Human impact on the environment

Human impact on the environment
Human beings compete with other living things for resources and space. As the world’s population continues to increase, and standards of living improve, there is serious danger of a permanent change to the global environment. In the year 1800 the population was just 1billion, now it is more than 6 billion. With the population increasing the waste produced is also increasing and so is the pollution causing massive changes in the environment.

Pollution is a massive problem, our climate is slowly warming due to greenhouse gases, greenhouse gases are gases which trap the heat energy from the sun in the atmosphere. Methane and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases, we need some greenhouse gases to keep the earth warm but we are now emitting to much so the earth is getting too hot. Carbon dioxide is produced by burning fossil fuels, globally cars account for 1/10 of Co2 emissions. 18% comes from the global livestock market. To measure how the climate has changed they take ice cores from the Antarctic and analyse the air trapped inside. They measure the levels of carbon dioxide and methane found in the air. When carbon dioxide is released it disperses evenly over the earth so the levels would be the same in the uk as in the Antarctic. In 17 years we have seen changes we would expect to see in 1000 years. Today’s temperature is 0.7 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial average.
Tropical sun fish are now being found in Cornwall when they are usually found in tropical regions showing how the planet must be warming for them to be able to live in Cornwall’s seas. Another animal causing confusion is the Mountain pine beetle found in Canada, it is responsible for devastating an area of trees bigger than England, it is no longer kept in check by the winter temperatures and is thriving in the warmer world.

Fossil fuels are a primary contributor to global warming, fossil fuels are non-renewable fuels such as oil and coal .We are having more heat waves and droughts, in 2003 a heat wave killed 52000 people and in California they had their worst wildfire 1.3 million acres were destroyed. Another major problem of global warming is the ice caps are melting causing sea levels to rise. In a 2 degree warmer world New York will suffer from major storm surges. In much the same way as they measure the changes in the air, they take cores from the earth and from that they can tell when New York has been hit by storm surges before.

Solutions
In Spain they have the biggest solar power farms in Europe it currently powers 50000 homes. The oil in the tubes heats up which creates steam which is then turned into electricity. In Utah they will inject 1 million tons of Carbon dioxide into sandstone, because sandstone is porous it should absorb the Co2.
In the desert of the United Arab Emirates they are building an eco-city in which 90000 people will live and work there, the city will be powered by clean technologies so it will be carbon neutral. There will be no cars, instead residents will travel in driverless pods and zero carbon trains. It will be finished 2016 and offers an inspiring vision of the future.
In Arizona they have invented artificial trees which absorb carbon dioxide and when the plastic is dunked in water it emits the carbon dioxide making the trees completely reusable.