Human Impact on the Environment CHAPTER OUTLINE Ecosystems Impact on Water Availablity of Water Modification of Streams Water Quality Agricultural Sources of Water Pollution Fertilizers, Biocides Animal Wastes Other Sources of Water Polltion Indusiry Mining Mumicipaives and Residences Controlling Water Pollution Impact on Airand Climate Ar Pollutants Factors Affecting Air Pollution Acid Rain Photochemical Smog Depletion of the Ozone Layer Controlling Air Pollution Impact on Landforms Landforms Produced by Excavation Landforms Produced by Dumping Formation of Surface Depressions Impact on Plants and Animals Habitat Loss or Alteration Hunting and Commercial Exploitation Introduction of Exotie Species Poisoning and Contamination Preserving Biodiversity Legit Protection ngovernmental Organizations (NGOs) Solid-Waste Disposal ‘Monicipal Waste Landfills Incineration Reduction and Re SUMMARY OF KEY CONCEPTS KEY WORDS THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLYHuman Impact on the Envin ailing home to California after competing in the Trans~ pac sailing race in 1997, Captain Charles Moore came [upon an enormous stretch of floating debris that is now known as the Eastem Pacific Garbage Patch. Located between Hawaii and Japan, the patch consists of rubbish trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre, an area of heavy cur- rents and gentle winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool—“like a toilet bowl that never flushes,” as one dbserver put it, A similar patch lies east of Japan, and together the two patches are known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Figure 12.1). The gyres’ spiral patterns draw in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off East Asia and North America, Surface currents gradually move the floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region. It can take as many as 5 years for a plastic water bottle that was carelessly discarded ata Los Angeles beach or that was ‘washed down a storm drain and out to sea to reach the patch. Estimates of the size of the Eastern Garbage Patch range from 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 sq mi) to double that number. That is, the patch is roughly either the size of ‘Texas or twice as large. Most of the trash comes from land-based sources. It is thrown or blown into the water from coastal settlements or ‘washed into it through rivers, drains, and sewage piges. About eet is dncardea fom chips and ol patoadll Roughly 85% of the refuse in the patch is plastic, a lightweight, dura- ble, and disposable commodity present in both advanced and developing countries. Plastic bottles and caps, plastic bags, six-pack rings, cups, bubble wrap, toothbrushes, fishing gear (nets, buoys, and lines), and innumerable bits of Styrofoam all inhabit the patch, The sun’ ultraviolet rays make the plastic brittle, and waves break it into progressively smaller bits. Millions of fish, birds, and sea turtles have died by mis- takenly eating the trash or by becoming entangled in the patch’s debris. On Midway Island, a major albatross rookery,, for example, about 500,000 chicks are born each year. Forty percent of them dic, starved to death with their bodies full FIGURE 12.1 The Great Pacific Garbage Pateh i just one ot ‘ve that may be caught in giant gyres inthe Indian Coean, the South actfc, and tha North and South Atlantic Ocaans, More information about the garbage patch cain be found on the Intemet, including ‘maps, photographs, videos, and satelite mages. Man; © Greareaaco, 393, of bottle caps, Lego pieces, and other plastic bits. An added concer is that the plastic absorbs toxic chemicals, such as DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, from the seawater. Fish that feed on plankton absorb the chemicals, and when larger predators (fish, birds, or humans) eat the fish, the toxins are transferred to their own tissue, affecting the entire food chain, ‘The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of many examples that could have been selected to illustrate how people can affect the uality of the wate, air, and soil on which their existence depends. ‘Terrestrial features and ocean basins, elements of weather and characteristics of climate, flora, and fuuna constitute the building blocks of that complex mosaic called the environment, or the totality of things that in any way may affect an organism, Plants and animals, landforms, soils and nutrients, weather and climate all constitute an organisms environment. The study of how organisms interact with one another and with their physical environments called ecology. Iris critically important in under~ standing environmental problems, which usually arise from a disturbance of the natural systems that make up our'word. Humans exist within 2 natural environment that they have modified by their individual and collective actions. For ests have been cleared, geasslands plowed, dams built, and sities constructed. On the natural environment, then, has been erected a cultural environment, modifying, altering, or destroying the natural communities and processes that existed before human impact was expressed. This chapter is concerned with the interrelation between humans and the natural envi= ronment that they have so greatly altered. Since the beginning of agriculture, humans have changed the face ofthe carth, have distorted delicate interrelationships within nature, and, in the process, have both enhanced and endangered the societies and the economies that they have erected. The essentials of the natural balance and the ways in which humans have altered it are not only our topics here but also matters of social concern that rank among the principal domestie and inter- national issues of our time. As we shall ee, the fuels we consume, the raw macerials we use, the products we create, and the wastes wwe discard all contribute to the harmful alteration of the bio- sphere, the thin film of as, wate, and earth within which we live. ECOSYSTEMS ‘The biosphere is composed of three interrelated parts: 1. the troposphere, the lowest layer of the eaeth’s atmosphere, extending about 9,511.25 