What can be done to manage the environment to meet the needs of development?

With the strong growth of global industry development, people have been facing a lot of natural disasters and environmental problems. Day by day, the situation becomes more serious. It is the time people cannot overlook this situation. If people just blindly focus on economic development and ignore protecting environment, until one day people would regret what they have done. For that reason, people must do some things to manage the environment to meet the needs of development.

Part I: Environment Problems:

7 Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought: (ROGERS)

           7. Mammal Extinction
One in 4 Mammals Threatened With Extinction, Group Finds: “Within our lifetime, hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or I.U.C.N., a network of campaign groups, governments, scientists and other experts (Environment, 2008)

            6. The Ocean Dead Zones

            In oceans around the world, there are eerie areas that are devoid of nearly all life. These ‘dead zones’ (150 'dead zones' counted in oceans, 2004) are characterized by a lack of oxygen, and they’re caused by excess nitrogen from farm fertilizers, emissions from vehicles and factories, and sewage. The number of dead zones has been growing fast – since the 1960’s, the number of dead zones has doubled every 10 years.

            5. Collapsing Fish Stock

            Millions of people across the world depend upon fish as a major staple in their diet. As such, commercial fishermen have been pulling such a huge quantity of fish from the oceans that we’re heading toward a global collapse  (Study Sees ‘Global Collapse’ of Fish Species, 2006) of all species currently fished – possibly as soon as the year 2048.

            4. Destruction of the Rain Forest

            ‘Saving the rain forest’ has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for decades, yet here we are facing huge losses in the Amazon all the same. You might have thought that, with all the attention the rain forest has gotten, it wouldn’t need so much saving anymore – but unfortunately, global warming and deforestation mean that half of the Amazon rain forest will likely be destroyed (Half the Amazon Rainforest to be Lost by 2030, 2008)or severely damaged by 2030.

           

            3. Polar Sea Ice Loss

            Polar sea ice is melting at an unprecedented rate (Big decline in depth of Arctic winter sea ice, 2008), and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. It’s perhaps the most dramatic, startling visual evidence of global warming, and it’s got scientists rushing to figure out just how big of an effect the melting is going to have on the rest of the world.

            2. CO2 Levels in the Atmosphere

            The aforementioned polar sea ice loss is yet another sinister sign of carbon dioxide levels building up in the atmosphere – the main force behind global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions caused by our modern way of life – vehicles, power plants, factories, giant livestock farms – will bring devastating climate change within decades (Worse than we thought, 2007) if they stay at today’s levels.

1.      Population Explosion

           Whether we like to admit it or not, our very own rapidly multiplying presence on this planet is the biggest environmental problem there is (Threats to Wildlife), and it’s getting bigger by the minute. We voraciously consume resources, pollute the air and water, tear down natural habitats, introduce species into areas where they don’t belong and destroy ecosystems to the point of causing millions of species to become endangered and, all too often, go extinct

Part II: What can be done to manage the environment to meet the needs of development?

                      People can easily see that the more development they are the more environmental problems they face. The heavy influence from the bad environment has a major impact on human life in the present and future. To remedy the situation, people have acted in many different fields to manage the environment to meet the needs of development. There are:

            Kyoto Protocol: (Kyoto Protocal)

            The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.

            Although there are still a lot of disagreement on the Kyoto Protocol and the power countries still do not cooperate in this matter, the Protocol still show clearly that people begin to care about the environment and start to sit down together to find the solution for this situation. It is good for the environment and good for the future development.

            Ethanol fuel: (Ethanol fuel)

            Ethanol fuel is ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline.

            Why do more and more countries tend to use Ethanol fuel instead of oil?

            There are some main reasons about it:

            Ethanol is a renewable fuel, 2: reduces pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, 3: does not pollute ground water, 4:  Is Cheaper to make than Gasoline, 5: Is Easy to Switch To, 6: supports local farmers, 7: reduces our dependence on foreign oil, 8: can be made from nearly anything (Biodiesel and Ethanol Investing)

            Nuclear Power:

            Nuclear energy is increasingly popular and widely used around the world. With the many advantages of nuclear power, countries can minimize the maximum adverse impact on the environment but still achieve economic growth necessary. There are some advantages from nuclear power:

•      Reduces dependence on oils and natural gas (like biofuels)

•    Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

•    Elimination of coal burning which is an indirect cause of thousands of deaths (air particulates are hazardous) - (Reduce coal mining) 1 truck of uranium produces as much energy as 1000 trucks of coal!

•    Reduce acid rain (Burning fossil fuels releases large quantities of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide gasses which combine with moisture in the air to produce acids that fall with rain

•      Uranium for nuclear fuel has little value for other purposes, and with breeder reactors, there is enough to satisfy World energy needs for billions of years, without increasing the cost of electricity by as much as one percent.

•      The economic benefit of generating the energy locally

            Sustainable development (Sustainable development)

            Sustainable development (SD) is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come (sometimes taught as ELF-Environment, Local people, Future). The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

            Eco-house: (The Benefits of Eco Homes, 2010)

            Some of the ways these eco homes save energy is by using alternative sources of energy such as solar or wind energy. Not only is energy produced by solar panels and wind turbines a cost effective alternative to fossil fuels, their production and use cause little to no pollution while also preserving the earth’s natural resources. Homes that use these “green” energy sources tend to be more valuable to the housing market than traditionally powered homes, making them overall better investments for any household

            People are using technology and science in 21^st century to manage the environment to meet the needs of development. However, it is undeniable that there are still many countries and people do not care about environment. But more or less, technology-friendly environment are still been developing more and more. Hoping that until one day, these problems would be solved thoroughly.

Reference:

150 “dead zones’ counted in oceans. (2004, March 29). Retrieved from msnbc: http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Big decline in depth of Arctic winter sea ice. (2008, October 28). Retrieved from guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk

Biodiesel and Ethanol Investing.(n.d.). Retrieved from biodiesel investing: http://biodieselinvesting.com

Environment. (2008, October 7). Retrieved from The New York Times: http://nytimes.com

Ethanolfuel.(n.d). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org

Half the Amazon Rainforest to be Lost by 2030. (2008, July 22). Retrieved from Natural News: http://naturalnews.com

Kyoto Protocol, (n.d). Retrieved from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: http://unfccc.int

Study Sees ‘Global Collapse’ of Fish Species. (2006, November 3). Retrieved from The New York Times: http://nytimes.com

Sustainable development. (n.d). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org

The Benefits of Eco Homes. (2010, March 5). Retrieved from gogreenstree: http://www.gogreenstreet.com

Threats to Wildlife. (n.d). Retrieved from National Wild Life Federation: http://www.nwf.org

Worse than we thought. (2007, Ferbuary 2). Retrieved from guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk