflected back into the universe by shimmering glaciers, water and other bright surfaces. Two thirds, however, are absorbed by the Earth, warming land, oceans, and atmosphere. • • • Much of this heat radiates back out into space, but some of it is stored in the atmosphere. This process is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, the Earth’s average temperature would be a chilling -18 degrees Celsius, even despite the sun’s constant energy supply. • In a world like this, life on Earth would probably have never emerged from the sea. Thanks to the greenhouse effect, however, heat emitted from the Earth is trapped in the atmosphere, providing us with a comfortable average temperature of 14 degrees. • • Sunrays enter the glass roof and walls of a greenhouse. But once they heat up the ground, which, in turn, heats up the air inside the greenhouse, the glass panels trap that warm air and temperatures increase. But our planet has no glass walls; the only thing that comes close to acting as such is our atmosphere. But unfortunately, in here, processes are way more complicated. • Picture Gallery (click the image to start) • • • • • Arctic Meltdown: See how global warming is changing the North Pole Picture Gallery (click the image to start) Arctic Meltdown: See how global warming is changing the North Pole Like a radiator in space Only about half of all solar energy that reaches the Earth is infrared radiation and causes immediate warming when passing the atmosphere. The other half is of a higher frequency, and only translates into heat once it hits Earth and is later reflected back into space as waves of infrared radiation. • • This transformation of solar radiation in to infrared radiation is crucial, because infrared radiation can be absorbed by the atmosphere. So, on a cold and clear night, parts of this infrared radiation that would normally dissipate into space get caught up in the Earth’s atmosphere. And like a radiator in the middle of a room, our atmosphere radiates this heat into all directions. • • Parts of this heat are finally sent out in the frozen nothingness of space, parts of it are sent back to Earth where they step up global temperatures. Just how much warmer it gets down here depends on how much energy is absorbed up there– and this, in turn, depends on the atmosphere’s composition. • The switch from carbon dioxide to oxygen • Nitrogen, oxygen, and argon make up 98 • percent of the Earth’s atmosphere. But they do not absorb significant amounts of infrared radiation, and thus do not contribute to the greenhouse effect. It is the more exotic components like water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons that absorb heat and thus increase atmospheric temperatures. Studies indicate that until some 2.7 billion years ago, there was so much carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane in our atmosphere that average temperatures on Earth were as high as 70 degrees. But bacteria and plants slowly turned CO2 into oxygen and the concentration of CO2 in our current atmosphere dropped to just about 0.038 percent or 383 parts per million (ppm), a unit of measurement used for very low concentrations of • Picture Gallery (click the image to start) warming picture ----------------------------------------------------Picture Gallery (click ge to start) Gallery (click the image Gallery (click the image http://static.how stuffworks.com/gif/acidrain-1a.jpg • • • • • • • • • • ‘The Ozone’ What? •June 26, 2008 • No Comments What is it? Basically the OZONE LAYER is just a layer of the earth’s atmosphere, but it has an important job. It absorbs 97-99% of the suns ultraviolet light which is damaging to all animal and plant life on earth. So from that I think its pretty obvious that the OZONE LAYER is pretty important. What Cause Holes in the OZONE LAYER? There are quite a few reasons why there are holes in the OZONE LAYER and I have listed a few of them: The first might sound quite strange but it plays a significant role in causing holes in the OZONE LAYER. Its volcanic eruptions! When a volcano erupts it produces quite a lot of aerosols which are released into the lower atmosphere. The CFC’s from the atmosphere are what causes the holes in the OZONE LAYER. However, because well more than half of a volcanic plume is water vapour most of the other compounds get ‘rained-out’ of the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are another cause for the holes in the OZONE LAYER. These gases can heat the planet and change weather patterns. Holes in the OZONE LAYER are over all caused by gases containing chlorine and bromine. • • • • • It’s not actually a hole, y’know. •June 20, 2008 • No Comments The Hole in the Ozone Layer By Claire Crutchley 10SCO Most of us will have heard talk of the “hole” in the ozone layer from television, our parents, the news. In this blog I am going to talk about & explain a little bit more about