Effects_implication of unsustainable exploitation of environmental resources

By Jeff Mathers

INTRODUCTION

The exploitation of environmental resources started to emerge in the 19th century as environmental resource extraction developed. During the 20th century, energy consumption rapidly increased. Today, about 80% of the world’s energy consumption is sustained by the extraction of fossil fuels, which consists of oil, coal and gas.[1] Another non-renewable resource that is exploited by humans are Subsoil minerals such as precious metals that are mainly used in the production of industrial commodities. Intensive agriculture is an example of a mode of production that hinders many aspects of the environmental environment, for example the degradation of forests in a terrestrial ecosystem and water pollution in an aquatic ecosystem. As the world population rises and economic growth occurs, the depletion of environmental resources influenced by the unsustainable extraction of raw materials becomes an increasing concern. Environmental resources occur environmentally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a environmental form. A environmental resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems. Environmental resources are derived from the environment. Some of them are essential for our survival while most are used for satisfying our wants. Environmental resources may be further classified in different ways. Environmental resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of environmental resources (at its fundamental level). A environmental resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, oil, and most forms of energy. There is much debate worldwide over environmental resource allocations, this is partly due to increasing scarcity (depletion of resources) but also because the exportation of environmental resources is the basis for many economies (particularly for developed nations such as Australia). Some Environmental resources can be found everywhere such as sunlight and air, when this is so the resource is known as an ubiquitous (existing or being everywhere) resource. However most resources are not ubiquitous. They only occur in small sporadic areas; these resources are referred to as localized resources. There are very few resources that are considered inexhaustible (will not run out in foreseeable future) – these are solar radiation, geothermal energy, and air (though access to clean air may not be). The vast majority of resources are however exhaustible, which means they have a finite quantity, and can be depleted if managed improperly. The environmental resources are materials, which living organisms can take from nature for sustaining their life or any components of the environmental environment that can be utilized by man to promote his welfare is considered as environmental resources.

Why resources are under pressure

• Increase in the sophistication of technology enabling environmental resources to be extracted quickly and efficiently. E.g., in the past, it could take long hours just to cut down one tree only using saws. Due to increased technology, rates of deforestation have greatly increased

• A rapid increase in population. This leads to greater demand for environmental resources.

• Cultures of consumerism. Materialistic views lead to the mining of gold and diamonds to produce jewelry, unnecessary commodities for human life or advancement.

• Excessive demand often leads to conflicts due to intense competition. Organizations such as Global Witness and the United Nations have documented the connection.

• Non-equitable distribution of resources.

NAMED ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

There are various methods of categorizing environmental resources, these include source of origin, stage of development, and by their renewability, these classifications are described below. On the basis of origin, resources may be divided into:

• Biotic – Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and organic material), such as forests, animals, birds, and fish and the materials that can be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic matter.
• Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material. Examples of abiotic resources include land, fresh water, air and heavy metals including ores such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.

Considering their stage of development, environmental resources may be referred to in the following ways:

• Potential Resources – Potential resources are those that exist in a region and may be used in the future. For example, petroleum may exist in many parts of India, having sedimentary rocks but until the time it is actually drilled out and put into use, it remains a potential resource.
• Actual Resources – Actual resources are those that have been surveyed, their quantity and quality determined and are being used in present times. The development of an actual resource, such as wood processing depends upon the technology available and the cost involved.
• Reserve Resources – The part of an actual resource which can be developed profitably in the future is called a reserve resource.
• Stock Resources – Stock resources are those that have been surveyed but cannot be used by organisms due to lack of technology. For example: hydrogen.

Renewability is a very popular topic and many environmental resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-renewable:

• Renewable resources are ones that can be replenished environmentally. Some of these resources, like sunlight, air, wind, etc., are continuously available and their quantity is not noticeably affected by human consumption. Though many renewable resources do not have such a rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Resources from a human use perspective are classified as renewable only so long as the rate of replenishment/recovery exceeds that of the rate of consumption.
• Non-renewable resources are resources that form extremely slowly and those that do not environmentally form in the environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category. By the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds the rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this are fossil fuels, which are in this category because their rate of formation is extremely slow (potentially millions of years), meaning they are considered non-renewable. Some resources actually environmentally deplete in amount without human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements such as uranium, which environmentally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the metallic minerals can be re-used by recycling them,^[1] but coal and petroleum cannot be recycled.

