Environtmental and Global Health

Posts Tagged ‘Environment’

5. Other toxic substances

Toxic substances are chemicals whose manufacture, processing, distribution, use and disposal are an unaffordable risk to human health and the environment. Most of these toxic substances are synthetic chemicals that enter the environment and persist there for long periods of time. In the dumps chemicals are produced significant concentrations of toxic substances.

If they are leaking into the soil or water, can pollute water, air, crops and domestic animals, and have been associated with human birth defects, abortions and organic diseases. Despite the known risks, the problem is not on track to settlement. Recently, it has produced over 4 million new synthetic chemicals in a period of fifteen years and create 500 to 1,000 new products over the years. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Carbon Dioxide

One of the impacts of fossil fuels has on the Earth’s environment has been the increased concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. The amount of atmospheric CO2 had remained stable, apparently for centuries, but since 1750 has increased by 30%.

The significance of this change is to cause an increase in temperature of the Earth through the process known as the greenhouse effect. Atmospheric carbon dioxide tends to prevent long-wave radiation escape into space, since it produces more heat and less can escape the Earth’s global temperature increases.

A significant global warming of the atmosphere would have serious effects on the environment. Accelerate the melting of polar ice caps would raise the sea level, climate change regionally and globally, would alter the natural vegetation and affect crops. These changes, in turn, would have an enormous impact on human civilization. In the twentieth century the average global temperature increased 0.6 degrees C, and scientists predict that Earth’s average temperature will rise between 1.4 and 5.8 º C between 1990 and 2100. Read the rest of this entry »

INTRODUCTION.

The environment is everything around us and that we should care to keep clean our city, school, home, etc., In short everything where we may be, so we made the following inquiry into the Environment.

Concept of Environment.

Environmental abiotic itemset (solar energy, soil, water and air) and biotic (living organisms) that make up the thin layer of Earth called biosphere, household livelihoods and living beings. Read the rest of this entry »

Water pollution caused by human activities is an important environmental phenomenon, starts from the first attempts of industrialization, to become a widespread problem, since the industrial revolution began in the early nineteenth century.
Industrial production processes initiated at this time require the use of large volumes of water for the processing of raw materials, being the effluent of such production processes, discharges into the natural channels of water (rivers, lakes) with contaminated waste.
Since then, this situation is repeated in all countries that have developed industrialization, and even though the technology has somehow managed to reduce the volume and type of pollutants discharged into the natural channels of water, this has not occurred or the form or the amount necessary for the problem of water pollution is solved. Read the rest of this entry »

#Natural eutrophication.

Eutrophication is a process that is slowly occurring naturally in all lakes in the world, because all nutrients are received.
#Eutrophication of human origin.

Human discharges accelerate the process to make, often in a serious pollution problem. The main sources of eutrophication are:

*urban discharges, which are detergents and organic waste
*Livestock and agricultural discharges, contributing fertilizers, organic wastes and other wastes rich in phosphates and nitrates.

The degree of eutrophication Read the rest of this entry »

A river, lake or reservoir eutrophication suffer when their waters are richer in nutrients. It might seem at first glance it’s good that the waters are well packed with nutrients, because that could live easier living. But the situation is not so simple. The problem is that if there is excess nutrients plants grow in abundance and other agencies. Later, when they die, rot and fill the water smells and give it a foul, drastically reducing its quality.

The putrefaction process consumes large amounts of dissolved oxygen and water are no longer suitable for most living things. The end result is an ecosystem all but destroyed.

Eutrophic and oligotrophic water Read the rest of this entry »

There are a number of water contaminants that can be classified in many different ways. One possibility is to group largely utilized in the following eight groups:

#Pathogen.

Are the different types of bacteria, viruses, protozoa and other organisms that transmit diseases such as cholera, typhoid, gastroenteritis different, hepatitis, etc. In developing countries diseases caused by these pathogens are one of the main reasons for premature death, especially of children.

Normally these bacteria get into the water in the feces and other organic debris produced by infected people. For this, a good index to measure the health of the waters in regard to these microorganisms, is the number of coliform bacteria in water. Read the rest of this entry »

Spain to bear between 3 and 6 degrees maximum temperature with respect to the reference values for 1961-1990 in 60 years, in particular for the period 2071-2100, according to the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). For minimum temperature, however, the increase is between 2 º C and 5 º C. Balearic Islands, especially in peak values, as a result of the dampening effect of the oceans, you will experience temperatures below those of other autonomous communities.

The report has been submitted by the Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, and AEMET president, Ricardo Garcia Herrera. This is the second phase of renovation of regionalized scenarios using new data from global models that form the basis of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) adopted in Valencia in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

The abundance of phytoplankton or plant plankton, the first element of the food chain in the oceans, decreased markedly over the last century, as confirmed by a comprehensive study by Dalhousie University in Halifax (Canada).

The study, published by the journal Nature, finds that the reduction was approximately 1% per year since 1900, albeit with a higher trend since 1950, likely as a result of climate change and higher surface temperatures of ocean waters, say the authors.

Threat to the marine food chain

The phytoplankton, consisting of microscopic organisms that live suspended in water, is the staple food of zooplankton both as large mammals (cetaceans), numerous seabirds and the most fish. “They are the fuel of the marine ecosystem. Their fall affects the entire food chain and humans, “write Daniel Boyce, Marlon Lewis and Boris Worm, the three principal authors of the research. Read the rest of this entry »

Mengke Touming The glacier, one of the most beautiful in China and located in the northwestern province of Gansu, is melting the effect of climate change, reported the China Daily. ”

The Touming Mengke is the largest valley glacier in the Qilian Mountains in Sunan, but due to warming caused by greenhouse gases is suffering a reduction of six meters a year.

In the last five decades Touming Mengke, 10.1 km long and covers an area of 21.9 square kilometers, has been reduced by 300 meters.

Its maximum altitude is 5483 meters above sea level and the lowest is 4260 meters and is located in the valley Laohu, on the northern slope of the mountain Daxue, in the district of Subei. Read the rest of this entry »