The Greenhouse Effect Free Essays

Have you ever thought, why some people have breathing problems in the cities? The answer is simple – air pollution. Air pollution is one of the most important problems in the world. How can we solve this environmental problem? Today factories produce more and more cars. We will write a custom essay sample on The Greenhouse Effect or any similar topic only for you Order Now Factories and cars are one of the biggest air pollutants. To begin with, drivers should use unleaded petrol. However, they use leaded petrol, as it is cheaper. The cars should be banned from city centres, as they cause big smog. Another serious problem is that there are no filters in factories. Moreover, factory managers save their money. They do not care about nature and what may happen with it. Some plants just cannot afford to buy filters, as they are too expensive. Pasekmes This factory fumes cause acid rain, smog and other environmental problems. As a result, more and more people are developing skin cancer. Also, many trees, plants and animals continually die out. Sprendimo budai mankind can solve air pollution problems, but they do not want. However, we should take care and try to safe the world, because we are a part of nature. So, if nature dies, we will not survive either. Air is the ocean we breathe. Air supplies us with oxygen which is essential for our bodies to live. Air is 99. 9% nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and inert gases. Human activities can release substances into the air, some of which can cause problems for humans, plants, and animals. There are several main types of pollution and well-known effects of pollution which are commonly discussed. These include smog, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, and â€Å"holes† in the ozone layer. Each of these problems has serious implications for our health and well-being as well as for the whole environment. One type of air pollution is the release of particles into the air from burning fuel for energy. Diesel smoke is a good example of this particulate matter. The particles are very small pieces of matter measuring about 2. 5 microns or about . 0001 inches. This type of pollution is sometimes referred to as â€Å"black carbon† pollution. The exhaust from burning fuels in automobiles, homes, and industries is a major source of pollution in the air. Some authorities believe that even the burning of wood and charcoal in fireplaces and barbeques can release significant quanitites of soot into the air. Another type of pollution is the release of noxious gases, such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and chemical vapors. These can take part in further chemical reactions once they are in the atmosphere, forming smog and acid rain. Pollution also needs to be considered inside our homes, offices, and schools. Some of these pollutants can be created by indoor activities such as smoking and cooking. In the United States, we spend about 80-90% of our time inside buildings, and so our exposure to harmful indoor pollutants can be serious. It is therefore important to consider both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Smog is a type of large-scale outdoor pollution. It is caused by chemical reactions between pollutants derived from different sources, primarily automobile exhaust and industrial emissions. Cities are often centers of these types of activities, and many suffer from the effects of smog, especially during the warm months of the year. Additional information about smog and its effects are available from Environment Canada and the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) in southern California. For each city, the exact causes of pollution may be different. Depending on the geographical location, temperature, wind and weather factors, pollution is dispersed differently. However, sometimes this does not happen and the pollution can build up to dangerous levels. A temperature inversion occurs when air close to the earth is cooler than the air above it. Under these conditions the pollution cannot rise and be dispersed. Cities surrounded by mountains also experience trapping of pollution. Inversion can happen in any season. Winter inversions are likely to cause particulate and cabon monoxide pollution. Summer inversions are more likely to create smog. Another consequence of outdoor air pollution is acid rain. When a pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with droplets of water in the air, the water (or snow) can become acidified. The effects of acid rain on the environment can be very serious. It damages plants by destroying their leaves, it poisons the soil, and it changes the chemistry of lakes and streams. Damage due to acid rain kills trees and harms animals, fish, and other wildlife. The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Environment Canada are among the organizations that are actively studying the acid rain problem. The Greenhouse Effect, also referred to as global warming, is generally believed to come from the build up of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced when fuels are burned. Plants convert carbon dioxide back to oxygen, but the release of carbon dioxide from human activities is higher than the world’s plants can process. The situation is made worse since many of the earth’s forests are being removed, and plant life is being damaged by acid rain. Thus, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is continuing to increase. This buildup acts like a blanket and traps heat close to the surface of our earth. Changes of even a few degrees will affect us all through changes in the climate and even the possibility that the polar ice caps may melt. (One of the consequences of polar ice cap melting would be a rise in global sea level, resulting in widespread coastal flooding. ) Additional resources and information about the Greenhouse Effect and global warming are available