kilometers (6-7 mi) above the ground 2. the Bydraypbere, including surface and subsurface waters in ‘oceans, streams, lakes, glaciers, or groundwater—much of it locked in ice or earth and not immediately available for use 3. the Jichoypbere, containing the soils that support plant life, the minerals that plants and animals requite to exist, and the fossil fuels and ores that humans exploit.394 PART THRE! ‘The Location Tradition Estey FIGURE 12.2 The suppiy of food in an ecosystem isa hierarchy of who oats what" —a hierarchy that creates a food chain. inthis smpified example, green plents fate the producers (autotrophs), using nutrients and energy from the sun to make theit ‘own food. Herbivorous rabbits (oamary consumers) feed drecty on the plants, and ‘carnivorous foxes (secondary consumers) feed on the rabbits. food chain is one tread in a complex food web, all the feeding relationships that exst in an ecosystem, For example, a mouse might feed on the plants shown here and then be eaten by a disintegration of organic matte—animal car- casses and droppings, dead vegetation, waste paper, and so on. In the process of decompo- sition, the chemical nature of the material is changed, and the nutrients contained within it become available for reuse by plants or ani- mals. Nutrients, the minerals and other ele- ments that organisms need for growth, are never destroyed; they keep moving from liv- ing to nonliving things and back again. Our bodies contain nutrients that were once part of other organisms, perhaps a hare, a hawl, oran oak tree. Ecosystems change constantly whether people are present or not, but humans have affected them more than has any other spe- hawk, another food chain in this food web. The biosphere is an intricately interlocked system, con- taining all that is needed for life, all that is available for living things to use, and, presumably, all that ever will be available. The ingredients of the biosphere must be, and ate, constantly recycled and renewed in nature. Plants purify the ait, the air helps purify the water, and the water and the minerals are used by plants and animals and are retumed for reuse. The biosphere, therefore, consists of two intertwined components: (1) a nonliving outside energy source—the sun— and requisite chemicals, and (2) a living world of plants and animals. In tum, the biosphere may be subdivided into specific ‘ccosystems, self-sustaining units that consist of all the organ isms (plants and animals) and physical features (ait, water, sil, and chemicals) existing together in a particular area. The most important prificiple concerning all ecosystems is that every- thing is interconnected. Any intrusion or interruption inevita- bly results in cascading effects elsewhere in the system. Each organism occupies a specific nick, or place, within an eco- system. In the energy exchange system, each organism plays a definite role; individual organisms survive because of other organisms that also live in that environment. The problem lies not in recognizing the niches but in anticipating the chain of causation and the readjustments of the system consequent on disturbing the occupants of a particular niche. Life cepends on the energy and nutrients flowing through an ecosystem, The transfer of energy and materials from one ‘organism to another is one link in a food chain, a sequence ‘of organisms, such as green plants, herbivores, and carnivores, through which energy and materials move within an ecosys- tem (Figure 12.2). Most food chains have three or four links, although some have only two—for example, when human beings cat rice. Because the ecosystem in nature is ina con tinuous cycle of integrated operation, there is no start ot end 0 a food chain. There are, simply, nutritional transfer stages in which each lower level in the food chain transfers part ofits contained energy to the next higher-level consumer. ‘The decomposers pictured in Figure 12.2 are essential in maintaining food chains and the cycle of life. They cause the cies. The impact of humans on ecosystems Was small at frst, with low population size, energy consumption, and technological levels. It has increased so rapidly and pervasively as to present us with widely recognized and varied ecological crises. The IPAT equation is a helpfal way of summarizing the different factors infliencing the degree of human impact on the environment. The formula is written as I = PAT, where I (impact on the environment) is equal to P (population) multiplied by A (affluence or standard of living) multiplied by T (a technology factor), ‘The IPAT equation shows igs growing populations and rising standards of living both€ontribute to greater strain fon the environment. Technologies, however, can increase ‘or decrease that impact, For example, with rising standards of living often come preferences for a cleaner envifonment; thus, pollution controls can be added to reduce environmen= tal impacts. As awareness of environmental pollution has increased in developed countries, chere has also been a ten dency to shift polluting industries and waste disposal to poorer regions. Persons in poorer regions often have less contol over the environment where they live and work and thus may be disproportipnately exposed to the negative consequences of hhuman effects on the environment. The environmental jus~ tice movement (see “Environmental Justice” in Chapter 9, pp. 306-307) has arisen to demand a clean, healthy environ- ‘ment for everyone, Some of the effects of humans on the natu~ ral environment arc the topic of the remainder of this chapter, IMPACT ON WATER ‘The world’s supply of water is constant, and most of it is found in the oceans, where itis not available for direct human consumption. The system by which it continuously circu- lates through the biosphere is called the hydrologic cycle (Figure 12.3). In that cycle, water changes form and is puri- fied or distilled through evaporation and condensation so that it is available with appropriate properties to the ecosystems of the earth, Evaporation, transpiration (the emission of water vapor from living things), and precipiation are the mechanisms