Environmental resource depletion

Environmental sciences
Environmental Resource
Depletion
 Deforestation
 Mining
 Global Warming
 “Tragedy of the commons”—overfishing
and other
Jungle burned for agriculture in southern Mexico
Environmental impacts caused by
deforestation
 Burning forests and decay of wood after
logging contribute to the release of
greenhouse gases
 Loss of biodiversity
 Forests are important parts of hydrologic
cycle in nature
Chuquicamata, the largest open pit copper mine in the world, Chile
Chemicals used for mining
 Sodium cyanide for extraction of gold
 Sulphuric acid for extraction of copper
from copper oxides
 If these chemicals are not handled
properly, serious environmental impacts
may occur to the neighbouring
environment
Iron hydroxide precipitate
stains a stream receiving
acid drainage from
surface coal mining.
Environmental impacts of mining
 Land/soil erosion
 Formation of sinkholes,
 Loss of biodiversity in the area
 Contamination of ground waters by
chemicals from the mining process and
products.
 Abandoned mines can still pose safety
hazards such as deadly gases
Greenhouse gases
 Phenomenon by which the earth’s
atmosphere traps infrared radiation or heat.
 Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide
(CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and water
vapor, that keep the earth habitable, and
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Components of greenhouse
effect (1990)
 Carbon dioxide (from coal, oil, natural gas,
and deforestation) 57%.
 CFCs depleting stratospheric ozone layer
25%.
 Methane (from wetlands, rice, fossil fuels,
livestock, & landfills) 12%.
 Nitrous oxide (from fossil fuels, fertilizers,
and deforestation) 6%
Environmental Effects of
Global Warming
 Melting of permafrost and polar ice
 Rising sea level
 Spread of pests and disease
 Ecological impacts (e.g. disturbed life
cycle of flora-fauna)
Solution of depletion
 Some suggested that overexploitation of a
resource can be solved by proper
management of the property right to use
the resource.
 Licensing and tradable quota are some
possible financial instruments.
 Poverty
 Poverty is the pronounced deprivation of
well-being. It is not being able to satisfy
ones basic needs because one possesses
insufficient money to buy services or lacks
the access to services.
 Absolute poverty refers to the state of
severe deprivation of basic human needs,
which commonly includes food, water,
sanitation, clothing, shelter, healthcare,
education and information.
Conti……
 Relative poverty refers to as being below
some relative income threshold, where this
threshold differs for each society or
country.
 One may be relatively poor, without being
in the state of absolute poverty; relative
poverty is often considered as an indirect
measure of income inequality.
Causes of Poverty
 Lack of education
 Natural disasters
 Lack of money
 Greed (addictions)
 Overpopulation
 No opportunities provided
Poverty & environmental stress
 People living hand-to-mouth existence
more likely to destroy their immediate
environment (e.g., Nepalese collecting
firewood denuded forests on the hills &
mountains).
 Poor, landless people often forced to
cultivate marginal lands.