from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Science Education Academy of the Bay Area (SEABA) and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ). Ozone depletion is another result of pollution. Chemicals released by our activities affect the stratosphere , one of the atmospheric layers surrounding earth. The ozone layer in the stratosphere protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) from aerosol cans, cooling systems and refrigerator equipment removes some of the ozone, causing â€Å"holes†; to open up in this layer and allowing the radiation to reach the earth. Ultraviolet radiation is known to cause skin cancer and has damaging effects on plants and wildlife. Additional resources and information about the ozone depletion problem are available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Ozone ACTION. Many people spend large portion of time indoors – as much as 80-90% of their lives. We work, study, eat, drink and sleep in enclosed environments where air circulation may be restricted. For these reasons, some experts feel that more people suffer from the effects of indoor air pollution than outdoor pollution. There are many sources of indoor air pollution. Tobacco smoke, cooking and heating appliances, and vapors from building materials, paints, furniture, etc. cause pollution inside buildings. Radon is a natural radioactive gas released from the earth, and it can be found concentrated in basements in some parts of the United States. Additional information about the radon problem is available from the USGS and the Minnesota Radon Project. Pollution exposure at home and work is often greater than outdoors. The California Air Resources Board estimates that indoor air pollutant levels are 25-62% greater than outside levels and can pose serious health problems. Both indoor and outdoor pollution need to be controlled and/or prevented. How can we prevent the damaging effection of pollution? Kas kelia pavoju-priezastys One of the most dangerous air pollutants is cigarette smoke. Restricting smoking is an important key to a healthier environment. Legislation to control smoking is in effect in some locations, but personal exposure should be monitored and limited wherever possible. Additional information about the effects of â€Å"secondhand† cigarette smoke is available from the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and Medicine On-line. Only through the efforts of scientists, business leaders, legislators, and individuals can we reduce the amount of air pollution on the planet. This challenge must be met by all of us in order to assure that a healthy environment will exist for ourselves and our children. Find out â€Å"What you can do to reduce air pollution†. Black carbon pollution is the release of tiny particles into the air from burning fuel for energy. Air pollution caused by such particulates has been a major problem since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the development of the internal combustion engine . Scientific publications dealing with the analysis of soot and smoke date back as early as 1896. Mankind has become so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels (petroleum products, coal, and natural gas) that the sum total of all combustion-related emissions now constitutes a serious and widespread problem, not only to human health, but also to the entire global environment. What is Air Pollution What Causes Air Pollution ———– facts sollution Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious form of air pollution. But there are different kinds of pollution—some visible, some invisible—that contribute to global warming. Generally any substance that people introduce into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things and the environment is considered air pollution. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years. Other greenhouse gases include methane—which comes from such sources as swamps and gas emitted by livestock—and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were banned because of their deteriorating effect on Earth’s ozone layer. Another pollutant associated with climate change is sulfur dioxide, a component of smog. Sulfur dioxide and closely related chemicals are known rimarily as a cause of acid rain. But they also reflect light when released in the atmosphere, which keeps sunlight out and causes Earth to cool. Volcanic eruptions can spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, sometimes causing cooling that lasts for years. In fact, volcanoes used to be the main source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide; today people are. Indu strialized countries have worked to reduce levels of sulfur dioxide, smog, and smoke in order to improve people’s health. But a result, not predicted until recently, is that the lower sulfur dioxide levels may actually make global warming worse. Just as sulfur dioxide from volcanoes can cool the planet by blocking sunlight, cutting the amount of the compound in the atmosphere lets more sunlight through, warming the Earth. This effect is exaggerated when elevated levels of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the additional heat. Most people agree that to curb global warming, a variety of measures need to be taken. On a personal level, driving and flying less, recycling, and conservation reduces a person’s â€Å"carbon footprint†Ã¢â‚¬â€the amount of carbon dioxide a person is responsible for putting into the atmosphere. On a larger scale, governments are taking measures to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. One way is through the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between countries that they will cut back on carbon dioxide emissions. Another method is to put taxes on carbon emissions or higher taxes on gasoline, so that people and companies will have greater incentives to conserve energy and pollution. Air pollution is a phenomenon wherein the release