lesson 11

ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Prepared By : Group 3
Environmental
Crisis
Environmental Crisis is
characterized by rapid and
largely unpredictable changes
in the nature of the
environment, which are, if not
difficult to reverse.
Examples will be massive
extinctions and substantial
destruction of the ecosystem.
 Sustainable
Development
The idea of sustainable
development can be interpreted in
several different ways, but at its
heart is a development strategy that
seeks to balance different and
sometimes conflicting needs against
an understanding of the
environmental, social and economic
limitations that we face as a society.
 Pasig River
You notice the oil spots on
the river, not to mention the
tons of effluents (human and
non-human wastes) floating
alongside each other. In the
city you live in, there is a
dying river.
 THE WORLD’S LEADING
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
1. The contamination of the earth by industrial and transportation poisons and
plastic: sea, river, and water bed pollution caused by oil spills and acid rain and the
dumping of urban garbage.
2. Changes in global weather patterns (flash floods, extremes snowstorms, and the
spread of desserts) ; an increase in ocean and land temperatures, resulting in a rise
in sea levels (as the polar ice caps melt due to the weather) ;as well as flooding in
many low-lying areas around the world.
3. Overpopulation
4. The depletion of the world's non-renewable, natural resources, ranging from oil
reserves to minerals and potable water.
5. a waste disposal disaster caused by enormous amounts of
rubbish (ranging from plastic, to food packages, to electronic waste)
being dumped in landfills, and bodies of water by communities; and
the dumping of nuclear waste materials.
6. damage of million-year-old ecosystems and biodiversity loss
(such as coral reef destruction and extensive deforestation),
resulting in the extinction of certain species and a decrease in the
number of others.
7. deforestation leading to a reduction in oxygen and an increase in
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which contributed a 150%
increase in ocean acidity in the previous 250 years.
8. the ozone layer which protects the world from the sun's
harmful UV rays being depleted due to the presence of
chlorofluorocarbons or (CFCs) in the atmosphere.
9. acid rain resulting in fossil fuel combustion, toxic
compounds emitted by erupting volcanoes, and vast piles of
rotting vegetables clogging landfills or strewing the streets.
10. industrial and community garbage residues flowing into
underground water tables, rivers, and seas, thus polluting
water supplies.
11. As a city grows into a megalopolis, it continues to expand,
devastating farmlands, increasing traffic congestion, and
making smog a permanent urban element.
12. pandemics and other public health concern caused by
wastes contaminating drinking water, filthy surroundings that
serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease carrying
rodents and pollution.
13. genetic alterations in food production, resulting in a
profound transformation of food systems.
 MAN-MADE POLLUTION
Man-made pollution refers to the contamination of the
environment caused by human activities, such as the release of
chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, plastics, etc.) and activities like
mining and smelting.
Humans exacerbate other natural environmental problems. In
Saudi Arabia, sandstorms combined with combustion exhaust
from traffic and industrial waste has lead the World Health
Organization (WHO) to declare Riyadh as one of the most
polluted cities in the world. It is this “human contribution” that
has become an immediate cause of worry.
 MAN-MADE POLLUTION
Coal fumes coming out of
industries and settling down in
surrounding areas contaminated
20 percent of China’s soil, with
the rice lands in Hunan and
Zhuzhou found to have heavy
metals from the mines,
threatening the food supply.
 “Catching Up”
This massive environmental problems are difficult to
resolve because governments believe that for thier
countries to become fully developed, they must be
industrialized, urbanized, and inhabited by a robust
middle class with access to the best of modern amenities.
A developed society, accordingly, must also have
provisions for the poor-jobs in the industrial sector,
pubic transport system, and cheap food.
Food depends on a country’s free trade with other food
producers. It also relies on a “modernized” agricultural
sector in which toxic technologies (such as fertilizers or
pesticides) and modified crops (e.g.,high-yielding varieties of
rice) ensure maximized productivity.
 Climate Change
Governments have their own environmental problems to
deal with, but theses states’ ecological concerns become
worldwide due to global warming, which transcends
national boundaries. Global warming is the result of
billion of tons of carbon dioxide (coming from coal-
burning power plants and transportation), various air
pollutants, and other gases accumulating in the
atmosphere.
These pollutants trap the sun’s radiation
causing the warming of the earth’s
surface. With the current amount of
carbon dioxide and other gases, this
“greenhouse effect” has sped up the rise
in the world temperature. The greenhouse
effect is respomsible for recurring heat
waves and long droughts in certain places,
as well as for heavier rainfall and
devastating hurricanes and typhoons in
others.
Glaciers are melting
every year since 2002,
with Antarctica losing
134 billion metric of ice.
There is coastal
flooding not only in the
United States eastern
seaboard but also in the
Gulf of Mexico.
 Combating Global Warming
More countries are now recognizing the perils of global
warming. In 1997, 192 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol
to reduce greenhouse gases, following the 1992 United
Nations Earth Summit where a Framework Convention
for Climate Change was finalized. The protocol set
targets but left it to the individual countries to determine
how best they would achieve these goals. While some
countries have made the necessary move to reduce their
contribution to global warming, the United States- the
While some countries have made the necessary move to reduce
their contribution to global warming, the United States-
thebiggest polluter in the world- is not joining the effort.
Developing countries lack the funds to implement the protocol’s
guidelines as many of them need international aid to get things
moving.
 Conclusion
Perhaps no issue forces people to think about their role as
citizens of the world than environmental degradation. Every
person, regardless of his/her race, nation, or creed, belongs
to the same world. When one looks at an image of the earth,
he/she will realize that, he/she belongs to one world- a
world that is increasingly vulnerable. In the fight against
climate change, one cannot afford to simply care about
his/her own backyard. The CO2 emitted in one country may
have severe effects on the climate of another. There is no
choice but to find global solutions to this global problem.
 Th a nk Y ou
& God B le ss!