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Environmental
Chemistry 2018
Environmental chemistry course code 617. Chapter No 1: Introduction
By Awais
Bakshy.
Objectives.
Introduction To Environmental Chemistry.
Components Of Environmental.
History And Significance Of Environmental Degradation.
Environmental Pollutants.
Impact Of Modern Life Style On Environment Quality.
Resources Depletion.
Environmental Conservation And Sustainability.
Poverty and Environmental Degradation.
Environmental Education.
Institution For The Protection Of Environment.
Energy Resources And Their Environmental Consequences.
Fossil Fuels Nuclear Energy.
Synthetic Chemical Fuel.
Emission From Thermal Units.
Nuclear Waste And Its Disposal.
Prepared By Awais Bakshy.
Introduction to Environmental Chemistry.
What Is Chemistry?
The branch of science which deals with the properties, structure, composition of matter
and interaction between matter and energy.
What is Environment?
Simply environments mean nature. Everything around us is environment. It can be living
or non living things. It includes physical, chemical, and other natural forces. Living things
live in their environment. In the environment there are interactions between animals,
plants, soil, water, and their living and non living.
What Is Environmental Chemistry?
Is the branch of chemistry.
Matter and the environment. i.e. pollution
The Scientific study of chemical and biochemical phenomena that occur natural
places.
Chemical phenomena. => Any natural phenomena involving chemistry.(changes to
atom or molecule.
The study of sources, reaction, transport, effect, and fates of chemical species in
the air, soil, water and the effect of humans activity on these.
Components Of Environment.
Environment mainly consists of Atmosphere, hydrosphere, Cryosphere, lithosphere,
Biosphere, Geosphere, But it can be roughly divided into two types such as Micro
environment and Macro environment. it can also be divide in two other types such as
Physical environment(Abiotic environment) and Biotic environment.
What is Atmosphere?
The atmosphere of earth is the layer of gases, commonly known as air, that
surrounds the planet earth and it is retained by earth gravity.
Chemical Composition.
Nitrogen 78%
Oxygen 21%
Other gases 1%
The atmosphere is divided in 5 layers.
Troposphere , Stratosphere , Mesosphere , Thermosphere , Exosphere.
What is Troposphere?
The troposphere is the first layer above the surface of earth and contains half of the
atmosphere. Weathers occur in this layer and its height is 6-10 km.
What is Stratosphere?
The layer of the earth’s atmosphere above the troposphere and below the
mesosphere, its height is 10-50 km above the earth’s surface. Many jets air craft’s fly
in the stratosphere because it is very stable.
Ozone layer.
The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of earth’s stratosphere that absorbs
sun’s uv radiation. It contains high concentrations of ozone (O 3) and it is situated
between troposphere and stratosphere. The 90% of ozone layer is in stratosphere
and its height is 10-50 km. the ozone layer was discovered by the French physicists
Charles fabry and henri Buisson.
Startopause.
The boundary between two layers stratosphere and mesosphere .
What is Mesosphere.
The region of the earth’s atmosphere above the stratosphere and below the
thermosphere and its height is 50-80 km. Meteors or rock fragment burn in the
mesosphere.
Mesopause.
The boundary between mesosphere and thermosphere .
What is thermosphere.
The thermosphere is a layer with auroras. The region of the earth’s atmosphere
above the mesosphere and below the exosphere and its height is 90 km to about 500
km.
Auroras.
Auroras produce when the magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind.
Magnetosphere.
It is created by planets having active hot iron and nickel or metallic cores, whose
motion generated a planetary magnetic field, but such fields can also occur in stars
by the interactions of plasma.
Karman line.
The boundary between earth’s atmosphere and outer space and it lies at the height of
100 km.
What is exosphere?
The outermost region of a planet’s atmosphere . And its height is 500-1000 km.
What is Hydrosphere?
Hydrosphere is the layer of a planet that comprises water. The term hydrosphere is
a Greek word that means water and sphere .earth’s hydrosphere includes the water
on its surface such as oceans, lake, pond, river, seas, and steams, it also includes
underground water that is the wells aquifers, as well as water vapor which is present
in the form of clouds and fogs. This layer covers 70% of earth’s surface. This layer
plays a major role in the survival of life forms.
What is Cryosphere?
This layer covers frozen water part of the earth’ surface which include glaciers, ice
and ice bergs. The part of earth’s surface that is made of ice is called Cryosphere.
What is lithosphere?
The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the earth. The lithosphere is made of the
upper part of mantle and crust.
What is biosphere?
The regions of the surface and atmosphere of the earth where life exist.
The biosphere has existed about 3.5 billion years.
What is Geosphere?
This is the layer of earth’s surface which makes up the crust and the core of the
earth. It includes everything natural and lifeless that makes up the surface of the
earth.
Water degradation.
Water degradation In the misuse of water and also the pollution of water supplies. often
individuals throughout. The world has to deal with either limited water supplies, or
polluted, often causes by human actions.