of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere results in contamination of air, and makes it unsuitable for various lifeforms on the planet. It is considered to be one of the most serious environmental issues in the world. If air pollution statistics compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) are to be believed, more than 3 million people in the world die due to some health problems related to environmental air pollution every year. That’s not at all surprising, considering that the harmful effects of air pollution range from various health disorders in humans to destruction of the ozone layer of the atmosphere. All being said, our priority now has to be prevention of air pollution and efforts need to start at the very grass root level, i. e. rom our side. Before we move on to the details of these ‘efforts’, let’s go through some important air pollution facts which emphasize on the need of its prevention. Why do we Need to Prevent Air Pollution? Air pollution is caused when various chemical substances are released in the Earth’s atmosphere, as a result of some natural occurrences or some human activities. Natural causes of air pollution include volcanic eruptions, release of methane gas, wildfires etc; while the anthropogenic causes of the same include use of automobiles, power plants, use of solvents, waste deposition, use of nuclear weapons and a lot more. The list of chemical substances which have the tendency to contaminate the air include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia, etc. The high concentration of these substances in the atmosphere makes humans and animals more vulnerable to their hazardous effects. In fact, the effects of air pollution are much more intense than we can possibly imagine. For instance, studies reveal that as many as 500,000 people die from cardiopulmonary disease, which is caused as a result of inhaling fine particles in the atmosphere, in the United States alone every year. Natural hazards such as global warming and acid rain are also associated with air pollution to a significant extent. All these harmful effects call for the implementation of various measures for preventing air pollution, and the earlier we do it – the better it is for us. Some recent power plant designs minimize environmental impact by pumping colder water from further offshore, warming it to the temperature of the seawater surrounding the plant site, and then releasing it. This method minimizes the impact on the surrounding communities, but it still shocks hose eggs, larve, plankton, and other organisms that are sucked through the power plant with the cooling water. The Living Water Water, a substance that is so often taken for granted yet is such an intricate part of our very existence. In the essay, Becoming Water, by Susan Zwinger, we are asked to make ourselves one with the waves. But why? How can a substance that has no taste or color be so important to life? Like the bo nds people form with each other, water has bonds to all aspects of life. â€Å"Let them know in their viens that you both are connected everywhere. † (Zwinger, 243). These bonds are constantly being broken by our irresponsible actions. More precisely, by our tendencies to pollute. Many of us have sat and listened to lectures on how important water is to everything from humans to trees. Eight glasses a day is the recommended daily amount that should be consumed by humans. The human race depends on water for a variety of things. It is used in our hygiene, helps the body to maintain a constant temperature, flushes unwanted items from our systems, and of course provides us with many recreational activities, from swimming to water balloon fights. Indirectly, we are dependent on water because it allows vegetation to grow and animals to live. Also, remember that statistic that sixty percent of our body is water? Without water, there would be no us. For this reason, water has a bond to the human race. Water also has a bond to the land. It allows plants to grow. In fact, without water, try to get something to grow. You will probably end up with a beautifully dry, yellow looking plant. Many beautiful things like flowers, green grass, and tall trees would be nonexistent without water. Like humans, these living things are also dependent on water. The earth is two-thirds water and one-third land. â€Å"View the waterways of the earth as dendritic viens. † (239). Water is like a bridge connecting one place to another. â€Å"Swell up under fishermen in Viet Nam, caress skin divers in the Caribean, strand a cruise vessel in Glacier bay. † (240). Water also has the power to destroy the land through storms. To demonstrate this power, Zwinger asks us to â€Å"Become fascinatingly deadly. Travel further north toward the poles, go to the extremes. † (240). From flooding to hurricanes, water can change the land and lives in the blink of an eye. This power of destruction is not something to be feared, it allows for the land to rebuild and start over. It is like an unbreakable contract linking the land to the water. I feel that Zwinger was trying to make us realize how important water is by writing Becoming Water. She points out the places which water travels and the things that it â€Å"sees†. â€Å"You have a pulse, the waves, and a metabolism, your food chain. † (242). Zwinger makes a nonliving thing take on human characteristics to stress her point. â€Å"A personality, a character, a conciousness, and a sense of purpose. † (242). I have to agree with her. All to often, we take for granted something that ensures our existence. We allow our waste to be thrown into the our water supplies. Motorized vehicles churn up the sediment from the bottom of a water source causing the water to become very turbid. Some industries even dispose of harmful chemicals into our water sources. In my home town, we have a lake named Crystal Lake. It is a spring fed body of water so, theoretically it should be