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Introduction
Ecology is a science, which studies the relationship between all forms of life on our planet and our environment. This word came from the Greek «oikos» which means «home». All living things are related to their environment. The Earth is our common home and we must take care of it.
Since ancient times Nature has provided Man with everything he needed: food to eat, water to drink, wood for building and fuel for heating and cooking. For hundreds of years Man used Nature’s sources and it seemed to people that the resources of Nature had no end.
With the industrial revolution our negative influence on Nature began to increase. Big smoky cities with thousands of people, polluting plants and factories can be found nowadays all over the world.
Unfortunately, the idea of thinking about our planet and about the consequences of our activity appeared not so long time ago as it could be. Nowadays scientists from the different parts of the world try to solve ecological problems, but it isn’t enough to do our planet clean. We must protect our home all together, without any exceptions.
This report is devoted to different ecological catastrophes and to environmental protection. It summarizes the results of my survey into such global problems like «greenhouse effect». The aim of my report is the following: to show actual environmental problems, explain how they change our life and try to find the possible ways to solve them. I suppose that this topic is very actual nowadays and I hope that this information will appeal not only to my mind.
Air pollution
Air pollution is one of the main problems all over the world. Millions of chimneys, buses, cars, plants, factories and other industrial enterprises exhaust fumes and harmful substances into the atmosphere. Poisoned air is the main reason why it is hard to breath in large cities with big amount of plants and transport (example – Nijnii Tagil in the Urals).
Human activity has been increasing the concentration of such gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapor in the atmosphere. Scientists expect to see a doubling of carbon dioxide over pre-industrial levels around the year 2065.
Every year the atmosphere is polluted by about one thousand (1000) tons of industrial dust. Among industries especially toxic wastes are made by enterprises of colour metallurgy, chemical, petrochemical, black metallurgy, woodworking, pulp paper industry etc. Big cities suffer from smog.
«Leaders» of wastes of harmful substances in an atmosphere in Russia during three last years are Krasnoyarsk region, the Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo area and it is necessary to attribute this areas to a zone of the ecological catastrophe. The most contaminated regions are economic centers of Russian Federation and most populated. Now 2/3 population of Russia continues to live in conditions of dangerous air contamination.
Various chemical elements are intensively absorbed by our organism during breathing, it is harmful for our health. Air pollution is especially harmful for quality of genofond.
Scientists say that air pollution is the cause of acid rains, global warming and of greenhouse effect. I’d like to tell you some facts on this topic.
What is the greenhouse effect?
The greenhouse effect is unquestionably real; it is the essential for life on the Earth. It is the result of heat absorption by certain gases in the atmosphere (called greenhouse gases because they trap heat) and re-radiation downward of a part of that heat. Greenhouse gases are:
Carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), and wood and wood products are burned.
Methane. Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock.
Nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of solid waste and fossil fuels.
Реферат опубликован: 20/12/2006