Environmental Crisis

and
Sustainable Development
 World’s Leading Environmental Problems

The depredation caused by:

 Industrial and transportation toxins and plastic in the
ground
 The defiling of the sea, rivers, and water beds by oil
spill and acid rain
 The dumping of urban waste
World’s Leading Environmental Problems

 Changes in global weather patterns

 Overpopulation

 The exhaustion of world’s natural

non-renewable resources from oil
reserves to portable water.
World’s Leading Environmental Problems

 A waste disposal catastrophe due to excessive

amount of waste unloaded by communities in
landfills as well as the ocean and the dumping
of nuclear waste.

 The destruction of million year-old ecosystems

and the loss of biodiversity that have led
extinction of particular species and the decline
in the numbers of others.
World’s Leading Environmental Problems
 The reduction of oxygen and the increase in
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of
deforestation, resulting in the rise in ocean
acidity as much as 150% in the last 250 years.

 The depletion of ozone layer protecting the

planet from sun’s deadly ultraviolet rays due to
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere.
  Deadly acid rain as a result of fossil fuel combustion,
toxic chemical erupting volcanoes, and the massive
rotting vegetables filling up garbage dumps or left on
the streets.

 Water pollution arising from industrial and community

waste residues seeping into underground water tables,
rivers and seas.

 Urban sprawls that continue to expand as a city turns

into a megapolis, destroying farmlands, increasing traffic
gridlock and making smog cloud a permanent urban
fixture.
 Pandemics and other threats to public health arising from
waste mixing with drinking water, polluted environments
that become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease
carrying rodents and pollution.

 A radical alteration of food systems because of genetic

modifications in food production.
Natural Changes: Volcanic Eruptions

US Geological Survey:
“That Kilauea (volcano in Hawaii) has been releasing more than twice the
amount of noxious sulfur dioxide (SO2) as the dirtiest power plant on
the United States mainland.”

Eruption of Mount Pinatubo (June 15, 2001)

“15-20 megaton of sulfur oxide in the stratosphere to offset the present
global warming trends severely impact the ozone budget.”
(University of Hawaii)
Man-Made
Pollutions
 China
Saudi Arabia  Coal Fumes in China:
 Sandstorms Burning coals that is India
dangerous to
combined with inhale(emit gas,
 Green Peace Nigeria Gaborone,
combustion smoke, vapor).
India- Botswana
exhaust from
traffic and  20% of China’s soil is Reported in
 94% of
industrial waste. contaminated 2015, air population is  7th most
pollution in exposed to air polluted city
 Riyadh- one of  Rice lands in Hunan
and Zhuzhou have the country pollution in the world
the most
heavy materials from was at its
polluted cities in
the world.
the mines worst.
threatening the food
supply.
 2030
The emission of aerosols and other gases from car exhaust, burning of
word or garbage, indoor cooking, diesel-fueled electric generators, and
petrochemical plants are projected quadruple.

 Aerosol is tagged as the main culprit in changing rainfall patterns in Asia

and Atlantic Ocean.

 Shanxi Maanqiao Ecological Mining Ltd.

-Producing 12,000 tons of gold
-It caused pollution and safety problems

20 years ago in China: 50,000 rivers

2013: 28,000 rivers disappeared as a result of climate change

 Malanjkhand, India
Biggest copper mine in India
Discharge high levels of toxic heavy metals are projected quadruple.
 Scientific American
-Archive article in a journal
-Blamed the pollution for contributing to more than
half a million premature deaths each year at the cost of
hundreds billion dollars.

 International Agency for Research on Cancer

-Blamed the air pollution for 223,000 lung cancer
deaths in 2010.
 West Virginia- Coal mines made people sick, some are with rare cancers
-Kids with kidney stones
-Premature deaths
-Short life expectancy for children with congenital disabilities

 India
Impaired Lung Function due to air pollution :
Delhi-46%
Calcutta-56%

 China
Toxicity of soil has raised concerns over food security and health of the
most vulnerable.

 Metropolitan Manila
4 million (37%) of population live in slum communities.
 Marife Ballesteros
 Concluded that unhealthy environment deepens poverty, increases
vulnerability of both slum and non-poor living in slums.

Bus
 One of the largest contributor to environmental pollution
problems worldwide.

Motorbike/Three-Wheeled Vehicles
 Form 75%-80% of the traffic in Asian cities
 Burns oil and gasoline
 Command lower price because of durability and low
operating cost to the middle class
Catching Up
United States
• Worst polluter in history of the world.
• Model of the ideal modern society
• Until the 1970s, was a global economic power, with a
middle class that was the envy of the world.

Environmental Consequences of U.S

• Responsible for 27% of the world’s carbon dioxide
emissions
• 60% cars and other vehicles, coal factories etc.
• Methane from farms and breakdown of organic matter,
paint aerosol, and dusts.
Countries in the Midst of a Frenzied Effort to Catch Up With the
West:

China India Indonesia

Climate Change
 Global Warming- result of billions of tons of carbon dioxide,
various air pollutants and other gases, accumulating in the
atmosphere

 Greenhouse effect- responsible for recurring heat waves

and long droughts in certain places.

 California, USA- experienced its worst water shortage in

1,200 years due to global warming.

 India and Southeast Asia- Global warming altered the

summer monsoon patterns.
 Typhoon Haiyan (Super Typhoon Yolanda)

 Category 5 typhoon

 Hit the Central Philippines on November 8, 2013

 Deadliest typhoon ever recorded by killing

6,300 people.

Sustained winds of more than 150 mph

  Persistent body of dense ice that is constantly
moving under its weight.
 Melting every year since 2002
 Antartica losing 134 billion metric of ice
 The Largest Glacier on Earth is 60 Miles Wide
Glaciers and Around 270 Miles Long.
 Arctic sea ice is declining at a rate of 12.8
percent per decade.
Flooding
Has allowed breeding grounds for disease
carriers.
• Aedes Aegypti- a mosquito that can
spread: Dengue fever
Chikungunya
Zika fever
• Cholera- an infectious disease that causes
severe watery diarrhea, which can lead to
dehydration and death.
Combating Global Warming
Kyoto Protocol- an international treaty which commits state
parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
December 11, 1997
Signed by 195 countries
To reduce greenhouse
gases:
1.Carbon Dioxide
2.Methane
3. Nitrous Oxide
4. Hydrofluorocarbon
5.Perfouro Carbons
6. Sulfur Hexafluoride
 Paris Accord
• December 2015
• 195 countries
• Seeks to limit the increase in
global average temperature

 Social Movements
• South Africa- Communities engage in environmental
activism
• Atlantic, El Salvador- Local officials and grassroots
organization from 1000 communities
• Universities- “Strike a balance between urgently needed
economic growth and improved air quality”.
 Conclusion
Every person, regardless of his/her race, nation
or creed, belongs to the same world.

There is no choice but to find global solutions to

this global problems.