Unfortunately, the activity of burning or combusting fossil fuels releases various kinds of hazardous substances and pollutants which eventually leads to changes in the environment; such as climate change, global warming, and changes in environmental health. Let us start with the change in climate or climate change. For over the past 150 years, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil have caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere. These gases prevent heat from escaping to space, somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse. It would change our climate, but it would not bring us close to the level of uninhabitable Venus.
Owing to the development of industry and the use of fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has produced and the average global temperature seems to have risen. What’s more, deforestation can affect climate changes. The growing of trees and plants can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because of photosynthesis, however, deforestation lead to carbon dioxide emissions. Both of these can lead to global warming of the atmosphere. The report (UNEPWMO, 2004, P10) also pointed out, the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are altering the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
For instance Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere is synthesized by plants, which is ingested and metabolized by animals, which is converted to Carbon Dioxide during respiration and decay. Humans remove over 40% of the photosynthetic that effort plants in order to support human enterprises. When humans burn fossils fuels that increases the atmosphere Carbon Dioxide by 35%, then during the combustion stage the present of air (oxygen), Carbon Dioxide and water molecules are release into the atmosphere. Human has an impact on the Phosphorus Cycle as well as the Carbon Cycle. The Phosphorus Cycle is representative of the cycle of all biologically important mineral nutrients-those elements that have their origin in the rock and soil minerals of the Lithosphere, such as iron, calcium, and potassium.
Therefore, sometimes in the future we will run out of them. For this reason, fossil fuels are considered as non-renewable meaning that they are not replaced as soon as we use them. Moreover burning fossil fuels leads to pollution and many environmental impacts. Because our world depends so much on energy, we need to use sources of energy that will last forever – renewable energy, generating power from natural resources that are replenished on the earth. As we are theoretically reaching “peak oil”, “peak gas” etc.
From an environmental perspective the Amazon is negatively affected from the burning of the trees which is polluting the biggest rainforest in the world with Carbon dioxide (Co2). Also, a lot of nutrients are being lost from deforestation and high quality soil is being wasted. Desertification is slowly happening in the Amazon and other rainforests. If deforestation continues the rainforests will start to lose bodies of water, as well as vegetation and wildlife. There are many problems that the rainforest biome encounters.
In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the extent to which human activities, such as deforestation and fossil fuel burning, have directly or indirectly changed the biogeochemical and physical processes involved in determining the earth's climate. These changes in atmospheric processes can disturb a variety of ecosystem services that humans depend upon. Humans clearly disturb many, if not all biogeochemical cycles and in the process threaten many ecosystems. In recent years human activities have directly or indirectly affected the biogeochemical cycles that determine climatic conditions of earth. The following summary is how human activities have contributed to disruption of biogeochemical cycles (M Moses et al., 2010): Use of phosphorus fertilizers: Human influences on the phosphorus cycle come mainly from the introduction and use of commercial artificial fertilizers.
The consequence of climate change is serious. It will cause sea level rises,more flooding and stronger storm. Secondly, the shortage of fossil fuels is also a big problem, which is means fossil fuels are finite and non-renewable. If people cannot use them reasonably and economically, fossil fuels will be used up very soon. Klass model is a good illustration of this problem and it assumes a continuous compound rate and computes fossil fuel reserve depletion times for oil, coal and gas of approximately 35, 107 and 37 years, respectively (Shahriar & Erkan, 1).
Natural emission sources of SO2 and NOx include volcanic eruptions and lightening, however unfortunately, there are numerous man-made activities that produce far greater quantities of these gases, such as, the combustion of fossil fuels, industrial manufacturing processes and automobile exhausts. It is estimated that in the atmosphere two thirds of SO2 and one fourth of NOx molecules come from electric power generators alone. Impacts of acid rain: • Soil: Acidification of soil results in K+, Mg+ and Ca+ leaching out of solution, causing nutrient deficiency and loss of soil fertility. • Vegetation: Acid rain causes anatomical alterations in the leaves of tropical trees leaving them venerable to disease. • Aquatic ecosystems: Acid rain makes water bodies, such as streams, rivers and lakes, acidic.
Deforestation In Thailand Proposal Large areas of the world’s forest are being destroyed as you read this sentence. Volcanoes are erupting, floods are flooding and fires are burning; but with these occurrences the forest will emerge again to become what it once was. Unfortunately this is not the major reason that the forest are being depleted, Deforestation, the permanent loss of forestland, caused by humans is the main cause. With natural disasters the land is left to replenish itself but with deforestation the land becomes un-sustainable to forest life. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) “estimates that the annual rate of deforestation is about 1.3 million square km per decade, with the main deforestation occurring in the tropics where a wide variety of forest exist”.
They lose their habitat and forced to move to new location; besides, many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes. It is undeniable that deforestation itself has extreme effect on Global warming and hurts the air. Global warming means that air and ocean temperature is increasing. Greenhouse gases exist primarily because of human activity. Unfortunately, humans are the most polluting species on the planet.