Introduction: Current environmental worldview
Global climate change is the current pressing environmental issue Worldwide. This comes as a result of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere. These gases are contributed by human activities like deforestation, industrial wastes release to the atmosphere and anthropogenic activities e.g. burning of fossil fuels. Research has been conducted and it’s predicted that by 2050 a lot of people will have been displaced due to the repercussions of global climate change (Smith, 2000 p. 42). This will lead to serious social issues around the world e.g. water scarcity, drought, emerging of mysterious diseases etc. Therefore, every person is supposed to pay attention to whatever activities that he or she undertakes so that we can all contribute to the mitigation of this global warming issue.
Familiar things related to ozone hole
Ozone hole can literally be referred to as a hole on the ozone layer caused by chemical reactions with other gases, which was discovered in 1980s (Culley, 2010, p.127). These chemicals are being introduced into the atmosphere by human activities. Ozone hole is related to other issues e.g. global warming, Elnino, forest loss, ocean and lakes degradations, emergency of different diseases, droughts etc.
Ozone hole is related with global warming in the sense that the global hole allows a lot of ultra violet rays to pass through to the earth surface. When this rays fall on the ground, they are reflected back to the atmosphere. When this process goes on for some period of time, it warms up the atmosphere, thus leading to global warming.
Ozone hole leads to global warming and these results to droughts which later reduce the total amount of water that is found in the oceans and seas. It is also related to Elnino, because Elnino occurs as a result of various chemical reactions and these chemicals are the ones that lead to formation of Ozone hole.
Ozone hole is also related to the emergency of various diseases. This is so because the hole allows entrance of ultraviolet rays. These rays are harmful to humans because they expose them to skin cancer, increase the rate at which malaria and other infectious diseases affect people. Cataracts are also caused by these rays and they finally lead to death.
Ozone hole is related to forest loss in that the hole is caused by reaction of different chemicals that are found in the atmosphere and some of these gases, for example, the carbon dioxide gas accumulates in the atmosphere due to deforestation. This means that before the ozone hole formed, deforestation had occurred and the forest had already been lost.
How to mitigate ozone hole issues
For the above discussed issues, there are some factors that are supposed to be considered, in order to reduce the ozone hole causing factors. For example, deforestation should be banned. This will increase the rate at which carbon dioxide gas is absorbed in the atmosphere and, therefore reducing the total poisonous gases that cause ozone hole.
Secondly, industrialists should be educated on their effect to the atmosphere. By doing so, they will reduce the total untreated gases that they release to the atmosphere which highly contribute to global warming, forming ozone holes. Lastly the public at large should be educated on how their activities negatively affect the environment. They should reduce fossil fuel burning, deforestation etc. Through this, the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will reduce and no ozone holes will be formed.
Environmental Beliefs
Many basic environmental beliefs have changed. This is because schools have introduced environment related courses where students from different parts of the World are being enlightened on environmental matters (Fishbein, 1975, p. 25). Introduction of these courses has increased people’s knowledge and awareness about environmental matters making them change their beliefs about environment, and think positively. Therefore, this makes them go out to different communities, educating the ignorant community members on the importance of maintaining environment. Finally, they are educated on sustainable development and its advantage. This makes them be more careful with their environment because they will not want to see their children suffering.
Rules that govern biogeochemical cycle
Biogeochemical cycle is a cycle that encompasses different biological, geological and chemical processes (Raven et al, 2008, p.91). There are different rules that govern this cycle. First, some of the chemical cycles move faster thus becoming ready to use in time e.g. carbon cycle. The second rule is that some of these elements don’t move at all, making them appear as if they are stationery, and it is so because they don’t have a gas e.g. phosphorus.
Limiting factors
Limiting factors are those things that control the growth of an organism or population growth in size. For a living thing to grow there should be presence of food, water, shelter and enough space to accommodate it. With the presence of all these, the organism will continue to grow till stopped with some environmental resistance. This resistance is the limiting factor. It has two impacts on the organism. It either reduces or increases the growth. There are two types of limiting factors which include density dependent factors and the density independent factors. Examples of density dependent factors include: natural disasters, e.g. drought and floods that kills aquatic lives, temperatures affects the growth and activities of an organism, etc. The density independent factors include: competition among organisms, predators, and diseases that attack the organisms.
Importance of natural ecosystem
Natural ecosystem supplies a lot of important things to human beings, including food, fuel wood, timber, shelter, medicinal products, etc. It is also of a great help when it comes to the supply of life supporting services to human beings. Human activities are taken by trees through the processes called Respiration Releasing Pure Oxygen that leads to the purification of air (Botkin, 2000, p. 23).
This is where carbon dioxide released to atmosphere from industries supports life. It also helps in the process of waste disposal. During this process and life cycles of the bacteria, carbon and nitrogen cycles react to neutralize the wastes. Finally, the natural ecosystem is a source of food and medicine. Many people get their foods and fruits from plants and some obtain their traditional medicine from trees.
Therefore, people should not think just about the economic benefits that they obtain from the natural ecosystem, but they should try to balance both the sustainable ecosystem and economic development.
Source of heat in Stratosphere
Stratosphere is the atmospheric sheet that lies above troposphere. It’s about 15 to 50 km in altitude. In the troposphere, temperatures fall as one goes higher but this is not the case in the stratosphere because here, temperatures increases as one goes higher. This is not because stratosphere is closer to the sun but it is because it has high amount of ozone gas, this gas is a good absorbent of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation that is converted into heat that is found on the stratosphere.
Quote of discussion
“The atmosphere is the key symbol of global interdependence. If we can’t solve some of our problems in the face of threat to this global commons, then I can’t be very optimistic about the future of the World” this quote is referring to problems that are encountered on global common’s resources. Therefore the author of this quote wanted to pass a message to people found in the globe that, if they cannot face the problems that are being encountered in our globe at the moment e.g. avoid deforestation, reduce pollution, mitigate land degradation etc. there will be no hopes for our future because a lot our resources will have been depleted.
Commons and global commons
Common is a term that is used to refer to resources that are shared among a group of people mainly community members e.g. land, water, forest resources etc. Global commons is used to mean the areas of the World shared among different countries (Ostrom, 1990, p.14) e.g. deep seabed.
Margaret Mead anticipation in the quote
In the above quote, Margaret Mead was anticipating for sustainable development. This is the development that is done while keeping in mind the life of those in future. She wanted everyone to know that the earth belongs to both the present and future generations; therefore we should take good care of it so that the future generation will find it safe and sound. She dint want the future generation to find barren land, vehicle without sources of petrol, no power to run the factories etc.
Reference List
- Botkin, D., & Keller, E. (2000). Environmental Science. Earth as a living planet. London: Longman.
- Culley, M., & Angelique. (2010). Nuclear power Renaissance or Relapse? Global Climate Change and long term solution. Belmont: General books press.
- Fishbein, M., & Ajzea, L. (1975). Beliefs, attitude, Intention and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. London: Addison-Wesley.
- Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing, the Commons: the evaluation of institutions for collective action. New York. Cambridge.
- Raven, H., et al. (2008). Seventh Edition Environment. Newyork: Wiley.
- Smith, A. (2000). “Towards a global Culture,” The Global transformations Reader. Malden: Polity press.