Acid Rain.
Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the
atmosphere undergo chemical transformation and are absorbed by water droplets
in the clouds. The droplets then fall to earth as rain snow, mist, dry dust, hail, or
sleet. This can increase the acidity of the soil, and affect the chemical balance of
lacks and streams and it can kill the fish in the rivers and acid rain can slow the
growth of forests, cause leaves. In extreme cases trees or whole Ares of forest
can die. Soil biology can be seriously damage by acid.
Soil degradation.
Soil degradation is reducing in soil quality that can be a result of many factors,
especially from agriculture. Soil hold the majority of the world's biodiversity, and
healthy soils are essential good for food production. Common sign of soil
degradation can be salting, water logging, compaction, pesticide contamination,
and reduction in soil structure quality, loss of fertility, changes in soil acidity,
alkalinity, salinity, and erosion. Topsoil is very fertile, which makes it valuable to
farmers growing crops. Soil degradation also has a huge impact on biological
degradation.
Air degradation.
Air degradation the biggest threat for environment degradation and it affect
everyone humans, plants and others. Air degradation is cause by toxic chemical
which are mainly produce by human activity, i.e. combustion of fuel, emission of
chemicals like carbon mono oxide.
Deforestation.
Deforestation is clearing the Earth's forests on a large scale worldwide and
resulting in many land damages. Deforestation causes the loss of habitat for
millions of species, and is also a driver of climate change. Trees act as a carbon
sink: that is, they absorb carbon dioxide, an unwanted greenhouse gas, out of the
atmosphere. Removing trees releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When
trees are removed from forests, the soils tend to dry out because there is no
longer shade, and there are not enough trees to assist in the water cycle by
returning water vapor back to the environment. With no trees, landscapes that
were once forests can potentially become barren deserts. The removal of trees
also causes extreme fluctuations in temperature.
Controlling Deforestation.
The deforestation is being caused by humans. They not stopped still they are
deforesting. The control of deforestation is that humans don’t have to cut the trees.
They have to grow other trees and also other generation of tress. It is useful for us
because by the help of trees with inhale oxygen. We release carbon dioxide in the air
and trees absorb the carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
Ozone depletion.
Gradually thinning of earth’ ozone layer in the upper atmosphere caused by
releasing of chemical compounds containing chlorine or bromine in the
atmosphere. This thinning of ozone layer is mainly in polar region Antarctica.
Ozone depletion is a big problem in the world because it increase the amount of
ultraviolet radiation which reach the earth surface which is increase in skin
cancer eye disease and mainly effect on our immune system.
Population.
Population also have major role in environmental degradation. There many reasons
some of them are given below.
The population of world increasing with rate of 74 million peoples per year.
It means using more resources like oil, petrol, and many others. Using of this
resources give advantage to human but not to environment.
Also humans consumed more resources in the last 50 years than the whole
humanity before us.
The humans are responsible for environment degradation because as we studied
about global warming, green house effect, water degradation, acid rain, soil
degradation, air degradation, deforestation, ozone depletion these all factors are
caused by humans.
Environmental Pollutants
Substances that threaten life or health of individuals or ecosystem . i.e. water
pollutants, Air pollutants, Soil Pollutants, Oil Pollutants, Plastic pollutants, Radioactive
Pollutants, carbon mono oxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matters sulfur dioxide,
lead, ground level ozone.
What is pollution?
Pollution is anything that makes earth dirty and unhealthy. Land, air, and water are all
affected by pollution. Pollution takes up the space and our land.The presence in or
introduction into environment of the substance which has harmful or poisonous
effects.
Water Pollution
Water pollution is the combination of the water on earth. It includes contamination by
pollutants such as chemical (Sox, Cox, etc), bacterial or particulate that reduces the
purity of the water like oil seepage is one the most common forms of pollution. Water
pollution occurs in lakes, oceans, rivers, and even underground water. Water
pollution is one of the most dangerous forms of pollution as it decreases the amount
of drinkable water that is available. It can also reduce the amount of water that can
be used for irrigation as well as harm the wildlife that depends on the water.
Air pollution.
Air pollution is the contamination of the natural air by mixing it with different
pollution such as harmful fumes and chemicals. This contamination can be caused by
gases emitted by vehicles or from burning material or harmful fumes emitted as a
byproduct of industries. The higher the concentration of air pollution the harder it to
remove it effectively through natural cycles . The higher concentration also results in
breathing problems for living things. Some effects include increase in smog, higher
rain acidity, crop depletion, according to experts, global warming is one of the
biggest side effect of air pollution.
Soil pollution.
Soil pollution it is also known as land pollution is the contamination of the soil or land
that prevents growth of natural life, which includes land used for cultivating, wildlife
as well as habitation. Common causes of the soil pollution include non-sustainable
farming particles, hazardous wastage and seepage into the soil, mining as well as
littering. Soil pollution can result in reduce growth of agriculture as well as poisoning
of the land.
