Quality Tale - News on Technology

Monday, March 30, 2009

Air Pollution : The Big Issue

While pollution of the upper atmosphere threatens the basic preconditions for life, pollution of the lower atmosphere is also a threat. Already it is estimated that one fifth of the world's population breathes air contaminated by pollutants in excess of World Health Organization (WHO) safety limits.

Acid emissions, especially oxides of sulphur and nitrogen are one of the major culprits. These arise primarily from the burning of fossil fuels for industry, power-generation and transport. It is estimated that £11 billion worth of damage is occurring annually in the EU alone to buildings, pipework, forestry and agriculture as a result of acidification.

This is a trans-boundary air pollution issue. The UK exports acid emissions due to its dilute and disperse control methods, which rely on tall chimney stacks to remove pollutants from the locality. Norway on the other hand imports 96% of its acid deposition from elsewhere.

Soil acidification also releases toxic metals such as aluminium, which can then accumulate in groundwater.

Other local effects include the build-up of photochemical smog from a cocktail of gases including nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and ozone. This has been linked to an increase in respiratory diseases and asthma. Ozone is also implicated in $5.4 billion worth of damage to crops every year in the United States of America.

Volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), especially solvents used in industry are another health hazard. In Europe, stricter controls are being made on the use of VOCs but in many areas of the world, restriction on air emissions is limited to acid gases.

Waste incinerators are specifically implicated in the production of carcinogenic air pollutants such as dioxins. The point here is when we are going to think on Air Pollution?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Depletion of the OZONE LAYER - A Serious Issue

The Earth is protected against harmful radiation from the sun by a layer of ozone gas in the upper atmosphere, which acts like a filter. This layer is constantly being created and destroyed in a dynamic cycle which has a natural equilibrium.

After many years of concern, in 1985 the British Antarctic Survey first reported ozone thinning over Antarctica. Since then the rate of thinning has increased over wider areas and a loss of about 6-8% in the Northern Hemisphere has been recorded.

Levels have become critical over populated areas in the Southern Hemisphere. The effects of ozone depletion are:

• human health effects such as increase in skin cancer and cataracts.

• effects on the ability of plants to photosynthesise - which may have far - reaching effects on agriculture and phytoplankton (which form the basis of the food chain).

Ozone depletion has been proven to be associated with a range of chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydro-chloro-fluorocarbons (HCFCs) and halons. These are artificial compounds, which were developed for a range of industrial uses. Initially these compounds were assumed to be completely safe, as they have no direct toxic effects. However, it is precisely their stability (which makes them non-toxic) that causes the problems in the ozone layer. The amount of CFCs and other ozone depleting substances (ODSs) in the upper atmosphere will continue to re-form and destroy ozone for many years.

The issue was addressed by the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer in 1985. This development was followed by the international agreement aimed at phasing out the use of certain ODSs by 2005. This is known as the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer of 1987, The most successful environmental treaty in history. The recovery of the Ozone Layer will take decades, but the progressively phasing out of ODSs is an encouraging example of how effective an international agreement can be. However, smuggling of CFCs is still happening in some regions like in Asia.

Environmental Issues - We have to think over it

Guys, we are going to look at the broad context of environmental issues. These issues are of increasing importance throughout the world and in all types of economies - developed, developing, socialist and capitalist. Emphasis on particular problems may vary from place to place but the ideas presented in this chapter have universal significance.

For example, air quality in cities is an issue whether in Sao Paulo, Seoul or London.

Environmental issues illustrate the interdependency of all the world's nations. Brazil, Korea and England all have traffic problems of their own but only Brazil has indigenous tropical forest. Yet Korea and England also depend on the continued existence of those rain forests.

We will also introduce in this chapter some of the themes and conflicts associated with managing environmental issues in the widest sense. The chapter closes with case studies intended to illustrate two important themes:

• Environmental issues are complex - there may be no simple, right or wrong answer to an environmental dilemma.

• Environmental issues cannot be dissociated from economic issues - environment and development are closely linked whether in the sphere of international relations, creation of national policy or in the management of individual organizations.

