NB 5
The production and use of technological objects
As we know the natural resources we use to create numerous products, tools and machines that have allowed to meet many needs.
However, due to the changing environment and the overexploitation of natural resources (materials and energy) are often seriously damaging our environment, affecting other species of living beings and even ourselves.
Listed below are the main damage that human activity has had on the environment, and that somehow affect our lives and our health.
1. DEPLETION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
2. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (AIR, WATER AND SOIL)
3. THE GREENHOUSE
4. ACCUMULATION OF TRASH
5. THE DAMAGE OF THE OZONE LAYER
1. Natural Resource Depletion
Natural resources can be made by any of the components of matter existing in nature that may be potentially used by man. Can be renewable or not, depending on the nature of exploration and exploitation of themselves and their capacity for replacement.
It's renewable resource that is not regeneraa short time after use and is exhausted. It is renewable, however, that which is recovered after use, typically by recycling (eg water) or reproduction (eg plant and animal biological resources). According to this classical concept of categorization of natural resources, mineral deposits as a source of raw materials are renewable resources and the drinking water or wood in a forest, renewable resources. However, it is increasingly difficult and expensive to purify water for drinking because of the quality and quantity of contaminants in aquatic environments where surface and groundwater is extracted. The indiscriminate felling of forests also occurs faster than the reproduction or recovery of trees that compose it. When the future existence of a natural resource is subject to replacement hypothetically speaking of renewable resources.
A resource is that if it is possible to use it, otherwise it is not. For example, the capacity of hydropower in a river is not technically an appeal if you can not install a dam in a certain place in the basin. On the other hand, the concept of natural resource is dynamic if one takes into account the relationship between consumer culture of a company generates with their socio-economic and technology needed to meet consumption. That "something" resource when society is so identified and requested. For example, wood as fuel is no longer a vital natural resource to generate energy on the scale of values \u200b\u200bin a big city today, because it was superseded by other energy sources, but for remote isolated rural cabins. Thus, each culture develops over time and space a proper relationship with natural resources. The fact solve individual and collective needs in the use of natural resources as energy or raw materials can lead to exhaustion, limiting sustainable development. If the rate of renewal is less than the rate of exploitation exists predation of the resource when it exceeds the use of growth or collection and resource is depleted. This rate of renewal depends on the laws of nature, while the operating is governed by social factors.
pollution is referred to the presence in the environment of any agent (physical, chemical or biological) or a combination of several drugs in places, forms and concentrations as they are or may be harmful to health safety or welfare of the population, or that may be harmful to plant or animal life, or impeding the normal use of the property and places of recreation and enjoyment of them. Environmental pollution is also incorporated into the receiving bodies of solid, liquid or gaseous, or mixtures thereof, provided that adversely alter the natural conditions of the same, or that may affect health, hygiene or welfare.
As increases the power of man over nature and new needs as a result of living in society, the environment that surrounds it deteriorates more and more. The social behavior of man, which led him to communicate through language, which later formed the human culture, allowed him to differentiate of other living beings. But while they adapt to the environment to survive, man adapts and modifies the same means as needed.
Technological progress, on the one hand and rapid population growth, on the other, produce environmental change, in some cases harm the biological balance of the Earth. Not that there is an absolute incompatibility between technological development, the advancement of civilization and the maintenance of ecological balance, but it is important that men know harmonization. It is therefore necessary to protect the renewable and nonrenewable resources and to realize that environmental sanitation is essential for life on
planet Pollution is one of the major environmental problems affecting our world and arises when an imbalance occurs as a result of the addition of any substance to the environment, in an amount such that adverse effects on man in animals, plants or materials exposed to doses that exceed acceptable levels in nature.
