1. Environmental Issues
1. Biodiversity

2. Biodiversity The number and variety of living things in an environment
What is it?
The number and variety of living things in an environment
Biodiversity is GOOD
More biodiversity  stronger ecosystems

3. Biodiversity

4. Biodiversity
Why do we care?
When biodiversity is not preserved, animals become threatened, endangered or extinct
New medicines, foods, and products (e.g. rain forest, coral reefs)

5. Biodiversity Pass laws to protect habitats and endangered species
Solutions
Pass laws to protect habitats and endangered species

6. Environmental Issues
2. Overpopulation

7. Overpopulation Skyrocketing world population in the last 150 years
What is it?
Skyrocketing world population in the last 150 years
Due to industrial revolution, advances in medicine, food, and technology

8. Overpopulation
Identified when a species cannot obtain food, water, or other resources that it needs

9. Overpopulation Population cannot grow indefinitely (carrying capacity)
Why do we care?
Population cannot grow indefinitely (carrying capacity)
Larger population  more pollution, scarcity of resources

10. Overpopulation
Solutions
Education
Fight poverty

11. Environmental Issues
3. Acid Rain

12. Acid Rain Precipitation becomes acidic due to air pollution
What is it?
Precipitation becomes acidic due to air pollution
Burning fossil fuels (emissions from high sulfur coal)
Sulfur dissolves and mixes with oxygen to become acidic

13. Acid Rain
What is it?

14. Acid Rain Destroys crops and plant life Can affect drinking water
Why do we care?
Destroys crops and plant life
Can affect drinking water
Kills off stream ecosystems
Acidity breaks down carbonate on tombstones and statues

15. Acid Rain Burn less high sulfur coal Develop alternative energies
Solutions
Burn less high sulfur coal
Develop alternative energies

16. Natural Resource Depletion
Environmental Issues
Natural Resource
Depletion

17. Natural Resource Depletion
What is it?
Useful materials extracted from the earth (metals, minerals, trees, fuel)
Fossil fuels are nonrenewable
Do not replenish themselves

18. Natural Resource Depletion
Why do we care?
We rely on natural resources to heat/cool/light our homes, fuel cars, cook foods, etc.
We will eventually run out of fossil fuels (will affect us in our lifetime)

19. Natural Resource Depletion
Solutions
Conservation—preservation and wise use of natural resources
New technology (e.g. hydrogen fuel cell; hybrid/electric cars)
Use renewable energy resources:
Solar, wind, hydroelectric
Nuclear
Biomass
Geothermal

20. Alternative Energy
Solar

21. Alternative Energy
Nuclear

22. Alternative Energy
Biomass

23. Alternative Energy
Hydro-electric

24. Alternative Energy
Wind

25. Alternative Energy
Geothermal

26. Electric Cars
MSRP
$28,980
Nissan Leaf

27. Biodiesel
Click here to read more about Veggie-mobiles.

28. 5. Habitat Loss (Deforestation)
Environmental Issues
5. Habitat Loss
(Deforestation)

29. Habitat Loss (Deforestation)
What is it?
Natural environments destroyed due to agriculture, excessive logging, forest fires, industrial and residential development
Forests, wetlands, and marine environments

30. Habitat Loss (Deforestation)
Why do we care?
Loss of biodiversity
Greatest cause of extinction
Trees act as filters for excess CO2 in the air; less trees  more CO2
Not sustainable in the long term

31. 1985
These NASA photographs, showing the destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest, provide a visual indication of the rate of deforestation that is taking place in Brazil, which has been especially hard hit by deforestation. In many areas, the amount of clear-cut area now exceeds the area of remaining rain forest. The solid dark green areas show the remaining tropical rain forest canopy. Scientists predict that half of the Amazon Rain Forest will be gone by 2030.
1992

32. GoogleMaps: Amazon See these light patches all over?
Click the map above to see Amazon deforestation on GoogleMaps.

33. Other Effects of Deforestation
How much carbon is stored in the forests of the world?
What happens as these areas become cleared?

34. Habitat Loss (Deforestation)
Solutions
Conserve natural areas
Designate more lands for national/state parks
Sustainable agriculture

35. Environmental Issues
6. Pollution

36. Pollution Harmful substances discharged into the air, soil, or water
What is it?
Harmful substances discharged into the air, soil, or water
e.g. garbage, chemicals, radioactive waste, carbon monoxide, noise, thermal, light, sewage, pesticides, fertilizers

37. Thermal Pollution
Changes dissolved oxygen levels
Affects marine life

38. Pollution
Why do we care?
Pollution destroys environments, kills species, spreads disease, causes cancer; reproductive and respiratory problems in humans and animals
Air pollution is the main cause of global warming

39. Pollution
Solutions
Properly dispose of polluting substances (e.g. batteries, electronics, printer cartridges, motor oil, etc.)
Reduce, reuse and recycle

40. 7. Global Warming (Climate Change)
Environmental Issues
7. Global Warming
(Climate Change)

41. Global Warming (Climate Change)
What is it?
Rise in the average global temperatures caused by increased deforestation, burning fossils fuels, increased CO2 emissions.
Greenhouse gases trap and re- emit heat radiation (infrared) back to earth.