Environmental Priorities:

The following is a list of environmental issues starting with those, which are most critical at a global level, and ending with those with more local significance.

Global Warming - Need To Think

Global warming (also known as the greenhouse effect) is the term describing the gradual warming of the atmosphere due to the build up of certain gases - principally carbon dioxide (CO2) but also Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Hydorfl jorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFC), Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and some ozone depleting gases. These gases are transparent to incoming solar radiation but reflect back a proportion of the resulting heat radiation from the earth. The Earth's total carbon balance is determined by the store of carbon in plants, the oceans, held in reserves of fossil fuels and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So the burning of fossil fuels affects the balance in one way by releasing more carbon dioxide. Deforestation also affects the balance because trees absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Over the last hundred years there has been a 25% increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

There is much scientific uncertainty around the rate at which global warming is occurring and whether the resulting climatic changes will be offset by other factors. However, there is currently a consensus that global mean surface temperatures are projected to rise between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees centigrade by 2100. Global mean sea levels are expected to rise by 9 to 88 cm flooding low lying coastal areas. This may also lead to:

- changes in rainfall patterns increasing the threat of floods in many regions; climate becoming more variable with greater threat of extreme weather events, such as intense storms and heat waves.

- changes in agricultural productivity as patterns of climate shift and change in different regions.

- increased risk of abrupt and large scale events, for instance the weakening or complete shut down of the ocean thermohaline circulation (such as Gulf Stream), or the collapse of Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. The likelihood of such devastation effects occurring in the next hundred years is remote, it increases with the rate and scale of global warming.

The effects of climate change can already be observed, for instance, in earlier flowering of plants and egg-laying in birds.

The climate system is very complex and he scientists still need to improve their understanding of the extent, timing and impacts of climate change.

Global warming is a particularly difficult issue to control as it is closely linked with the use of energy for industrial processes and with the destruction of habitat to make way for development. However, in 1992 an agreement was drawn up at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (known as the Rio Earth Summit). This took form of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ninety countries signed the International Agreement on Climate Change, which commits developed countries to stabilising emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not covered by the Montreal protocol by 1995 and reducing them to the 1990 level by 2000. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that most of the signatories will succeed in reaching their target. The target in itself is insufficient to stabilise global temperatures.

This event was followed by he Kyoto Protocol dated 11.12.1997, in which the developed countries (also called Annex 1 countries) committed themselves to specific targets in reducing the net emissions of greenhouse gases not covered by the Montreal Protocol (see Depletion of Ozone Layer). The parties committed to reduce the emissions of such gases at least five percent below the 1990 levels. The commitments to reduction of emissions by the parties vary from 92% to 94% of base levels. Some countries committed to certain specific limits varying between 100% to 110% of the base year level.

The protocol requires countries to establish systems for monitoring of anthropogenic emissions of listed green house gases from the listed sources and removal of such gases by sinks (forests).

The greenhouse gases covered include:

- Carbon dioxide (CO2),
- Methane (CH4),
- Nitrous Oxide (N20),
- Hydorfluorocarbons (HFCs),
- Perfluorocarbons (PFC),
- Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

In order to minimize the costs of reductions of emissions in developed countries and also to stimulate. reductions in other countries (also called non-annex 1 countries), two market based mechanisms were established:

- Clean Developed Mechanism (CDM) in which developed countries can "buy", reductions in developing countries

- Joint Implementation (JI) in which developed countries "buy" reductions from other developed countries.

The protocol has to be ratified. by the parties representing not less than 55% of total carbon dioxide emissions in 1990 before it will enter into force. Most unfortunately the current refusal to ratify the protocol by USA and Russian Federation made it virtually impossible, for USA represents 36.1% and Russian Federation 17.4% of base year emissions.

Even if the Kyoto Protocol does not enter into force, the European Union (EU), Japan, Canada and other countries are taking actions to reduce their emissions. In Europe, for example, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) makes reductions mandatory for more than 17,000 facilities starting in 2005.