relatively clean. On the contrary, the lake is disgustingly dirty. Many of the fish have died and swimmers itch has become a common aliment of lake’s many swimmers. The problem has been attributed to the increased use of motor boats on the lake and the increased population that uses the lake. Another example of a water source filled with pollution is that big river called the Mississippi. Have you ever tried to look to the bottom of the river? Good luck. The river is so turbid you would be lucky to see one foot down. Besides the many gambling boats, the Mississippi is used to transport things by means of barges. Barges are very heavy; their weight causes the sediment from the bottom of the river to be churned up, hence the turbidity. Another problem is that things fall off barges into the water contaminating it even more. The Mississippi, like the lake in my hometown, has also been blessed with an ever increasing amount of motor vehicles on the river. These motor vehicles also add to the amount of sediment that is churned up. These are examples of how our society has allowed a precious resource to be wasted. So, after reading Zwinger’s essay, I found it to be a reminder of how important water is to my existence. Water has bonds to both the land and all living things. Becoming Water was a wake up call. It put us, the reader, in a perspective we had probably never thought about. We were able to experience everything water experiences. This new perspective was a very interesting and original way for Zwinger to express her point of view. By making the reader â€Å"become† water, she allowed for a first hand view of the importance of water. By becoming more responsible and more aware of problems around us, we will be able to preserve something that is essential for our existence. Work Cited: Zwinger, Susan. â€Å"Becoming Water†. In American Nature Writing. Selected by John A. Murray. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1997. 38-243. cituoti ‘’Environment, Pollution and the Living Water. † 123HelpMe. com. 16 Apr 2012       . The Population Explosion According to the Population Reference Bureau, in 1991, there were about 5. 4 billion people in the world. The global birth to death rate was 27/9, meaning that for every person that dies, three more babies are born. From 1990 to 1991, the population increased by 95 million people, and now has continued to grow at that rate. This may appear to be no danger, but if one were to think of it as a pond doubling its amount of lily pads for 40 days, they’d see it differently. It would start out with one lily pad, the next day it has two, and on the 39th day it is half filled. However, in one day, on the 40th day, it will be completely filled. The Earth’s population is doubling about every 40 years. We don’t want to wait until the 79th year to fix our problem or else humankind will not have enough time to change the inevitable obstacles that come with overpopulation. In his book, The Population Explosion , Paul Ehrlich, a famous population controlist, came up with the equation I = PAT. He believes the impact on the environment is equal to the population multiplied by the affluence (meaning the amount of energy and food supply the population consumes) multiplied by the amount of destructive technology a country has. He showed that the impact is directly affected by the population. Therefore with a larger population, there is a greater impact on the Earth’s water, air, and land. A common problem that people think is associated with overpopulation is running out of space to live, but there are also many other environmental predicaments that it causes. More people use more cars, need more firewood, drink more water. This causes more air pollution, more land ruined, and more water to disappear. Therefore, population control is necessary on an international level in order to protect our environment . There are experts who believe that population control is not needed such as in Singapore. The government in Singapore decided that it would be better for the country to grow in population so that they are able to help their economy. Many less developed countries promote population growth because they want their economy to grow. The experts who believe that it is better for us to let the population increase or decrease on its own also think that overpopulation will never become a problem. Justification for this argument is that humans will adjust themselves to the growing population because they are a species that are able to think, make decisions, and find solutions when they encounter a problem Advocates for this argument think that there is no need to worry about environmental problems because there is or will be technology to fix the problems. As for with the limited amount of resources, they believe that there would be more people to think of new ways to make it easier or faster to get newer and more food and energy resources. Even during this time period, scientists are trying to discover a new way for people to live elsewhere such as under the sea. Many people believe that overpopulation will cause and has caused many environmental problems, but they don’t think telling families how many children they are allowed to have is the way to control the population. However, there has not been any other plausible suggestion on how to lower population growth, so limiting families to two children is the only solution. The worry about overpopulation started when it was noticed that many of the earth’s resources and environment were being hurt. It was traced back to three revolutions that humans populations had grown, where at first it didn’t effect the environment, but later on with more advanced technology a lot of damage was done. The graph on the top of the next page shows the world’s population growth for 1025 years. The information is from the Population Reference Bureau in 1989. It shows the population is growing geometrically, and will continue