Technology as an Aide to Developing Cleaner Solutions in Environment - Essay Example

Technology as an Aide to Developing Cleaner Solutions in Environment Introduction Climate changes, melting artic ice and permafrost, a turbulent hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean with hurricane Rita and Katrina, glaciers melting, heat waves and higher temperatures recorded in the hottest years, they all seem to point in only direction. Global warming (GW) and climate changes are reality today as emphasized by the UN IPCC intergovernmental panel on climate change accept that GW is occurring (1995). We are poised on the brink of disaster and we need to stop and take stock of our situation before we are catapulted into a realm of consequences. This essay takes the view that it is already too late to address the current colossal effects of pollution on environment and the only way to redeem ourselves is to adopt technology as an aide to developing cleaner solutions. Scientists, policymakers, and laypeople are beginning to evaluate and understand the gravity of the situation and interpret data about environmental change in a new light: progressive, incremental degradation of environmental systems is not as tolerable as it once was, and to combat that, small time measures can only achieve so much. Big bold measures are needed to make a difference now. New technology is the medium that will help address the issue of environmental issues from a “prevention” perspective rather than a “solution”. Small scale and large scale environmental problems Both developed and developing countries air pollution is a common hazard. While acid rain is more common in developed nations, serious air pollution is more common in the developing nations. Millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and nitrogen are released into the atmosphere by industry and vehicles. These gases react with rain, mist, snow etc and fall as acid rain, far removed point of origin being transported by winds that blow. Air pollution is considered to be worst in Canada, USA, Central and northern Europe. Other pollutants include volatile organic compounds or VOC, associated with vehicle emissions like ammonia and ozone forming near surface of earth fuelled by the combination of nitrogen oxides and voc. Lead pollution has been curbed in developed nations but the leaded petrol still being sold affects developing nations. 450000 tonnes of lead released by humans every year, vehicle exhausts being a major cause. Pollution of our water resources is another area of concern. The numerous bodies of water are now big dumping grounds. 83% of all marine pollution is from land-based activities. Agricultural pesticides and herbicides, domestic and industrial sewage with toxic oils, human waste and radioactive wastes have contributed to declining water quality. Accidental oil seepage from refineries adds to the pollution and upsets the very fragile marine life and ecosystem. Sellafield, UK and Cap de la Hague, France has been blamed for local deaths and sickness due to polluted water. Unclean water kills 25 million people in developing nations every year at least three fifths of them being children. Third world countries that do not have enough potable water force people to draw water from contaminated sources that harbour pathogens, or carriers of disease. The increase in population around the world has heralded a burst of numerous problems. Their increasing need for food and housing has accelerated the degradation of the soil and forest resources. To cater to the volumes of food needed to support the exploding population due to industrialized nations and automations, the use of pesticide and toxins in agriculture has become widespread. As more and more pesticides are used, these “super pests” develop more resistance and stronger pesticides are needed, increasing land contamination and contributing to a vicious cycle. This population and the industries catering to them also generate staggering amount of wastes. Uncontrolled waste presents environmental and health risks. Managing this waste gives rise to a number of pressures on the environment: leaching of nutrients, heavy metals, greenhouse gases and other toxic compounds from landfills; use of land for landfills; emission of greenhouses gases from landfills and treatment of organic waste; air pollution and toxic by-products from incinerators; Air and water pollution and secondary waste streams from recycling plants although those substitute the production of primary resources; increased transport with heavy lorries that add harmful exhaust fumes. Wilderness and undeveloped land are fast disappearing around the world mainly to provide housing areas and building materials. According to the World Resources Institute, 40-50 million forests are destroyed every year, or about 80 acres per minute. Tropical deforestation releases as much as 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Upsetting the fragile balance of the nature causes a gradual loss of biodiversity and may be attributed to the following causes: population increase and conversion of open land to other uses, endangering wild species due to domination of the domesticated species, disruption in the fragile ecological balance and ecosystem created due to pollution, lack of involvement and interest by the community in preserving the bio diversity in the region, legal and institutional systems that promote activities detrimental to biodiversity conservation. The above kinds of pollution are no doubt of serious concern, but are dependent upon their location and resources available to combat them, whether they escalate into a major threat or remain on a smaller scale. The scale of the environmental problems is dependent upon the economic conditions of the localized community and other factors like human population. However the cascading effects of the above kinds of pollutions often escalated into major issues of catastrophic proportions. These environmental problems like global warming and climate changes are large scale and their effects are globally felt and are drastically destructive. Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. According to the World Resources Institute, 40-50 million forests are destroyed every year, or about 80 acres per minute. Tropical deforestation releases as much as 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The Greenhouse effect is a critical consequence due to global warming. When gases like carbon dioxide, methane and a few others combine with water vapour they each trap a fraction of the heat escaping the earth and cause the atmosphere to get very hot. We have begun to upset the balance of the art’s atmosphere by burning vast quantities of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas. This releases a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In fact because of this the air now contains 25 percent more carbon dioxide than a century before. Scientists don’t know how much hotter it will make the earth but the earth is forecasted to be overall warmer by 4-5 Fahrenheit by 2050. Due to global warming, plants worldwide are blooming an average of 5.2 days earlier per decade. (Stanford University). Global warming would affect the polar ice caps and raise the sea level and cause flooding to a number of major cities throughout the world. According to the World Watch Institute in one of their papers on Unnatural disasters, published in October 2001, “ In the 1990s, natural catastrophes like hurricanes, floods, and fires caused over $608 billion in economic losses worldwide, an amount greater than during the previous four decades combined. The disasters are fuelled by ecologically imbalances due to destructive practices, like degrading forests, diverting rivers, filling in wetlands, and destabilizing the climate. And at the same time, continuing human migration to cities and coastal areas is putting more and more people and infrastructure at risk. The projected effects of climate change and sea level rise can only heighten coastal risks. Over 2 billion people were affected by disasters in the last decade. More people are now displaced by disasters than by conflict. And the economic losses are especially devastating to poor countries, where the losses often represent a large share of the national economy. Losses there are often uninsured. Global economic losses due to natural disasters, which are in line with events anticipated to result from global warming, appear to be doubling with each decade, and annual losses from such events are expected to approach $150 billion over the next 10 years. The figure below is a diagrammatic representation of how climate is controlled by geochemical processes and cycles resulting from the interplay among the environment's components involved, as affected by human action. The scheme shows some of these issues. For simplicity, the single double-ended arrows between issues represent some of the linkages involved. For example, biological and ecological processes play an important role in modulating the Earth's climate at both regional and global scale by controlling the amounts of water vapour and other greenhouse gases that enter into or are depleted from the atmosphere. Changes in climate affect the boundaries, composition, and functioning of ecological systems, such as forests, and changes in the structure and functioning of forests affect the Earth's climate system through changes in the biogeochemical cycles, particularly cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and water. – Climate Change 2001, Synthesis Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Remediation and environmental protection For every environmental abuse there are some small-scale remediation measures that will form the basis of the pollution control. But these alone will not be enough. The damage has been so far gone that these small efforts by individuals or a random company or industry will not be sufficient to combat the issue in most cases. In the case of air pollution ambient air quality management can be achieved through strict emission norms for vehicles and factory smoke stacks that spew smoke into the air requiring them to clean the exhaust to a desired level of being harmless enough to be released into the atmosphere. Zoning permits will aid in insulating residential areas from harmful contaminants. All of these can be done only by the governmental agency enforcing the regulations and issuing fines when the rules are broken. This will bring about compliance on a large scale and help to combat the problem. Similarly in the case of water pollution regulating the flow of pollutants into the water by government rules and regulations, liabilities to be borne by the polluting entities, and the resolve to preserve clean drinking water by society as a whole through education and awareness can control water quality. Educating the public about not pouring harmful cooking oils into the drain is a small level measure for the problem. In order to prevent the indiscriminate felling of trees and preserve forests, governmental agencies need to be vigilant to the lawbreakers. Planting a sapling for every tree felled will help upkeep the ecosystem. Conservation International Organisation has come up with a new plan for preserving nature. This program is called “debt for nature swaps”. They offer third world countries a chance to wipe out some debts in exchange for funding local wilderness preservation, thus offering these cash strapped nations a fair chance to maintain natural habitats at no cost to them. Similarly excessive use of pesticides needs to be curbed. Remediation measures would include using organic biodegradable pesticides and more labour intensive methodologies to help curb pesticide use. Stopping subsidies for pesticides makes them less appealing due to the price increase and discourages their usage. Foods can be irradiated after harvest to kill bacteria/bugs to increase shelf life. Bioremediation holds great promise for dealing with intractable environmental problems, it is important to recognize that much of this promise has yet to be realized. Specifically, much needs to be learned about how microorganisms interact with different hydrologic environments. As this under-standing increases, the efficiency and applicability of bioremediation will grow rapidly. Uncontrolled waste is an environmental hazard. Here the public have a better role to play. Recycling and composting are areas where they can contribute a lot. Educating them and increasing awareness in these programs go a long way. Simple things like strategically placing, easily accessible recycling bins in popular areas will encourage the public to recycle more thus reducing wastage. According to the Institute for local Self-Reliance, re-use saves 90-99 percent of the materials consumed in making a product from virgin materials. Buying recycled products reduces pollution, every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7000 gallons of water, and