• Question: What is effecting the environment the most

    Asked by anon-177055 to Urslaan, Nicola, Helen, Daniel, Becky, Andrew on 11 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Daniel Marsh

      Daniel Marsh answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      The simple answer to this is people… it’s human activity that creates the pollution and damages our fragile ecosystems whether its polluting the air, the soil or our aquatic environments. One of the biggest challenges that we are facing globally is the increase in temperature (climate change). It is shown in geological records and ice cores that there have always been fluctuations in temperature but we are currently seeing a rapid increase over a relatively short time period that can be directly linked back to the start of the industrial revolution and this is already having devastating impacts around the world.

    • Photo: Urslaan Chohan

      Urslaan Chohan answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      I would say the biggest environmental effect is pollution. From our usage of machines that use petroleum as fuel, we have lots of bad gases being released like nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. These can cause holes to form in the ozone, which is a protective layer in the sky that stops radiation (infra-red) from entering the earth and heating it up. This causes global warming, which is causing the ice caps to melt. This causes greater risks of flooding, which damages homes for animals and people. Acid rainwater also forms from the gases (nitric acid from nitous oxide and carbonic acid from carbon dioxide), which damages buildings and kills plants. It also breaks down rocks formed from limestone, which means animals that live here lose their home.

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