to do so unless population control is started. World Population 1000 AD to 2025 AD The first revolution was the evolutionary revolution, about 100,000 years ago during the Ice Age. These homosapiens had larger, more culturally elaborate communities than the earlier human forms. They hunted on a large scale, and as the food supply increased, so did their population. At the end of the Ice Age, there were about 5 million humans. The second revolution occurred around 8000 B. C. and was called the Agricultural Revolution. At this time, humans were able to have a reliable source of food at a location of their choice. This was when villages and towns had started to form, and were able to store more food they needed at the time. This caused birth rates to go up, and families to get larger. Up to this point, only 6,000 years after the discovery of farming, the population increased by at least 4000%. Each century afterwards the population grew a little faster, with certain setbacks like during the Black Death, an outbreak of the bubonic plague. This killed a quarter to a third of the people in Europe during the 14th century, but still in 1650, the world population had grown to 500 million. It was the third revolution, a century later, that really increased the population and hurt the environment. This was the Industrial Revolution. During this time coal, petroleum, natural gases, and other new energy sources started allowing the world to have factories, railroads, automobiles, chemical and plastic industries, and automated industries. It was also during this time that the death rate had been lowered, meaning people were able to live longer. This revolution introduced many positive things such as pest-control chemicals, modern sanitation, and medicine. These made life expectancy increase and infant mortality decrease. From 1750, when the Industrial Revolution started, to 1991, the life expectancy increased from 25 years to 65 years, and the infant mortality rate decreased from 400 to 68 per thousand births. It was during this Industrial Revolution that environmental damage started to occur. In Greece, they had worried about soil erosion from too many trees being cut down in their mountainous region. Deforestation also caused water runoffs, flood, and droughts in China. In Rome, the air and water had been dangerously polluted. In addition it was at this time that negative things started to occur such as oil spills in sea, automobile exhaust making too much smog, and chloroflourocarbon gases that destroy the ozone layer being released into the atmosphere. The landfills were full and water sources polluted because of toxic waste from plastics and chemical manufacture. It was an increase of population that caused these things such as using up more landfill space, releasing more chloroflourocarbon gases, and more toxic waste to be dumped out in the ocean. Overpopulation is degrading the Earth’s oceans and other water sources, and by doing so will not only lessen our water supply for the future, it will also hurt the animals living in the water. It is obvious that we need water to survive, but it will not do any good if the water is polluted. If there is a pond that is being degraded, when the pollution is released slowly, the microorganisms in the pond could break down the pollution. However, if it was released all at once, the pond can not get rid of the pollution fast enough and the water becomes degraded. With fewer people there is less pollution released, leaving more time for the pollution to be degraded. (Randers, 257) In aquifers or natural underground reservoirs such as in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt, the natural water has been depleted by more than 50 percent. As there is less and less natural water in them, more and more salty water from the Mediterranean Sea seep in contaminating the water. Under the Great Plains in the United States, the Ogallala Aquifer, that supplies one-fifth of the crop land in the United States with water, was half emptied in the late 1980’s. If this aquifer is completely drained it may collapse causing sinkholes in the land above, and never allowing it to be refilled again. Not only will low water supplies affect a human necessity, it could also cause â€Å"water wars. † Ethiopia, for instance, wants to build dams along the upper part of the Nile river. This action, however, could prevent enough water from getting down to other countries that rely on the Nile such as Egypt. Also the Turkish government wants to build 21 dams along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This strategy would cut 40 percent of the water flow from those rivers to Syria and 80 percent of the water flow to Iraq. Even though about two thirds of the Earth is water, not all of it is available for use. A lot of it is not even in the places where it is needed most. Between 1950 and 1980 in the United States, water use increased 150 percent, while the population grew by only 50 percent. In 1975, 19 countries in the developing world did not have enough renewable water resources, and it is expected that by the year 2000, that number will increase to 29 countries. By 2025, at least 37 nations could experience a severe demand for water. As said by the Population Institute’s Werner Fornos in 1991, â€Å"The water crises of the 1990s will make the oil crises of the 1970’s pale in comparison. † ( Stefoff, 67) Besides water, overpopulation is polluting the air we breath, and causing many unwanted results such as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer. The greenhouse effect had probably started around the industrial revolution when a large amount of carbon dioxide was released. These gases build up around the earth’s outer atmosphere turning the earth into a greenhouse. What happens in a greenhouse is heat is allowed in, hits the ground and reflects back out. But instead of escaping back out into space, it is trapped inside the Earth’s