enough energy to heat and air-condition a five-room house for six months. For example, when a steel mill uses recycled scrap, it cuts related water pollution, air pollution and mining wastes by 70%. Properly managed landfills and incineration plants will be an asset to waste management. The best methodology would be to reduce the production of waste itself. Waste exchanging is a program where one company’s waste becomes another company’s treasure; in New York a company spent $575 to truck scrap wood to landfills. Through the waste exchange program, a company in Pennsylvania bought this for $200 a load to use as raw material for making scented wood chips. The technological solution With the advance in current technology, it can be ultimately utilized in many ways to bring about cleaner efficient products and methodologies that will help fight the results of environment abuse. Technology can be used in the following ways: Improved "nature productivity" of products: e.g. increased energy efficiency, products with a lower intensity of raw materials (e.g. lighter cars); A longer product lifetime: making repair and control services more attractive, these being labour-intensive activities par excellence; More reuse and recycling: use the same raw materials or spare parts far more frequently; Improved process technology: the production processes (and not the final consumers) generate the largest quantities of wastewater, solid waste, etc. In the case of air pollution, technologically highly efficient filters help to trap contaminants that will greatly reduce the quantum of pollutants released. Research and development funding to produce more disease-resistant, hardier crops will help avoid use of excessive chemicals. Advent of new resilient alternative building materials will help keep our forests safe. Using energy efficient appliances at home will help conserve energy consumed. Using today’s high technical knowledge houses and buildings have now been constructed according to the regional resistance needed to withstand natural forces prevalent in that area. Technically superior hybrid cars and highly fuel-efficient “Smart” cars are a step forward in the right direction. Investing in cleaner technology From 1850 to 2000, China accounted for 7.3% of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions, fifth most in the world. By comparison, India was responsible for only 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, making it the world's 12th-biggest emitter. Among developing countries, emissions are expected to increase 70% for India and 124% for Mexico. China’s emissions will grow by 118%, surpassing those of the United States, and making China the world's largest emitter by 2025. Fuelled by concerns about urban air pollution, energy security, and climate change, superior fuels that have high efficiency combined with low emissions have to be developed. Hydrogen, the simplest and one of the most abundant elements in the universe, is being considered as a great alternative fuel, also rising due to technical advances in fuel cells – the potential successors to batteries in portable electronics, power plants, and the internal combustion engine. Government and industry, while keeping one foot in the hydrocarbon economy, are pursuing an incremental route, using gasoline or methanol as the source of the hydrogen, with the fuel reformed on-board vehicles. A cleaner path, deriving hydrogen from natural gas and renewable energy and using the fuel directly on board vehicles, has received significantly less support, in part because the cost of building a hydrogen infrastructure is widely viewed as prohibitively high. Yet a number of recent studies suggest that moving to the direct use of hydrogen may be much cleaner and far less expensive. Using technology to develop energy efficient appliances and high performing fuel-efficient vehicles, trying to develop improved efficiency in fuels with low emission rates are all a step in the right direction to invest today to preserve the environment for progeny. Cutting down on fuel consumption will cut down emissions and prevent this effect. Remediation methods would include reducing the frequency of the usage of vehicles to drive, carpooling, heating up the house a degree less are small changes individually but will collectively as a society go a long way in reducing emissions and stalling the green house effect. Switching to cleaner alternative energy forms like solar energy will be effective in cutting energy bills as well as cut down on fuel consumption. This can happen only if widespread awareness through education is undertaken. Using technology to manufacture low emission vehicles like the Hybrid electric cars and improving the combustible efficiency of fuels will help control emissions. Global energy consumption and renewable energy sources Marvin Rusinek, in his book “Energy consumption of Europe” states that the long upward trend in global commercial energy production and consumption continued through 1993, Global energy production in 1993 reached 338 exajoules (1 exajoule = 1018 joules, or ~163 million barrels of oil), which is 40% greater than that in 1973. Total energy consumption rose to 326 exajoules, which is 49% greater than that in 1973. The energy consumption of Europe in 1993 was 93 exajoules, which indicates that Europe accounted for almost 30% of the global energy consumption. Humans generate about 24 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) in rich countries. Energy use creates serious problems. They include the depletion of fuel reserves and environmental effects. Alternative sources of energy must be considered, since fossil fuel reserves will be used up fairly soon. Using technological advances it is necessary to develop new ways of obtaining energy and one such method is nuclear fission, in which nuclear plants work to split atoms in certain radioactive elements Another possible method to obtain energy is through solar energy, in which the sun's energy can be collected and concentrated by flat plate panels on the roofs of buildings and used to heat a circulating fluid. Other methods that can be used to obtain energy are biomass conversion, tidal power, geothermal energy, and nuclear fusion. In order for industrialized regions to maintain high living standards, they must develop cleaner, more renewable energy sources. A century ago, petroleum represented 2 per cent of the world's energy supply-the same share that new renewable fuels provide today. In the ‘’International