(Core 3) Environment and Sustainability Case Studies Flashcards
Causes of Climate Change: Milankovitch Cycles and Sunspot Activity
Little Ice Age (Glaciation / low sunspot)
Medieval Warm Period (Interglaciation / high sunspot)
Causes of Climate Change: Volcanoes
Mount Pinatuto, Philippines 1991
- 17mn tonnes of sulphur dioxide released
- global sunlight reduced 10%
- Global cooled 0.5 degrees for a year
Tambora, Indonesia 1815
- temp down 1.2 degrees for a year globally
- 1816 the ‘year without a summer’
- Global sunlight reduced 10%
- 200,000 died in Europe (harvest failure)
Global Warming Impacts: Sea Level Rise
Bangladesh
- cost of flood protection
- Inlets and Estuaries enlarged + deepened (more salinity impacts agriculture + coastal ecosystems)
- more storm surges = marine flooding and structural damage
- beach erosion
- low-lying permanently flooded = lagoons / new coastline and agriculture land lost
- 1m rise = 11.5% land inundated + 9% population impacted
- 3m rise = 29% land + 21% population
Global Warming Impacts: Ice
Antarctica Larsen Ice Shelf
- 20km ice preventing 500km squ mass of ice from floating away
Global Warming Impacts: Weather
Mediterranean
- Hotter (heatwaves) + drier - desertification
- soil erosion
- water supply issues
- more forest fires
- disease / health issues
- Tourism
Global Warming Impacts: Ecosystems
Coral Reefs
- susceptible to sea temp change
- 30% Asia’s corals gone in 30 years
- 1997 sea around Galapagos Islands unseasonably warm = coral bleaching
Global Warming Impacts Case Study
UK
- Subarctic winters (loss of warming influence from North Atlantic Drift - GCB)
- low-lying areas / coastal flooding + erosion - coastal habitats harmed
- More storms + Average precipitation increase 5% 2020, 10% 2050
- SE dry / droughts, NW wet / floods = crop yields affected differently
- Disease, Tourism
- 35cm sea level rise anticipated
- average temp 10.6 from 9 degrees
- underground water resources at risk
Soil Degradation (and Desertification)
Sahel - 200-600mm rail annually - famine, dust storms, resource conflict Causes: - Population growth 3% a year - Deforestation - Overgrazing (lost land: national parks, tourism and commercial farms) - Temp. increase (droughts) - Storms = water erosion
Millennium Development Goal 7 (Water and Change)
Halve Proportion of Population Without Sustainable Access to Safe Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation
- 2011 768mn without improved drinking water access
- 2.5bn lack access to improved sanitation (developing countries)
- 40%+ people without drinking water in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 76% - 89% 1990-2010 people using improved water source
- 1990-2010 2bn+ gained access to improved drinking water sources
Water Scarcity Case Study 1
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- 1999-2009 drought, Colorado river’s flow 66% of normal
- SNWA pipeline controversy: 293bn litres a year, $5bn to build
- Migration = pop headed for 2bn
- 114mm precipitation annually, temp 40oc+
- 90% water agriculture and food
- rural-urban divide
- 742 litres daily residential water use per capita
Water Scarcity Case Study 2
India
- access to improved drinking water 1990-2006 71-89%
- GLOWS project: advocate rainwater harvesting
- Wells for India charity focus on water management to reduce poverty - 5yr project 10 villages with local tribal people: reduce vulnerability to erratic precipetation
- Main water sources rainfall + Himalayan glaciers snow melt (retreat a concern)
- Rajasthan least developed + driest region = 1% surface water resources access to + 558 per 100,000 infant mortality rate
Biodiversity Loss: Reasons for / Consequences of 1
Amazon Deforestation ‘at record low’
- over 4,600km2 rainforest lost in year
- Brazil one of top greenhouse gas emitters (CO2)
- Deforestation rate fell 27%
- Deforestation caused by illegal trafficking of wood, fires etc.
- Deforestation rise 10% Acre, 29% Amazonas, 33% Tocantins
- Reduction 31% Mato Grosso, 44% Para
Biodiversity Loss: Reasons for / Consequences of 2
Brazil’s Boom Pits
- Manaus city in Amazon rainforest
- Species threatened e.g. Pied Tamarin
- TNCS (Samsung) there = Rio Negro Bridge built 2011 + houses being built for workers
- population 1.8mn
- Overland routes concern = rainforest destruction
Biodiversity Loss: Reasons for / Consequences of 3
Brazil Belo Monte Dam (HEP)
- Threaten indigenous - 50,000 homeless + flood 500km2 land
- Gov say need for jobs + development
- contracts signed after years of protest - 238 hectares forest cleared
- Amazon river tributary
Biodiversity Loss: Management 1
Brazil to survey Amazon Rainforest
- Brazilian Gov. to record inventory of trees in Amazon Rainforest
- Gov. commitment 2009 - reduce Amazon deforestation 80% by 2020
- last survey 30 yrs ago (logging since then)
- Brazil’s National Development Bank contribute $33mn