atmosphere, raising the Earth’s average temperature. This greenhouse effect affects the temperature, which inadvertantly raises sea levels causing natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding, and heat waves not allowing crops to grow properly. (Stefoff, 39) Along with the greenhouse effect, there is the deteriorating ozone layer. The ozone layer regulates the quantity of UV light from coming down to the earth’s surface from the sun. It has started to deteriorate from chloroflourocarbons (CFC’s) being emitted into the air. These chemicals are found as fluids in air conditioning systems, as aerosol propellants, and as industrial solvents. Scientists say that each chlorine atom that is a part of a CFC compound can destroy up to 100,000 ozone atoms. However, even if we stop releasing CFC’s into the air, it can remain in the atmosphere for 50 to 100 years and continue to degrade the ozone layer. With less of an ozone layer, more UV light enters the atmosphere and causes skin diseases such as skin cancer. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the degradation of the ozone layer will cause 12 million people to develop skin cancer within the next 50 years. Significantly, more than 200,000 of those cases will be fatal. (Keeling, 4) Acid rain is a direct result of air pollution which occurs when too many people are releasing toxins into the air. Fossil fuel that is burned is released into the air as a gas and reacts with sunlight, oxygen and moisture in the atmosphere. This changes compounds like sulfur dioxide into sulfuric acid, and nitrogen oxide into nitric oxide. It precipitates to the ground and pollutes water and the land, killing fish, damaging forests and crops, and corroding metals. Main causes of air pollution are the needs of too many people for the use of cars and industrial plants, both which release many harmful fumes into the air. An increasing population leads to more CFC’s emitted into the air from the car’s air conditioning. Also when the cars are not able to be used anymore, they are taken to the junk yard, and occupy more landfill space. Furthermore, cars have damaged terrain when vacationers go over more land with off-road vehicles (Bouvier, 51). Again, increased usage of energy produced by oil, coal and natural gas-fired power plants will have a negative effect on the world’s air. A larger population also increases usage of air conditioning when it becomes warmer. Air conditioners cause more carbon to be emitted, heat to be trapped in the atmosphere, and UV light to enter in. Likewise, if there are less people, less air conditioning is used, and global warming and a deteriorating ozone layer could be prevented. According to the United States Nations Population Fund, they predict the developing countries will double their carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. What the population is causing, air pollution, is harmful to them. With air pollution, humans, plants, and animals do not have clean air to breath. Air is one of the necessities to life, and the cleaner it is, the better. As well as the Earth’s water and air, there is another part of the environment that is a threat of too many people. Overpopulation is destroying the land and therefore could end the life of all the creatures on Earth. There are many examples that there is not enough land. For instance, there is not enough landfill space. Every year, the United States alone creates 13 billion tons of waste. This is 50 tons a person. How can there be enough room for all this trash? An example of this is in the state of Ohio. In 1988, Ohio started running out of landfill space. To solve this problem the government decided to make it easier to open new larger landfills. This allowed the owners of the landfills to lower their prices so businesses will want to use their landfills. Doing this could make people recycle less, take up more landfill space, and ruin the earth more. (Overpopulation, 3) Overpopulation also threatens the Earth’s agricultural resources. An example of this is desertification of land. It occurs when fertile land is turned into infertile land. This can happen from overgrazing of cattle as in the southwestern United States, or erosion where the topsoil is carried away. Even irrigation can cause desertification if too much water is used, flooding the land, and not allowing crops to grow there anymore. Desertification is caused mostly by a growing population. More people need more food, causing more land to be used unproperly. The most serious desertification occurs in places such as China, India, and Africa, all places with large, fast growing populations. Each year about 82,000 square miles, the same size as the state of Kansas, of the earth’s surface is made useless by desertification. According to the United Nations Environment Program, by the mid-1980’s 13 million square miles of the earth’s surface had lost 25 percent of its productivity and 6 million square miles lost 50 ercent its productivity. Also in the United States, at least one-fifth of its land (not including Alaska and Hawaii) is desertified or is threatened by desertification. A third example of the deterioration of the Earth’s land because of too large a population is deforestation. The Population Institute and the United Nations estimate that half of all the remaining forests will be d estroyed by the year 2000. Forests are cut down for humankind’s demand of fuelwood, agricultural space, paper products, and more space to live. However, forests are needed for more than human needs. They stabilize global weather, and when large amounts are cut down soil erosion and siltation of rivers occurs. They also regulate the amount of carbon dioxide let out into the atmosphere. When they are cut down and burned, not only are they not able to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released anymore, they increase the amount released because burning wood makes carbon dioxide (Keelings, 