42. The Greenhouse Effect
1) Since the atmosphere is clear, light energy from the sun travels directly to the Earth’s surface.
2) Some of the heat is bounced back into space.
3) Much of the heat is trapped by greenhouse gases and bounces back to Earth again.

43. Greenhouse Gases CO2 CH4 N2O CFCs Greenhouse gas Human Activity
Fossil fuels; Burning anything; Power plants; Deforestation
Carbon dioxide
CH4
Fossil fuels; farming (cows); landfills; sewage; decomposition
Methane
N2O
Fertilizers; Factories
Nitrous oxide
Chemical coolants (refrigerators, A/C); Foam materials; Aerosol spray cans
CFCs
Halocarbons

44. Global Warming (Climate Change)
Temperature over last 1,000 years
Is this an average temperature fluctuation?

45. The “Cold” Hard Facts
Major findings of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2001)
The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 31% since 1750.
The current CO2 concentration is at the highest level in the last 420,000 years.
Atmospheric CO2 is increasing at a faster rate today than at any time over the past 20,000 years.
The current concentration of methane (CH4) is at its highest level in the last 420,000 years.

46. Global Warming (Climate Change)
Why do we care?
Global climate change: temperatures rise; polar ice caps melt; sea levels rise; flooding of coastal areas occurs
Food shortages, more hurricanes

47. Evidence of Global Climate Change
Melting Alpine Glaciers
Muir Glacier: Glacier National Park, Alaska
1941
2004
Coral Bleaching
Before
After

48. Global Warming (Climate Change)
Solutions
Reduce the amounts of pollution caused by burning fossils fuels including coal, oil, and natural gases.
Alternative energy
More efficient gas mileage; less emissions

49. Environmental Issues
9. Ozone Depletion

50. Ozone Depletion
Ozone layer absorbs 97% to 99% of ultraviolet light from the sun
This protects us from ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun by absorbing the UV rays before they reach Earth.
79% nitrogen
20% oxygen
1% other gases
Ozone Layer

51. Ozone Depletion
What is it?
Holes in the protective ozone layer allows ultraviolet light to reach earth
CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) from air conditioners and industrial coolants & products

52. Ozone Depletion Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 
Chemicals once used in aerosol cans, plastics, and refrigerators that are now mostly banned. CFCs break up the ozone layer.
The major problem:
After a chlorine (Cl) atom removes an oxygen molecule from O3 it is able to separate from the lone oxygen atom and combine with another O3 molecule, so the process continues over and over and over again.

53. Ozone Depletion

54. Ozone Depletion
What is it?

55. Chemical break-down of ozone
Ozone Depletion;
Chemical break-down of ozone

56. Chemical break-down of ozone
Ozone Depletion;
Chemical break-down of ozone
After breaking down an ozone molecule, the chlorine atom frees itself from the oxygen atom to restart the reaction.

57. Effects of Ozone Depletion
Without the ozone layer larger amounts of UV rays can reach the earth and potentially cause cancer in humans, damage eye-sight, and affect crop growth.
UV induces skin cancer by causing mutations in DNA.
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that a sustained 1 percent depletion of ozone will ultimately lead to a 2-3 percent increase in the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer.

58. Effects of Ozone Depletion
UV radiation impairs photosynthesis in plants.
Marine organisms living in shallow water experience damaging levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. A healthy green sea urchin embryo appears above left. A UV-irradiated green sea urchin embryo (above right) displays an abnormal, extruded gut.
Overexposure to ultraviolet radiation can change the flowering times of some kinds of plants and therefore will affect the animals that depend on them.

59. Ozone Depletion
The good news is that most halocarbons (including CFCs) have been banned and can no longer damage the ozone layer

60. Ozone Depletion Radiation causes cancer in humans and other animals
Why do we care?
Radiation causes cancer in humans and other animals
Also causes cataracts (eye disease)
Negative effects on marine and plant life

61. Ozone Depletion Ban CFCs (Montreal Protocol—1987)
Solutions
Ban CFCs (Montreal Protocol—1987)
Develop alternatives to CFCs
Education