The Environment
Presented by Percival Hanley
For RYLA St Kitts Nevis 2010
What is the Environment?
• The circumstances or conditions that
surround an organism or group of
organisms
• The complex of social or cultural
conditions that affect an individual or
community
• There is the Natural Environment and the
Built environment
The Natural Environment
• We live in a bountiful and beautiful world. Ours is a unique and irreplaceable planet
on whose life-sustaining systems we are totally dependent.
• The natural environment, encompasses all living and non-living things occurring
naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the
interaction of all living species. The concept of the natural environment can be
distinguished by components:
- Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human
intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and
natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
- Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries,
such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and
magnetism, not originating from human activity.
• The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises
the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical
area is regarded as a natural environment, if the human impact on it is kept under a
certain limited level.
The Built Environment
• The term built environment refers to the
human-made surroundings that provide the
setting for human activity, ranging in scale from
personal shelter and buildings to neighborhoods
and cities, and can often include their supporting
infrastructure, such as water supply or energy
and road networks.
• The environment of people and other animals
includes not only the physical conditions that
surround them but also the social or cultural
conditions that influence them.
Environmental Quality
• Environmental quality is a general term
which can refer to varied characteristics
that relate to the natural environment as
well as the built environment, such as air
and water purity or pollution, noise and the
potential effects which such characteristics
may have on physical and mental health
caused by human activities.
Environmental Quality
• Everything is interrelated – what effects
one part of the environment inevitably
affects all of the other sectors of the
environment.
• So pollution of the air not only affects the
air and the creatures in it, but it also
affects the water. Polluted water affects
the creatures in and around the water and
also the land.
The Human Factor
• From time to time we should pause to remember
that, in spite of the challenges and complications
of life on Earth, we are incredibly lucky to be
here. We should ask ourselves: what is our
proper place in nature? What ought we to do
and what can we do to protect the irreplaceable
habitat that produced and supports us?
• The responsibility for our environment rests with
each of us as individuals and what we DO or
OMIT TO DO to our environment.
• To thrive, plants and animals need clean air,
uncontaminated water, and wholesome
nutrients.
• Pollution in the biosphere – those parts of the
air, water, and land in which life exists – has
become a serious problem because the earth is
a closed system. Its supplies of air and water are
used again and again.
• When these resources are polluted, all life in the
biosphere are threatened.
Environmental Issues
• Water – One of the unique features that make our earth
very special and which is probably one of the most
important factors in the creation and support of life as we
know it, is the presence of water.
• Water is the most common substance on the Earth and
covers approximately 71% of its surface.
• But only about 3% of all of Earth’s water is freshwater.
However, 99.5% of that is locked away in continental ice.
• Therefore fresh water is a very, very scarce resource!
• We need to protect and conserve our fresh water
supplies.
Water Pollution
• Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies
(e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater).
• Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in
these bodies of water; and, in almost all cases the effect
is damaging not only to individual species and
populations, but also to the natural biological
communities.
• Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged
directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate
treatment to remove harmful compounds.
• Water pollution is a major problem in the global context.
It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide
cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts for
the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily.
Air Pollution
• Air pollution or atmospheric pollution is the degradation
of air quality, indoors and out.
• There are many natural sources of air quality
degradation:
• Volcanoes spew out ash, acid mists, hydrogen sulphide,
and other toxic gases.
• Sea spray and decaying vegetation are major sources of
reactive sulfur compounds in the air.
• Forest fires create clouds of smoke that blanket whole
continents.
• Pollen, spores, viruses, bacteria, and other small bits of
organic material in the air cause widespread suffering
from allergies and airborne infections.
• Storms in arid regions raise dust clouds
that transport millions of tons of soil and
can be detected half a world away.
• Bacterial metabolism of decaying
vegetation in swamps and of cellulose in
the guts of termites and ruminant animals
is responsible for as much as two-thirds of
the methane (natural gas) in the air.
• While the natural sources of suspended particulate
material in the air outweigh human sources at least
tenfold worldwide, in many cities more than 90% of the
airborne particulate matter is anthropogenic (human
caused):
• Motor vehicle emissions
• Livestock farms
• Manufacturing by-products
• Petrochemical factories
• Decaying Solid waste
• Agricultural practices and chemicals like fertilizers and
pesticides and herbicides.
• Chloroflourocarbons
Effects of Air Pollution
• Ozone layer depletion form chloroflourocarbons
causing global warming
• Heart attacks, respiratory diseases, lung cancer,
eye irritation, skin irritation, mutations
• Acid rain, affecting water quality and the aquatic
creatures, soil and plants
• Forest depletion
• Visibility reduction
• Buildings and monuments by atmospheric acids,
smoke and soot
Land Pollution
• Solid waste – industrial and municipal
• Sewage and sewage sludge
• Chemicals, paints, oils, plastics, cleaning
solvents, pesticides and herbicides
• Hazardous waste
What can we do?
• Environmental education – “Know your
environment, or there will be NO environment”
• Recycling
• Reducing waste, conservation
• Live and work in harmony with nature
• Keep our immediate environs clean and healthy.
• Respect others’ space
• Legislation re pollution and environmental issues
• Reducing or controlling population growth
• Respect and protect natural ecosystems