WATER

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H₂O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state (water vapor or steam). Water also exists in a liquid crystal state near hydrophilic surfaces.^[1][2]

Water covers 70.9% of the Earth's surface,^[3] and is vital for all known forms of life.^[4] On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation.^[5][6] Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.^[5]

Water on Earth moves continually through the hydrological cycle of evaporation and transpiration (evapotranspiration), condensation, precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land.

Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other lifeforms. Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.^[7] There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita.^[8] However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability.^[9] A recent report (November 2009) suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%.^[10] Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. Approximately 70% of the fresh water used by humans goes to agriculture.^[11]

Problems arising from the exploitation of environmental resources

1. Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use.^[1] Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use.

About half of the world's original forests had disappeared by 2011, the majority during the last 50 years. Since 1990 half of the rain forests have disappeared. More than a half of the animal and plant species live in the tropical forests.

The term deforestation is often misused to describe any activity where all trees in an area are removed.^{[not in citation given][neutrality is disputed]} However in temperate climates, the removal of all trees in an area^{[not in citation given]}—in conformance with sustainable forestry practices—is correctly described as regeneration harvest.^[2] In temperate mesic climates, environmental regeneration of forest stands often will not occur in the absence of disturbance, whether environmental or anthropogenic.^[3] Furthermore, biodiversity after regeneration harvest often mimics that found after environmental disturbance, including biodiversity loss after environmentally occurring rainforest destruction.^[4][5]

Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees are cut down to be used or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal) or timber, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities, and settlements. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also been used in war to deprive an enemy of cover for its forces and also vital resources. A modern example of this was the use of Agent Orange by the United States military in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland.

Disregard or ignorance of intrinsic value, lack of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both environmentally occurring and human induced, is an ongoing issue. Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record.^[4]

Among countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase

2.       Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of land in any dryland.^[2] It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem.^[3]

Considerable controversy exists over the proper definition of the term "desertification" for which Helmut Geist (2005) has identified more than 100 formal definitions.^[2] The most widely accepted^[2] of these is that of the Princeton University Dictionary which defines it as "the process of fertile land transforming into desert typically as a result of deforestation, drought or improper/inappropriate agriculture"^[4]

The earliest known discussion of the topic arose soon after the French colonization of West Africa, when the Comité d'Etudes commissioned a study on desséchement progressif to explore the prehistoric expansion of the Sahara Desert.^[

3.       Extinction of species

The Holocene extinction refers to the extinction of species during the present Holocene epoch (since around 10,000 BC). The large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods. Although 875 extinctions occurring between 1500 and 2009 have been documented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Environmental Resources^[1], the vast majority are undocumented. According to the species-area theory and based on upper-bound estimating, up to 140,000 species per year may be the present rate of extinction.^[2]

The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large mammals known as megafauna, starting between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago, the end of the last Ice Age. Such disappearances are considered to be results of climate change or the proliferation of modern humans, or both. These extinctions, occurring near the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event or Ice Age extinction. The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century.

There is no general agreement on whether to consider more recent extinctions as a distinct event, merely part of the Quaternary extinction event, or just a result of environmental evolution on a non-geologic scale of time. Only during these most recent parts of the extinction have plants also suffered large losses. Overall, the Holocene extinction can be characterized by climate change and humanity's presence.

4. Forced migration

Forced migration (also called deracination - originally a French word meaning uprooting) refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region. It often connotes violent coercion, and is used interchangeably with the terms "displacement" or forced displacement. According to Speare, "In the strictest sense migration can be considered to be involuntary only when a person is physically transported from a country and has no opportunity to escape from those transporting him. Movement under threat, even the immediate threat to life, contains a voluntary element, as long as there is an option to escape to another part of the country, go into hiding or to remain and hope to avoid persecution." However this thought has been questioned, especially by Marxians, who argue that in most cases migrants have little or no choice.^[1] A specific form of forced migration is population transfer, which is a coherent policy to move unwanted persons, perhaps as an attempt at "ethnic cleansing". Someone who has experienced forced migration is a "forced migrant" or "displaced person". Less formally, such a person may be referred to as a refugee, although that term has a specific narrower legal definition.

