Environmental Sustainability: Threats, Impact, and Solutions

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the relationship between Posidonia and Caulerpa?
2. Which factors influence human impact on the environment?
3. Which are the main threats to the environment?
4. How do we prevent environmental degradation? (Draw a mind map for the next session)

1. What’s an Ecological Footprint?

The idea of an ecological footprint is basically a measure of how much area is needed to support our lifestyles, how much land is needed to produce all the things we consume, and what is needed to clean up our waste.

Act.3. International Agreements on the Environment

a) Numerous international agreements have been signed aimed at protecting the environment, including agreements to combat climate change; protect the Earth´s ozone layer, manage waste, ensure the health and diversity of flora and fauna, and so on. Unfortunately, political and economic factors have prevented many countries from signing.

b) The United States have not signed some of the top environmental agreements on the grounds that (saying that) restrictions would be harmful to business interests.

Act 4. Burkina Faso as a significantly smaller ecological footprint than the USA

Act 5. In general, the developed nations such as the USA, the European nations and Japan all have a much greater ecological footprint than the less developed nations of Africa and South America. So this shows that there is a strong correlation between economic development and ecological footprint.

Act 6. (you can look for information on the Internet) If all the world´s countries left as pronounced an ecological footprint on the natural environment as the USA, a global environmental catastrophe would occur in a very short period of time.

2. Can polluting gases be recycled?

No, they cannot be recycled naturally because they are very toxic.

3. What is the difference between smog and acid rain?

Smog is a thick mist formed by a chemical reaction between sunlight and nitrogen oxides at ground level. Smogs can irritate your eyes and lungs and are harmful for plants. Acid rain is rain mixed with nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. This rain attacks and destroys plants. It also affects the flora and fauna of rivers and lakes.

4. List the effects of air pollution.

It dissolves the ozone (a gas formed in the atmosphere) so the ozone layer becomes thinner and can´t protect us from the ultraviolet radiation. The increase of Greenhouse gases is producing global warming (increase in average temperature of the planet). As a consequence Polar ice caps are melting faster. Climate change is taking place (extreme and unpredictable). Destruction of ecosystems.

5. Look on the Internet for information about the following International agreements:

- The Montreal Protocol came into force in 1989, for the protection of the Earth´s ozone layer. - The Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005, to minimize the contribution of human activities to global warming by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.

Session 3: Water Supply

1. Why is there insufficient water in some regions? (Give more than one reason)
2. Look at the map. What do you think is physical water scarcity?
3. What is economic water scarcity?
4. In your opinion, are water scarcity and wealth related?
5. Ways to increase available water and its problems: draw a mind map and learn it for the next session
6. How can we reduce consumption of water?
7. pg. 151: Do activity number 4.
8. Do activity number 5: www.coloradoriverbasin.org

Session 4: Deforestation and Soil Degradation

1. Why are forests vital for the environment?
2. Which factors cause deforestation?
3. What is soil degradation?

Session 5: The Loss of Biodiversity

1. What is biodiversity?
2. Is biodiversity a specific fact of some regions on the planet?
3. Why is biodiversity important for the environment and for life?
4. Why is human activity a threat to biodiversity?
5. We need to take action in order to stop the loss of biodiversity. Which measures should be adopted?