Understanding Environmental Problems & Solutions

1. Introduction to the Environment Useful reading: Environmental Science, 8th Edition, Daniel D. Chiras, Jones & Barllett Pub. Environmental Science, systems and solutions, 3th Edition, Michael M. McKinney and Robert M. Schoch. Introduction to the Environmental Studies, Turk

2. Syllabus • Week 1: Environmental problems • Week 2: main environmental concepts and science • Week 3:Life cycle systems theories, Jens and Species • Week 4: Ecosystems and Landscape • Week 5: Biodiversity • Week 6: Natural resources, water and soil • Week 7: Natural resources, energy • Week 8: Environmental Hazards, Air Pollution • Week 9: Climate Change and Ozone Depletion • Week 10: Environmental Hazards, Water Pollution • Week 11: Solid and Hazardous Waste • Week 12 : Human population growth and poverty • Week 13: Environmental Economy • Week 14: Sustainability Principles • week 15: Research presentations

3. Environmental Problems 4.7.1388

4. Main Causes of Environmental Problems • Population Growth • Wasteful and unsustainable resources use • Poverty • Failure to include the harmful environmental cost of goods and service in their market prices • Insufficient knowledge on nature works

5. Main Subjects • Acid deposition • Air pollution • Climate change • Developmental problems for environment • Drinking water pollution • Environmental disasters • Environmental effects and toxicology • Environmental impact of volcanic eruption • Environmental effects of warfare • Eutrophication • Floods • Global warming and the greenhouse effect • Groundwater pollution • Heavy metals • Irrigation water pollution • Legionella • Matter cycles and pollution • Odour • Ozone toxicology • environmental effects • Water pollution

6. Thematic Problems Air Related Issues Water related Issues • Air pollution • Global warming and the greenhouse effect • Acid deposition • Climate change • Ozone toxicology • Environmental impact of volcanic eruption • Drinking water pollution • Floods • Groundwater pollution • Irrigation water pollution • Water pollution

7. Thematic Problems Developmental issues Health related issues • Developmental problems for environment • Environmental effects and toxicology • Environmental effects of warfare • Heavy metals • Matter cycles and pollution • Legionella • Odour • Eutrophication • Filamentous bacteria • Environmental disasters

8. Air pollution • Air pollution means the presence of one or more unwanted substances in air. Air pollutants have a negative impacts on humans, animals and plants, and on air quality.The most frequently present categories of air pollutants are sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and small dust particles (aerosols). • Air pollution can be divided in categories according to the source it is derived from: - Biological air pollution, such as pollens, small insects and microrganisms (bacteria, fungi, yeasts and algae) - Physical air pollution, such as sound, smell, thermal pollution and radioactive radiation - Chemical air pollution, such as ozone, aerosols and ammonia

9. Air pollution • Air pollution undergoes a number of processes:- Emission (contaminants are released into the air)- Transport (contaminants are transported to different locations through air)- Exchange (compounds react with other compounds in air)- Distribution (contaminants are distributed in air)- Emission (contaminants maintain in a certain area)- Deposition (contaminants are deposited in a certain area, on the soil or on objects)

10. Air pollution may causes: • Acid deposition • Eutrophication • Smog is a combination of the woods smoke and fog. (summer smog and winter smog) • Ozone loss • Green House Effects

11. Acid deposition • It is a general name for a number of phenomena, namely acid rain, acid fog and acid mist and implies both wet and dry (gaseous) precipitation • It causes: • Chocking plant leave pores (forest loss) • Corroding stone and brick walls of buildings and monuments • Corroding paper and rubber objects • Altering soil chemistry (soil acidification, loss of plant nutrients) • Altering the chemical balance of lakes and streams • Disrupting fish gill operation (fish deaths) • Deteriorating human breathing disorder (asthma, bronchitis, lung oedema)

12. Global warming and the greenhouse effect • Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) in 1896 claimed that fossil fuel combustion may result in enhanced global warming. • His main finding: • There is a relation between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature. The average surface temperature of the earth is about 15C (natural greenhouse effect) because of the infrared absorption capacity of water vapor and carbon dioxide. • A doubling of the CO2 concentration would lead to a 5C temperature rise.

13. Global warming Theories Gilbert Plass in 1955: • CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of approximately 10 years and the ocean could never be the complete sink for all atmospheric CO2. • Increasing the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide resulted in more absorption of infrared radiation. • Water vapor absorbed totally different types of radiation than carbon dioxide. • Adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere would intercept infrared radiation that is otherwise lost to space, warming the earth.

14. Global warming Theories • Stephen Schneider had first predicted global warming in 1976. • In 1988 it was finally acknowledged that climate was warmer than any period since 1880. The greenhouse effect theory was named and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded by the UNEP and the WMO. • The IPCC released climate change reports in 1992 and 1996, and the latest revised version in 2001. • From 1998 onwards the terminology on the greenhouse effect started to change as a result of media influences. The greenhouse effect as a term was used fewer and fewer and people started to refer to the theory as either global warming or climate change. • In 1998 the Kyoto Protocol (ratified 2001) was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. It requires participating countries to reduce their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6) by at least 5% below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012.

15. Drinking water pollution • Definition, sources and purification of drinking water • Endangering quality of drinking water by: • Contamination by coliform bacteria indicates that pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) may enter to the subsurface water • Yeasts and viruses such as Giardia or Cryptosporidium in surface water may cause gastrointestinal symptoms and diarrhoeal diseases respectively • nitrate contamination cause cyanosis • Lead contamination causes lead posioning • Legionella bacteria grows at 30-40 c water and cause Legionella and Pontiac fever

16. Main Concepts

17. Main concepts • Element (عنصر) is a fundamental substance that cannot broken down into simpler substances by chemical means. • Matter (ماده) is any thing that has mass and taken up space and composed of one element. • Compound (ترکیب)is combinations of two or more different elements held together in fixed proportions . • Atom is the most smallest of matter in which an element can be divided and still retain its chemical properties. • Molecule is a combination of two or more atoms of the same or different elements held together by forces called chemical bonds. • Chemical formula is used to show the number of each type of atom or ion in the compound.

18. Ecosystem • Ecology comes from oikos (living space) and logos (the science of) used by Ernst Haeckel in 1869 • Organisms is a living substance on surface layer of earth (biosphere), air (atmosphere), land( lithosphere),, and water (hydrosphere) • The ecosystem is composed of various of inputs, processes or stores and outputs. • It should maintains its dynamic equilibrium.

19. Ecosystem definitions • A.G. Tansly definition: A particular category of physical systems consisting of organisms and inorganic components in a relatively stable equilibrium, open and in various kinds and sizes وضعیت خاصی از سیستمهای فیزیکی مشتمل بر ارگانهای زنده و مواد غیر زنده است که بصورت باز و در اندازه و اشکال متفاوت پایداری خود را بصورت نسبی برقرار میسازد. • I.G Simmons definition:A unit of space-time containing living organisms interacting with each others and with their abiotic environment by the interchange of energy and materials یک مجموعه یکپارچه چهار بعدی فضا-زمانی مشتمل بر ارگانیزمهای زنده است که در تعامل با یکدیگر و با محیط ابیوتیک پیرامونی انرژی و مواد مبادله مینماید

20. Environmetal Damages and Valuation

21. Estimated Average Annual Damage Costs (% of GDP in 2002)

22. Total Damage Costs