what this term actually means & what it means to us. • • Discovered in 1839 by a Swiss chemist, Christian Friedrich Schonbein, ozone is a • • triatomic molecule, that is, it consists of three oxygen atoms. Ozone is present throughout our Earth’s atmosphere & can be both helpful & unhelpful. Upper atmosphere ozone absorbs 93-99% harmful UV light. Without this filtration, there would be an increase of skin cancer & various biological harm to animals & humans. However, ground-level ozone is an air-pollutant. Source A: the regions of the atmosphere • As time has passed, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere has dropped. This decline in ozone levels (or ozone depletion ) can be confirmed by two observations: a decline in the amount of ozone in the Earth’s stratosphere, & an even larger decrease in stratospheric ozone over the polar regions – the ozone hole. • • The term that we are probably most familiar with is “the ozone layer”. This refers to a region in the stratosphere (the second major layer of our Earth’s atmosphere) where the highest levels of ozone exist – about 91%! • The “hole” in this layer is not actually a hole, technically speaking. It is simply a thinner area of this layer in the Antarctic stratosphere where the ozone levels have dropped. The hole was first discovered by three BAS scientists named Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner & Jonathon Shanklin. • The hole occurs during a polar vortex (or cyclone) during the Antarctic spring, lasting from September to December. Although a polar vortex is a natural process, the ozone destruction that takes place during this period is a chemical process & is mostly due to human actions. • use of CFCs (Chloroflurocarbons). These are compounds containing no hydrogen that are used mainly in the production of cleaning solvents, refrigerants, propellants, aerosols, coolants & so on. The release of compounds such as these containing chlorine or bromine is devastating to our ozone levels. While it’s true that natural sources such as volcanoes & oceans release large amounts of chlorine, this chlorine is easy dissolved & washes out of our atmosphere through rain. By contrast, chlorine released from man-made CFCs cannot be broken down in the lower atmosphere. • Ironically, CFCs were originally used in such high quantities because • they were not thought to be dangerous. First used for cleaning electronic circuit-boards, CFCs are man-made chemicals that are very useful, but are a seriously dangerous pollutant. The problem we face now is that for it took us a long time to realize their effects, & during that time the CFCs were built up to levels that will take decades to erase, even if we immediately stop producing them altogether. http://images.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eere.energy.go v/state_energy_program/update/images/0607_greenhouse_effect.jpg&imgrefurl=http://vcbyear10e.wordpress.co m/&usg=__Wp_UFI3ZyEjICxQwCX7L6DO_jJo=&h=351&w=473&sz=45 &hl=en&start=32&um=1&tbnid=RxMhc87Qi9AiYM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=1 29&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwhat%2Bare%2Bthe%2Beffects%2Bof%2 Bthe%2Benvironmental%2Bimbalance%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bliving%2Bthi ngs%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26s a%3DN http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/Volume1/08Environmental.htm#_ Toc490564699 http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/Volume1/0 8Environmental.htm#_Toc490564699 • In the past, research in environmental epidemiology and toxicology has often been based on limited information. New knowledge about the interactions between specific genetic variations among individuals and specific environmental factors provides enormous opportunity for further developing modifications in environmental exposures that contribute to disease. Further research is needed to address these and other problems and to improve the science and management of health effects on people exposed to environmental hazardsIssues • Because the impact of the environment on human health is so great, protecting the environment has long been a mainstay of public health practice. National, State, and local efforts to ensure clean air and safe supplies of food and water, to manage sewage and municipal wastes, and to control or eliminate vector-borne illnesses have contributed a great deal to improvements in public health in the United States. Unfortunately, in spite of the billions of dollars spent to manage and clean up hazardous waste sites in the Nation each year, little money has been spent evaluating the health risks associated with chronic, low-level exposures to hazardous substances. This imbalance results in an inadequate amount of useful information to evaluate and manage these sites effectively and to evaluate the health status of people who live near the sites. •