Environmental Planning and

Practice
Unit # 3

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

This unit deals with:

• Global Environmental problems such as global warming, acid

rain, Ozone depletion.

• The threat that earth is facing due to them in near future.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Use of natural resources creates unwanted products in to the environment (
air pollution, water pollution, and green house gasses from all processes that
use fossil fuels.

• Green House Gases (GHG) trap heat in the atmosphere.

• GHG keep the Earth warm through a process called the
greenhouse effect.
Examples of GHG
• Carbon dioxide (CO2),
• Water vapour
• Methane (CH4),
• Nitrous oxide (N2O),
• Ozone (O3),
• chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). 3
 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

The Major Green House Gases (GHG)

• CO2 is the greenhouse gas most commonly produced by human activities.
Its concentration in the atmosphere is currently 40% higher than it was
when industrialization began.

• Burning coal, oil and gas produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

• Cutting down forests (deforestation). Trees help to regulate the climate

by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. So when they are cut down, that
beneficial effect is lost and the carbon stored in the trees is released into
the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

• Water Vapor:
• It is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, less efficient
absorber than CO2.

• It traps heat in the atmosphere and causes temperatures to rise.

• Unlike other greenhouse gases that can linger in the atmosphere for years,
water vapor usually stays in the air for a few days before falling back to
Earth as precipitation.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

• Other greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxides, CFCs) are emitted in

smaller quantities, but they trap heat far more effectively than CO2, and in
some cases are thousands of times stronger.

• Causes for rising emissions

• Energy and Industry: Methane is emitted to the atmosphere during the
production, processing, storage, transmission, and distribution of natural
gas.
• Increasing livestock farming: Cows and sheep produce large amounts of
methane when they digest their food.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

• Causes for rising emissions

• Waste: methane is generated in landfills as waste decomposes and in the

treatment of wastewater.

• Natural wetlands are the largest source, emitting CH4 from bacteria that
decompose organic materials in the absence of oxygen.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

Nitrous oxide is 270 times more effective than CO2.

• Causes for rising emissions

• It is naturally produced during nitrogen fixation.

• Nitrous oxide can result from various agricultural soil management

activities, such as synthetic and organic fertilizer application and other
cropping practices, the management of manure, or burning of agricultural
residues.

• other sources fuel combustion and industrial processes.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

• Fluorinated gases have no natural sources and only come from human-
related activities.

• Causes for rising emissions

• Fluorinated gases: Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur

hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride are synthetic, powerful greenhouse
gases that are emitted from a variety of industrial processes.

• These gases are typically emitted in smaller quantities, but because they
are potent greenhouse gases, they are sometimes referred to as
High Global Warming Potential gases

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
• Reducing GHG effect- common practices.

• Expand the use of renewable energy and transform our energy system to
one that is cleaner and less dependent on coal and other fossil fuels.
• Planting trees
• Increase the reflectivity of roads by using light colored materials.
• Install reflective and emissive roofs on commercial and residential
buildings.
• Use less AC and heat
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle-buying products with minimal packaging will help
to reduce waste.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Ozone Layer Depletion
• The ozone layer is a region of Earth's stratosphere that
absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation.

Discovery of ozone hole

British Antarctic Survey scientists

Dr. Joe. C. Farman, Brian G.
Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin di
scovered Antarctic "ozone
hole" (first reported in a paper
in Nature in May 1985.)

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

Ozone is naturally produced in the stratosphere by a two step reactive process. In the
first step, solar ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) breaks apart an oxygen molecule to form
two separate oxygen atoms. In the second step, each atom then undergoes a binding
collision with another oxygen molecule to form an ozone molecule. In the overall
process, three oxygen molecules plus sunlight react to form two ozone molecules
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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are nontoxic, nonflammable chemicals
containing atoms of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine. They are used in the
manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing
materials, as solvents, and as refrigerants.
• CFCs destroys ozone in catalytic reactions where 100,000 molecules of
ozone can be destroyed per chlorine atom.

• The interim replacements for CFCs are hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs),

which deplete stratospheric ozone, but to a much lesser extent than CFCs.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
• Photochemical smog is a type of smog produced
when ultraviolet light from the sun reacts with nitrogen oxides in
the atmosphere. It is visible as a brown haze, and is most prominent
during the morning and afternoon, especially in densely populated, warm
cities.

• First observed in Los Angeles in 1940.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Major reactants in photochemical smog:

• Nitric oxide (NO)

NO and NO2 are emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels, along with being
naturally emitted from volcanos and forest fires .

When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, NO2 goes through a complex series of

reactions with hydrocarbons to produce the components of photochemical
smog -- a mixture of ozone, nitric acid, aldehydes, peroxyacyl nitrates (PANs).

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

• Effects of photochemical smog

• NO2, ozone and PANs are called photochemical oxidants.

• Even small traces of these chemicals can affect the respiratory tract of
humans and animals, irritation of eyes, damage crops and trees.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective

Rain water pH:

• Acidity is determined on the basis
of the pH level of the water
droplets.
• Normal rain water is slightly
acidic with a pH range of 5.3-6.0,
because carbon dioxide and
water present in the air react
together to form carbonic acid,
which is a weak acid. When the
pH level of rain water falls below
this range, it becomes acid rain.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Acid rain phenomenon was discovered in Great Britain in late 1800s
(1852, Robert A. Smith). It was not until the late 1960s that scientists began
widely observing and studying the phenomenon.

• Acid rain results when sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are
emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents.
• The SO2 and NOX react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form
sulfuric and nitric acids. These then mix with water and other materials
before falling to the ground.
• Acid deposition can be wet deposition i.e., rain, snow, or fog .
• Dry deposition-when gases and dust particles become acidic. Both wet
and dry deposition can be carried by the wind, sometimes for very long
distances.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Effects of acid rain on Aquatic
environment:
• Acid rain has caused many lakes and
streams in many places to have much lower
pH levels. At pH levels below 5, most fish
eggs cannot hatch. Lower pHs can also kill
adult fish.

• Acid rain runoff from catchment areas into

rivers and lakes has also
reduced biodiversity as they become more
acidic.

• Acid rain tendency of altering pH and

aluminum concentrations greatly affects pH
concentration levels in surface water,
thereby affecting fish as well as other
aquatic life-forms.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Acid Rain Harms Forests
• Acid rain that seeps into the ground can
dissolve nutrients, such as magnesium and
calcium, that trees need to be healthy.
• It makes trees vulnerable to disease, extreme
weather, and insects by destroying their
leaves, damaging the bark and arresting their
growth.
• Trees that are located in mountainous regions
at higher elevations, such as fir trees, are at
greater risk because they are exposed to acidic
clouds and fog, which contain greater
amounts of acid than rain or snow.

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Acid Rain Can Cause Health Problems in
People
• Human health is not directly affected by
acid rain because acid rain water is too
dilute to cause serious health problems.
• However, the dry depositions also known as
gaseous particulates in the air which in this
case are nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide
can cause serious health problems when
inhaled (Respiratory diseases like asthma or
chronic bronchitis make it hard for people
to breathe).

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 Unit #3
Environmental Planning and Practice
Current environmental problems in
global perspective
Acid Rain Damages Buildings and
Objects
• Acid rain can also have a damaging
effect on many objects, including
buildings, statues, monuments, and
cars.
• The chemicals found in acid rain can
cause paint to peel and corrode away
metal and stone as well as damage
glass and plastics.
• Irreplaceable damage can be caused to
the old heritage buildings.

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