Environmental

In biology and ecology, the environment is all of the natural materials and living
things, including sunlight. If those things are natural, it is a natural environment.

Environment includes the living and nonliving things that an organism interacts with,
or has an effect on it. Living elements that an organism interacts with are known as biotic
elements: animals, plants, etc., abiotic elements are non living things which include air,
water, sunlight etc. Studying the environment means studying the relationships among these
various things. An example of interactions between non-living and living things is plants
getting their minerals from the soil and making food using sunlight. Predation, an organism
eating another, is an example of interaction between living things.

Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by

individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources
and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair damage and reverse
trends.

Illegal logging
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of
laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain
access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of
protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits.

Illegal logging is a pervasive problem, causing enormous damage to forests, local

communities, and the economies of producer countries. Despite the economic importance of
trade in timber and forest products, major international timber consumer countries, such as
the EU, have no legal means to halt the import of illegally sourced forest products, because
the identification of illegally logged or traded timber is technically difficult. Therefore, a
legal basis for normative acts against timber imports or other products manufactured out of
illegal wood is missing. Scientific methods to pinpoint the geographic origin of timber are
currently under development. Possible actions to restrict imports cannot meet with WTO
regulations of non-discrimination. They must instead be arranged in bilateral agreements.
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, strives to monitor the illegal trade of
timber and provide expertise in policy and legal reviews.
 Illegal logging contributes to deforestation and by extension global warming, causes
loss of biodiversity, and undermines the rule of law. These illegal activities undermine
responsible forest management, encourage corruption and tax evasion and reduce the income
of the producer countries, further limiting the resources producer countries can invest in
sustainable development. Illegal logging has serious economic and social implications for the
poor and disadvantaged with millions of dollars worth of timber revenue being lost each year

Green House
The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet's atmosphere
warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without this atmosphere.

Earth’s natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life, and initially was a
precursor to life moving out of the ocean onto land. Human activities, however, mainly the
burning of fossil fuels and clearcutting of forests, have accelerated the greenhouse effect and
caused global warming.

Earth receives energy from the Sun in the form of ultraviolet, visible, and near-
infrared radiation. About 26% of the incoming solar energy is reflected to space by the
atmosphere and clouds, and 19% is absorbed by the atmosphere and clouds. Most of the
remaining energy is absorbed at the surface of Earth. Because the Earth's surface is colder
than the Sun, it radiates at wavelengths that are much longer than the wavelengths that were
absorbed. Most of this thermal radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and warms it. The
atmosphere also gains heat by sensible and latent heat fluxes from the surface. The
atmosphere radiates energy both upwards and downwards; the part radiated downwards is
absorbed by the surface of Earth. This leads to a higher equilibrium temperature than if the
atmosphere did not radiate.

An ideal thermally conductive blackbody at the same distance from the Sun as Earth
would have a temperature of about 5.3 °C (41.5 °F). However, because Earth reflects about
30% of the incoming sunlight, this idealized planet's effective temperature (the temperature
of a blackbody that would emit the same amount of radiation) would be about −18 °C (0 °F).
The surface temperature of this hypothetical planet is 33 °C (59 °F) below Earth's actual
surface temperature of approximately 14 °C (57 °F). The greenhouse effect is the
contribution of greenhouse gases to this difference.
Trash/rubbish
As nations around the globe observe Earth Day, one of the most daunting issues
facing the world is the mounting waste problem, which impairs public health, pollutes the
environment and threatens to drown some poor countries in toxicity. More than half the
world’s population does not have access to regular trash collection, a grim statistic given the
amount of garbage produced globally.

The threat of waste to the environment, health and safety is huge. And so are the
financial and social ramifications, waste experts say. Pollution runs into rivers and seeps into
ground water. Flooding is caused by garbage clogging drains, and the atmosphere can be
poisoned by the toxic discharge from trash.

When waste is not collected, the frequency of illness such as diarrhea doubles and
acute respiratory infection — linked to the burning of waste — is six times higher, Ijjasz-
Vasquez said. In less developed nations, uncollected waste is typically heaviest near less
affluent neighborhoods and slums. For scavengers, discarded food in the heaps of trash
provides sustenance and a livelihood

Recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects.
It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower
greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling can prevent the waste of potentially useful materials
and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, thereby reducing: energy usage, air
pollution (from incineration), and water pollution (from landfilling).

Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component
of the "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" waste hierarchy. Thus, recycling aims at environmental
sustainability by substituting raw material inputs into and redirecting waste outputs out of the
economic system.

There are some ISO standards related to recycling such as ISO 15270:2008 for
plastics waste and ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management control of recycling
practice.

Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic,
tires, textiles, batteries, and electronics. The composting or other reuse of biodegradable
waste—such as food or garden waste—is also a form of recycling. Materials to be recycled
are either delivered to a household recycling center or picked up from curbside bins, then
sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials destined for manufacturing new products.

In the strictest sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same
material—for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper or used
polystyrene foam into new polystyrene. This is accomplished when recycling certain types of
materials, such as metal cans, which can become a can again and again, infinitely, without
losing purity in the product. However, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with
producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so "recycling" of many
products or materials involves their reuse in producing different materials (for example,
paperboard) instead. Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from
complex products, either due to their intrinsic value (such as lead from car batteries, or gold
from printed circuit boards), or due to their hazardous nature (e.g., removal and reuse of
mercury from thermometers and thermostats).

Clean Environmental Consciousness

To define environmental awareness we must first understand the environmentalist
movement. Environmentalism is an ideology that evokes the necessity and responsibility of
humans to respect, protect, and preserve the natural world from its anthropogenic (caused by
humans) afflictions.

Environmental awareness is an integral part of the movement’s success. By teaching

our friends and family that the physical environment is fragile and indispensable we can
begin fixing the problems that threaten it.

Numerous resources are available to promote environmental awareness; group

learning (in or outside of class), informational and inspirational seminars, such as our
Awakening the Dreamer Program, and environmental books and brochures are just a few of
the tools that can get you involved in promoting the environment.

Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of harmful materials into the environment. These harmful
materials are called pollutants. Pollutants can be natural, such as volcanic ash. They can also
be created by human activity, such as trash or runoff produced by factories. Pollutants
damage the quality of air, water, and land.

Many things that are useful to people produce pollution. Cars spew pollutants from
their exhaust pipes. Burning coal to create electricity pollutes the air. Industries and homes
generate garbage and sewage that can pollute the land and water. Pesticides—chemical
poisons used to kill weeds and insects—seep into waterways and harm wildlife.

Pollution is a global problem. Although urban areas are usually more polluted than the
countryside, pollution can spread to remote places where no people live. For example,
pesticides and other chemicals have been found in the Antarctic ice sheet. In the middle of
the northern Pacific Ocean, a huge collection of microscopic plastic particles forms what is
known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Air and water currents carry pollution. Ocean currents and migrating fish carry marine
pollutants far and wide. Winds can pick up radioactive material accidentally released from a
nuclear reactor and scatter it around the world. Smoke from a factory in one country drifts
into another country.

The three major types of pollution are air pollution, water pollution, and land
pollution.