The International Organization for Migration defines forced migration as any person who migrates to "escape persecution, conflict, repression, environmental and human-made disasters, ecological degradation, or other situations that endanger their lives, freedom or livelihood.”^[2][3]

Forced migration has accompanied persecution, as well as war, throughout human history but has only become a topic of serious study and discussion relatively recently. This increased attention is the result of greater ease of travel, allowing displaced persons to flee to nations far removed from their homes, the creation of an international legal structure of human rights, and the realizations that the destabilizing effects of forced migration, especially in parts of Africa, the Middle East, south and central Asia, ripple out well beyond the immediate region.^{[original research?]}

Development-induced displacement is a subset of forced migration. Such displacement is the forcing of communities and individuals out of their homes, often also their homelands, for the purposes of economic development. It has been historically associated with the construction of dams for hydroelectric power and irrigation purposes but also appears due to many other activities, such as mining. The most well-known examples of development-induced displacement is a result of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China, and also the previous German expulsions.

5. Soil erosion

Erosion is the process by which soil and rock are removed from the Earth's surface by environmental processes such as wind or water flow, and then transported and deposited in other locations.

While erosion is a environmental process, human activities have dramatically increased (by 10-40 times) the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. Excessive erosion causes problems such as desertification, decreases in agricultural productivity due to land degradation, sedimentation of waterways, and ecological collapse due to loss of the nutrient rich upper soil layers. Water and wind erosion are now the two primary causes of land degradation; combined, they are responsible for 84% of degraded acreage, making excessive erosion one of the most significant global environmental problems we face today.^[1][2]

Industrial agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regards to their effect on stimulating erosion.^[3] However, there are many available alternative land use practices that can curtail or limit erosion—such as terrace-building, no-till agriculture, and revegetation of denuded soils.

6. Oil depletion

Oil depletion occurs in the second half of the production curve of an oil well, oil field, or the average of total world oil production. The Hubbert peak theory makes predictions of production rates based on prior discovery rates and anticipated production rates. Hubbert curves predict that the production curves of non-renewing resources approximate a bell curve. Thus, when the peak of production is passed, production rates enter an exponential decline.^[3]

The American Petroleum Institute estimated in 1999 the world's oil supply would be depleted between 2062 and 2094, assuming total world oil reserves at between 1.4 and 2 trillion barrels (220 and 320 km³) and consumption at 80 million barrels per day (13,000,000 m³/d). In 2004, total world reserves were estimated to be 1.25 trillion barrels (199 km³) and daily consumption was about 85 million barrels (13,500,000 m³), shifting the estimated oil depletion year to 2057.^[1] A study published in the journal Energy Policy by researchers from Oxford University, however, predicted demand would surpass supply by 2015 (unless constrained by strong recession pressures caused by reduced supply or government intervention).^[4]

The United States Energy Information Administration predicted in 2006 that world consumption of oil will increase to 98.3 million barrels per day (15,630,000 m³/d) (mbd) in 2015 and 118 mbd in 2030.^[5] With 2009 world oil consumption at 84.4 mbd,^[6] reaching the projected 2015 level of consumption would represent an average annual increase between 2009 and 2015 of 2.7% per year while EIA's own figures show declining consumption^[6] and declining supplies^[7] during the 2005–2009 period.

7. Ozone depletion

Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. In addition to these well-known stratospheric phenomena, there are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events.

The details of polar ozone hole formation differ from that of mid-latitude thinning, but the most important process in both is catalytic destruction of ozone by atomic halogens.^[1] The main source of these halogen atoms in the stratosphere is photodissociation of man-made halocarbon refrigerants (CFCs, freons, halons). These compounds are transported into the stratosphere after being emitted at the surface. ^[2] Both types of ozone depletion were observed to increase as emissions of halo-carbons increased.