Contamination may arise from certain forms of nature (natural sources) or because of the different production processes of man (anthropogenic sources) that make up the activities of daily living.
generating sources of anthropogenic pollution are most important: industrial goods (refrigerators, slaughterhouses and tanneries, mining and oil), commercial (envelopes and packages), agriculture (agricultural chemicals), household (packaging, nappies, garden waste) and mobile sources (vehicle exhaust). Emission source means the physical or geographical origin where there is a contaminant release to the environment, whether air, water or soil. Traditionally, the environment has been divided for their study and their interpretation, these three components: air, water and soil, but this division is purely theoretical, since most of the pollutants interact more one of the elements of the environment.
TYPES OF POLLUTION
Water Pollution: water is the incorporation of foreign matter such as microorganisms, chemicals, industrial waste, and other water or sewage. These materials degrade water quality and make it useless for the intended uses. Soil contamination
: the soil incorporation of foreign matter such as garbage, hazardous waste, chemicals, and industrial wastes. Soil contamination results in an imbalance physical, chemical and biological adversely affecting plants, animals and humans.
Air pollution : is the addition harmful to the atmosphere of toxic gases, CO, or other factors affecting the normal development of plants, animals and adversely affecting human health.
EFFECTS OF POLLUTION IN HUMANS
Air pollution has many effects on health, from mild irritation to the development of serious diseases
- Carbon Monoxide: This is a product of the combustion of fossil oil and is common to form from moving vehicles. Consequently, this material accumulates in urban areas near the freeways and streets full of movement and its concentration varies with increasing or decreasing circulation.
This gas does not seem to affect plants, but is highly toxic to humans, as it interferes with the transport of oxygen in the blood. The health effects become more serious as the greater the amount of carbon monoxide in the air and the exposure time.
-sulfur dioxide (SO2): The derivative of the sulfur that pollutes the air more frequently. It is produced by burning coal and oil that contain it.
Most comes from power plants (coal plants and power plants) and other industrial processes that contribute to the presence of sulfates in the atmosphere, as the roasting of sulfide ores, petroleum refining, production of sulfur oxides and coke from coal.
sulfur oxides are removed from the air by converting it into sulfuric acid and sulfate and thus deposited in the form of particulate matter on land or at sea, either to rainfall or sediment, polluted water and also
soil sulfur oxides can inhibit the growth of plants and be lethal to some of them when exposed to moderate concentrations for long periods.
The toxic effects of sulfur oxides to be human are: difficulty breathing due to spasm or contraction of the bronchi, sore throat, eyes and coughing, in large quantities can be fatal. We have also found a relationship between the presence of sulfur oxides in the atmosphere and the increase in deaths from chronic diseases, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Nitrogen oxides (NO2) are formed by the reaction of oxygen with nitrogen in the air. This reaction occurs at high temperatures for the use of fossil fuels. Some bacteria produce large amounts of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere, making it very difficult to source control.
Most of them come from electric power plants, in which the high temperature of combustion of energy facilitates training.
Nitrogen dioxide affects the lungs and is toxic and some of the pollutants that form from them, are deadly to plants.
Hydrocarbons are primary pollutants, its importance lies in the large number of sources and volume of their emissions. Are formed by the combustion of products such as gasoline, oil, carbon and wood and the higher production is due to oil industry activities, as well as motor vehicles. Some hydrocarbons
are toxic to plants and animals at relatively high concentrations in humans could be responsible for respiratory problems.
Other contaminants are very important elements such as lead, cadmium and fluorine, and industrial sources has been associated with heart disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, lung cancer, abnormalities in bone and kidney condition.
suspended particles. Other air pollutants are solid particles and liquid particles suspended and dispersed. To these should be cloudy and hazy appearance of polluted air.
occur with gaseous air pollutants, due to different activities, all the iron and steel manufacturing, cement production, the removal of rocks and minerals, storage and grain handling and processing of paper pulp. Among
liquid particles, most contaminants are aerosols, which are manifested in the form of vapor, fog or mist in high concentrations can become transformed into a lethal agent, as happened in London in 1940, 1950 and 1952, which produced thousands of deaths due to the presence of these smog.
fogging sprays are true and their small size, penetrate and irritate the bronchial tubes. Larger particles are stopped by the nasal mucosa and the larynx causing great irritation.
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