4.

13 Human impacts on the environment

Effects of humans on the environment:

Agriculture: use of tools made agriculture more efficient.

Deforestation and desertification: greater need for shelter, agricultural land and
fuels.
Pollution: careless use of pesticides and fertilisers
Conservation: using our skills and knowledge to conserve species

Places where humans are causing great change:

The atmosphere
The aquatic environment
The land

Pollution is any effect of human activities on the environment. A pollutant is any product of
human activity that has a harmful effect on the environment.
Pollution on the environment

The greenhouse effect

Production of acid rain

Green house effect

Causes
Greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation close to the earths surface
Carbon dioxide (released by combustion of fossil fuels)
Methane (produced in the guts of ruminants)
CFCs chlorofluorocarbons (from aerosol propellants and refrigerator coolants)
Effects
Greater climatic extremes
Melting of polar ice changes density of sea water
Evaporation of water from fertile area
Pests may spread to new area
More photosynthesis more food production
Solutions
Reduce burning of fossil fuels (explore alternative energy sources)
Reduce cutting of forests (avoid deforestation)
Replant forests

Acid rain

Causes
Sulphur and oxygen are converted into oxides during combustion
More oxidation occurs in the clouds
The oxides dissolve in water and fall as acid rain.

Carbon + Oxygen

Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Dioxide

Sulfur + oxygen

sulfur dioxide

Nitrogen + oxygen

nitrogen monoxide
nitrogen dioxide

Effects
Soil becomes very acidic causing leaching of minerals and inhibition of soil
decomposition
It also affects the water in lakes and minerals causing death of fish and
invertebrates- food chains are disrupted
Forest trees suffer starvation and destruction of photosynthetic tissues
Solutions
Cleaning up emissions from power stations with scrubbers
Cleaning up car exhausts with catalytic converters
Acid lakes can be improved by the addition of crushed limestone

4.13 Humans have a positive impact on the

environment
Endangered species:

Pest control (killing of species that causes inconvenience to humans and hunting other
beneficial animals)
Commercial exploitation (species of value have been exploited)
Loss of habitat (more land is being used for agriculture, removing the habitat for many
species)

Conservation strategies:

Preservation (keeping some part of the environment unchanged)

Reclamation (restoration of damaged habitats)
Creation (producing new habitats)

Conservation plan:

Sampling (to assess the number of organisms)

Devising a management plan
Carrying out the plan
Resampling (assess the number of the conserved species once more and find out
whether the conservation plan has worked)

An example of a conservation plan is the red squirrel in the U.K. these are the reasons for the
decline of red squirrel:

Competition with grey squirrel

Disease
Habitat loss

Examples of conservation efforts worldwide:

Poison dart frogs in central America

a) Loss of habitat
b) A series of viral and fungal disease
Buffer zones were set up in protected areas to prevent the spread of
contagious diseases. Education programmes emphasised that
amphibians were good indications for health problems.
Tiger in Sumatra, Siberia and India
a) Hunting for fur, bones, teeth and blood- used in Chinese medicines
b) Competition of land with villagers
Setting up protected areas like national parks. Captive breeding and trade
in tiger products.
Snow leopard in Pakistan and Nepal

a) Hunting for fur, bones, teeth and blood, used in traditional medicines
b) Villagers used to kill leopards as they killed livestock.
Snow leopard populations are carefully monitored by cameras and
tracked by radio collars. Government provide financial compensation to
villagers and promoted ecotourism.
Additionally,

Macaws in Brazil
Cheetahs in Namibia
Elephants in Botswana
Rhinoceros in Africa

4.16 Conservation of resources: recycling water by

the treatment of sewage
Water borne diseases: salmonella and Escherichia coli, cholera vibrio, amoeba (causes
dysentery)
Sanitation is the removal of faeces from waste water so that any pathogens they contain cannot
infect drinking water.
Pil latrine:

A hole is dug deep enough to accept a large quantity of sewage (several meters deep)
Then filled with soil to keep away flies and rats.
Disadvantages: smell can be unpleasant. Sewage can overflow, during rainy season
contaminating drinking water.

The treatment of sewage has two functions:

To destroy or eliminate potential pathogens by high temperature or chlorination of water.

By removing organic compounds by being digested by bacteria or fungi.

Processes of treating sewage:

Sewage input: Contains water, faeces, urine, detergents and other potential pathogens
Sedimentation: Allows grit to settle
Screening: first settlement tank allows suspended solids to precipitate as crude sewage
sludge
Aerobic digestion: uses bacteria and fungi to convert organic compounds to simple
inorganic forms
Second settlement tank: allows any remaining suspended solids to precipitate.
Then sent to river, sea or reservoir.
The sludge then has other uses:

Dried and sold as fertiliser

Used to promote decomposition of waste in landfill sites
Dumped at sea
Incinerated

Aerobic respiration is then conducted on the sludge:

A wide range of microbes hydrolyse:

Fats to fatty acids
Proteins to amino acids
Carbohydrates to sugars

Methane is produced

4.17 Saving fossil fuels: fuel from

fermentations
Some biomass fuels:

Solid fuels: wood charcoal and vegetable waste

Liquid fuels: alcohol and vegetable oil
Gaseous fuel: biogas like methane or carbon dioxide

The production of these biomass fuels can help reduce over use of fossil fuels.

4.18 Management of solid wastes

Two ways of disposing items that humans refused. One advantage is that they provide energy,
thus reducing the use of fossil fuels.

incineration
landfill
(recycling)

Recycling involves reusing waste products or materials which otherwise may be thrown away.
They can also be pulped or melted.
This is how paper is recycled (takes about 7 days):

First it is sorted, graded and delivered into the paper mill.

Once the paper is added into water, it is made into pulp
The paper is then screened, cleaned and passed through a number of processes until it
is suitable for papermaking
It is then dried into new paper (newpaper).