CFCs and other contributory substances are referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). Since the ozone layer prevents most harmful UVB wavelengths (280–315 nm) of ultraviolet light (UV light) from passing through the Earth's atmosphere, observed and projected decreases in ozone have generated worldwide concern leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol that bans the production of CFCs, halons, and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride and trichloroethane. It is suspected that a variety of biological consequences such as increases in skin cancer, cataracts,^[3] damage to plants, and reduction of plankton populations in the ocean's photic zone may result from the increased UV exposure due to ozone depletion.

8. Greenhouse gas increase

A greenhouse gas (sometimes abbreviated GHG) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.^[1] The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. In the Solar System, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, and Titan also contain gases that cause greenhouse effects. Greenhouse gases greatly affect the temperature of the Earth; without them, Earth's surface would average about 33 °C (59 °F)^{[note 1]} colder than at present.^[2][3][4]

However, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 280 ppm to 397 ppm, despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions through various environmental "sinks" involved in the carbon cycle.^[5][6] Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions (i.e., emissions produced by human activities) come from combustion of carbon based fuels, principally wood, coal, oil, and environmental gas.^[7]

9. Extreme energy

Michael T. Klare is a Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, whose department is located at Hampshire College, defense correspondent of The Nation magazine, and author of Resource Wars and Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency (Metropolitan). Klare also teaches at Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Klare also serves on the boards of directors of Human Rights Watch, and the Arms Control Association. He is a regular contributor to many publications including The Nation, TomDispatch, Mother Jones, and is a frequent columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus. He also was the narrator of the movie, Blood and Oil which was produced by the Media Education Foundation.

10. Water pollution

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the environmental biological communities.

Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels (international down to individual aquifers and wells). It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases,^[1][2] and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily.^[2] An estimated 700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every day.^[3] Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution,^[4] and nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.^[5] In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing countries, developed countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. In the most recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47 percent of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bays and estuarine square miles were classified as polluted.^[6]

Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants and either does not support a human use, such as drinking water, and/or undergoes a marked shift in its ability to support its constituent biotic communities, such as fish. Environmental phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes also cause major changes in water quality and the ecological status of water.

11. Environmental hazard/Environmental disaster

A environmental hazard^[1] is a threat of a environmentally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment. Many environmental hazards are interrelated, e.g. earthquakes can cause tsunamis and drought can lead directly to famine or population displacement. It is possible that some environmental hazards are intertermporally correlated, as well.^[2] A concrete example of the division between a environmental hazard and a environmental disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster, whereas earthquakes are a hazard.

References

1.      ^ Planas, Florent. "The Exploitation of Environmental Resources". Un An Pour La Planete. Retrieved 22 March 2012.

2.      ^ McNicoll, Geoffrey (2007). "Population and Sustainability". Handbook of Sustainable Development. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 125-139. Retrieved 2012-03-13.

3.      ^ Pedro, Antonio M.A. (2004). Mainstreaming Mineral Wealth in Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies. Economic Commission for Africa. pp. 5-6. ISBN 9211250978 9789211250978. Retrieved 20 March 2012.

4.      ^ Pegg, Simon (2006). "Mining and poverty reduction: Transforming rhetoric into reality". Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier) 14 (3-4): 376-387. ISSN 0959-6526. Retrieved 20 March 2012.

5.      ^ Weber-Fahr, M.; Strongman, J.; Kunanayagam, R.; McMahon, G.; Sheldon, C. (2001). "Mining and Poverty Reduction". Noord Internationaal WB PRSP Sourcebook. pp. 4-6. Retrieved 20 March 2012.

6.      ^ Bray, John (2003). "Attracting Reputable Companies to Risky Environments: Petroleum and Mining Companies". Environmental Resources and Conflict: Options and Actions. World Bank Publications. pp. 287-347. Retrieved 2012-03-12.

7.      ^ Brereton, D; Forbes, P. (2004). "Monitoring the Impact of Mining on Local Communities: A Hunter Valley Case Study". CSRM. pp. 12-13.