Conference on New Technologies 2004’’, 154 governments declared their backing for new technology. Using renewable sources stimulates local economies by attracting investment money and by creating employment. Renewable energy provides more jobs per unit of output and per dollar spent than conventional energies do. In developing countries, where an estimated 2 billion people lack access to electricity, renewable can provide power more cheaply and quickly than the extension of transmission lines and construction of new plants, and can aid in economic development, while avoiding the need to spend precious export earnings on imported fuels. The alternative sources currently considered are Ethanol, Methanol, compressed natural gas, and of course electricity. The above fuels each have their pros and cons with respect to prices and emissions of which natural gas seems a great alternative except that it is not powerful enough for all applications. However serious research is needed to mass-produce an alternate fuel that will combine low emission and cost with a high performance in order to save our environment. Drivers for success Government legislation One way of using economics is to ensure that the costs and the benefits of environmental measures are well balanced. Although it is difficult to estimate costs and benefits, there is an increasing demand that this is done before new environmental policy is decided on a European level. With the use of market-based instruments, environmental goals can sometimes be reached more efficiently than with traditional command and control regulations. The OECD and the European Environment Agency have, in co-operation with the European Commission, developed a database on the use of market-based instruments for environmental policy and natural resource management (environmentally-related taxes, fees and charges, environmentally-motivated subsidies, tradable permits systems, deposit-refund systems) in Member countries which includes all Member States of the EU as well as non-EU members of the EEA (in particular the accession countries). It also covers voluntary approaches. The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty on climate change. It is actually an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. The objective is the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". Some current estimates indicate that if successfully and completely implemented, the Kyoto Protocol is predicted to reduce the average global rise in temperature by somewhere between 0.02°C and 0.28°C by the year 2050 (Nature, October 2003), compared to the increase of 1.4°C to 5.8°C between 1990 and 2100 predicted by the IPCC. Because of this many critics and environmentalists question the value of the Kyoto Protocol should required modifications fail to produce deeper cuts in the future. The two major countries currently opposed to the treaty are the USA and Australia, based on the public statements of both governments and the US Senate. Some public policy experts who are sceptical of the global warming hypothesis see Kyoto as a scheme to either retard the growth of the world's industrial democracies or to transfer wealth to the third world in what they claim is a global socialism initiative. The EU produces around 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and has agreed to a cut, on average, by 8% from 1990 emission levels. The EU has consistently been one of the major supporters of the Kyoto Protocol, negotiating hard to get wavering countries on board. China for example has enormous toxic emissions due to its rapid growth and slated to be the biggest emitter by 2020 is not legally bound by Kyoto agreement as a developing nation. Emissions trading Emissions trading is emerging as a key instrument in the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The rationale behind emission trading is to ensure that the emission reductions take place where the cost of the reduction is lowest thus lowering the overall costs of combating climate change. Emissions Trading is particularly suited to the emissions of greenhouse gases, the gases responsible for global warming, which have the same effect wherever they are emitted. This allows the Government to regulate the amount of emissions produced in aggregate by setting the overall cap for the scheme but gives companies the flexibility of determining how and where the emissions reductions will be achieved. By allowing participants the flexibility to trade allowances the overall emissions reductions are achieved in the most cost-effective way possible. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is one of the policies being introduced across Europe to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and combat the serious threat of climate change. Phase I of the Scheme began on 1 January 2005 and will run until 31 December 2007. Phase II will run from 2008-2012 to coincide with the first Kyoto Protocol commitment period. Environmental Agencies In its official website, the European Union propagates the use of environmental economics treating the environment as a scarce resource and since economics is about how to tackle scarce resources, it can often be useful when dealing with environmental problems. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985) encourages intergovernmental cooperation on research, systematic observation of the ozone layer, monitoring of CFC production, and the exchange of information. Cartagena Protocol on Bio safety (2000), is one of the multilateral Environmental Agreements administered by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology hazards. These are few of the numerous agencies that care about the quality of the environment we live in. Conclusion It is to be appreciated that the awareness today for the environmental problems is more than what it was a few decades ago. But it is also true that the degree of decay of the environment today far surpasses our width of knowledge. No single environment problem is negligible or localized. All of them are interconnected and set up a chain reaction and cumulatively affect the global arena. For this reason, small temporary measures will not bring the desired result. An all out government involved policing and technologically superior products and processes alone will reverse, if not, at least stall the detrimental factors. It is far too late to expect easy solutions for the serious threats. Sources Rogene A. 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