2). Rainfall is absorbed by trees and other vegetations into the ground, and then flows to springs, streams, and aquifers. With no forests, rainfall flows without being absorbed and aquifers and streams are not refilled. This, then, causes water shortages and droughts. Studies conducted by the United Nations show that between 1973 and 1988, 79 percent of total deforestation was a direct result of population growth. This is greatly due to the fact that 70 percent of all families in developing nations, which is about two billion people worldwide, rely on firewood as their only fuel. If they stop using firewood as their fuel they will have to use fuels that release gases to pollute the air. Already developed countries such as the United States also account for deforestation. In Canada, at least one million hectares are cut annually, and in Siberia, the rate of deforestation can be up to four million hectares annually, which is twice the rate of Brazil. An example of land being destroyed by overpopulation happened in the Sahel, a place along the sothern border of the Sahara desert in Africa. It is not a true desert, usually receiving 10 to 30 inches of rainfall a year. However, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, it received a high amount of rainfall. Also during this time the population increased greatly. For example, in Niger, one country that is a art of the Sahel, the population increased by 1. 3 million in a 14 year period. Everything seemed fine until in 1968 when a 20 year drought started. This affected everyone, but especially the nomads who travel with herds of livestock. The land became infertile, the soil was carried away by the wind in enormous amounts, and any vegetation grown was either burned for fuel or eaten by the starving animals. A lso because there was no vegetation to absorb the rainfall, the water quickly ran off, carrying more topsoil with it. Even now, much of the Sahel is still in famine. With more and more land being destroyed as the population grows larger and larger, there is not enough room for other species. The larger animals that need to travel over hundreds of square miles are left with less and less room as each town grows. Some animals such as frogs, are slowly decreasing in number because of pollution, which is caused by humans, that affect their eggs. Animals that live in the forest are also slowly disappearing because even though you can replant the trees you cut down, the animals that live there can not be brought back. An example of this is the Eastern migratory songbirds in Central America and Northeastern United States. Finally, it is estimated that each year 27,000 species vanish forever, meaning three plants, animals, insects or microorganism disappear every hour. Scientists estimate that about one fifth of all life forms will be gone in the next thirty years. None of them being named, and even less being studied or understood. The key to the answer to a problem could be lost forever. (Keelings, 2) Overpopulation is not a new issue. Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean is an example of when population control was needed, but was not used; the end results being disastrous. Around 1600, Easter Island had 7,000 Polynesians. They used the trees on the island for fishing boats and housing, and soon all the trees were cut down. When that occurred they were forced to live in caves. Soon they started to group together to fight with each other for resources, and even practiced cannibalism. When the Europeans arrived there in 1722, there were only 3,000 Polynesians left. Another example is of Mauritius, a tropical island nation in the Indian ocean. Fortunately they have a happier ending than the Polynesians. On this island there were as many people as in Bangladesh. The country had a balance of a good economy and ecosystem. The government officials of the nation had noticed that many ebony forests had been cut down causing erosion and the extinction of the dodo bird. Because of this they decided that they should set up population control and educate the people about stabilizing population growth. Now it is one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. As Richard Grove, an environmental historian of Cambridge University, said, â€Å"I would be much less pessimistic about the future if the rest of the world could act like Mauritius. † (Linden,70) It should be known that population control will not end all the problems mentioned above, but they would definitely allow more time for them to be fixed. Also, population control helps alienate environment problems. The alternative, letting the population grow indefinitely could only hurt the environment. Overpopulation is a negative solution for everyone; plants, animals, land, water, and humans. According to the Index of Human Suffering in 1987, sponsored by the population Crisis committee, countries with a larger population increase also had higher suffering. The Earth’s environment is finite and can be destroyed if we do not start population control. Measures need to be taken now to correct the current situation which includes the increase of deforestation and desertification, the decrease of farmland, more water pollution, the deteriorating ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect. Additionally, three new kinds of plants, animals or other species disappear every hour. It is evident that there is no way our population can keep growing at the rate it does now without severely negatively impacting our environment. We should learn from the mistakes of the people on Easter Island, and the solution the people on Mauritius used. It is our obligation to keep the environment in good condition for future generations. As most population scientists say, â€Å"Whatever your cause, it’s a lost cause – unless we come to grips with overpopulation. † â€Å"Pollution and Environment Essay – The Population Explosion. â€Å" How to cite The Greenhouse Effect, Papers