Noise pollution.
Noise pollution is the loud noises that are created by human’s activity that disrupts
the standard of the living in the affected area. Pollution can stem from things such as
traffic, railroads, concerts, loud music, airplane, fireworks etc. any noise that
disrupts the ability of a person to perfume can be termed as noise pollution.
Radioactive pollution.
This is one of the most dangerous forms of pollution as it extremely harmful and can
even result in death. This type of pollution has risen in the 20th century with the rise
of atomic physics and nuclear weapons. Radioactive pollution result in the pollution of
the air and land with radioactive poisoning. It can happen from leakages of accidents
at nuclear power plants, as well from improper disposal of nuclear waste. This
pollution results in birth defects, cancer, and even death cause.
Thermal pollution.
Thermal pollution in when increase in temperature in a particular area over time.
This heat is often cause by air pollution and release of carbon gasses in the area that
traps more heat on earth. The earth has a natural thermal cycle, but excessive
temperatures can result in long term effects. The rising temperatures can be a
result of deforestation, power plants etc. while, slight changes in temperature is
common in nature, faster changes in the temperature can result in loss of wildlife as
well as reduction o water.
Visual Pollution.
Although not a life threatening form of pollution, it can be considered as unappealing
to eyesight. This form of pollution is when there are obstructions to views caused by
billboards, power lines, construction areas and even high rises. It does not have
immediate health effects but can have slow effects.
Light pollution.
Light pollution refers to the large amount of the light produced by urban and other
heavily-populated areas. Light pollution prevents citizens from seeing features of the
night.
Impact of modern life style on environment quality.
In environment the impact of modern life style takes a big role. The question is how?
As all known that environment is dreading by human beings, because human is
developing itself. The humans using natural resources and the reverse of these
resources damage the environment. And many other reasons like deforestation,
water pollution, air pollution, light pollution, etc.
Resources depletion.
Resources depletion is the consumption of a resource faster that it can be
replenished. Natural resources commonly divided in two types renewable resources
and non renewable resources.
Renewable resources:
Renewable resources are those resources which can be used again and again. These
can renew themselves and are never depleted. Take for instance soil, sunlight,
water. However, in some situations, even these not easily renewed. Water is not
easily renewable in some circumstances. Soil is also easy to renew if it blows away.
Non-renewable resources.
Non-renewable resources’ are those which does not grow back, or a resource that
usually takes a very long time to renew. These resources when exhausted once
cannot be renewed like fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) cannot be recycled.
Water depletion.
Depletion of water resources is an environment problem serious consequences in
the years to come, it is seems to be unimportant a thoroughly neglected issue. It is
impotent to remember that water in an indispensible part of our life. Our survival
depends on water.
Causes.
Excessive demand of water: due to over population the demand of water has
increased considerably. More quantities of water are used and wasted over the time.
Evaporation: due to global warming and change in the climate, more amounts of
surface water and ground water is being evaporated due to excessive heat.
Pollution: most of the industrial waste water are dumped to these water sources.
This in turn pollutes and contaminates water. This can be considered another reason
for depletion of water resources.
Deforestation: This can be considered a major cause for water depletion. Large
scale deforestation considerably lowers the capacity of the soil to retain water and
this affects the water table.
Low rainfall: rainfall has reduced considerably over the years. This is mainly
because of large scale deforestation and drastic climatic changes. These add to the
reduction in water resources.
Urbanization: the government and the people have behind urbanization. This has
really affected the water resources because of mass deforestation.
Effects.
Deep wells: as a result of water depletion, deep wells need to be dug because of the
water shortage. Pumps will have to be put deeper and deeper to extract water.
Expensive resource: water being a renewable resource, it will become very
expensive due to limited availability. If this resource is used, wasted, polluted and
depleted, it will become a non-renewable resource.
Marine life: due to the depletion, contamination and evaporation of surface water,
the marine life gets affected. This is a threat to the fishes, flora, fauna and all the
creature of the sea.
Agriculture: agricultural productivity depends on the availability of water.
Agriculture cannot exist without adequate supply of water. Due to the depletion of
water resource, the output or the productivity of agriculture reduces which affects
the food supply of the country.
Aquifers: an aquifer is a permeable rock that holds ground water. This can be used
for water supply for agriculture and other human activities. An aquifer can be at
different depths depending on a lot of natural factors. So as a result of depletion, the
aquifers also get depleted.
Hydro power.
Hydropower, or Hydro energy, is a form of renewable energy that uses the water
stored in dams, as well as flowing in rivers to create electricity in hydropower
plants.
Advantage of Hydropower.
Hydropower is a fueled by water, so it's a clean fuel source. Hydropower doesn't
pollute the air like power plants that burn fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas.
Disadvantage of Hydropower.
Fish populations can be impacted.
Hydropower plants can cause low dissolved oxygen levels in the water.
Hydropower can impact water quality and flow.
Thermal power.
It is heat energy which is converted in to electricity for urbanization.