School Assignment

1. Environmental
Problems
Around the
World
By: Domenique Wright

2. Table of Contents
 What are Environmental Problems
 Earth as Our Provider
 Facts About Global Environmental Issues
 Facts About Canadian Environmental Issues
 Sociological Perspective
 Three Serious Environmental Issues that need to be Resolved
 Fresh Water Crisis
 Global Warming
 Extinction of Species
 Extinction Due to Deforestation
 Reasonable Solutions
 Conclusion
 References

3. What Are Environmental
Problems?
 A wide range of sources that have
influenced the environment in a negative
way
 The environment is the most essential
aspect in our lives as it determines
everything that we do
 As humans we don’t realize just how
much we depend on the physical
environment that we live in for our survival

4. Earth as Our Provider
 The earth is made up of different natural
resources that we solemnly rely on for
survival
 Some natural resources may be recycled
(such as water) and others are
considered a non-renewable resource this
includes fossil fuels

5. Facts About Global
Environmental Issues
 Forests make up only 30.9% of the world
 About 17% of the Amazon’s Rainforest has been
destroyed over the passed 50 years
 Coal is the number one fossil fuel used globally
 Although the world is made up of 70% of water,
there is only about 2.5% of fresh water on earth
 It is estimated that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will
have little access to water, and 2/3 of world’s
population will live in water-stressed areas
 90% of the world’s water shortage is due to first
world countries

6. Facts About Canadian
Environmental Issues
 Acid rain has been a serious issue presented
due to sulphur emissions in the air. Sulphuric
and nitric acid become combined with other
gases that are washed away in the air from
rain, snow or smog. This results into acid rain.
 Although Canada has the most fresh water in
the world, most of it is located in the north.
With the vast majority of citizens living within
300 kilometers of the US border. This means
that Canada could in fact become a water-
stressed society.

7. Sociological Perspective
 Structural-Functionalist Perspective – this focuses
on humans impact on the environment through
everyday life, cultural beliefs and social patterns
and in turn compares how the environment
impacts human life everyday, including their living
situations or cultural beliefs.
 For example, if a drought were to occur it could
cause crops to die, leaving farmers financially
unstable since they have no product to sell,
leaving vegetables scarce to buy. The drought
could have been caused by extreme pollution
(increased carbon dioxide in the air) in the area in
the form of smog.

8. Three Serious Environmental
Issues that NEED to be
Resolved
 Fresh Water Crisis
 Global Warming
 Extinction of Species

9. Fresh Water Crisis
 Since only 2.5% of water on earth is fresh
water, water shortage is a huge global issue
 About half of the world’s general available
fresh water is being used every year. This
could increase to 74% by 2025.
 Areas like the Middle East and North Africa
contain about 6.3% of the World’s population,
but only have access to about 1.4% of the
World’s fresh water. This has resulted in a huge
increase of deaths, significantly dropping the
population in those areas.

10. Global Warming
 Carbon, the main substance that makes up coal,
is being burned in substantial amounts for a
source of energy. This is the main reason why our
environment is getting hotter.
 With this heat, our climate change has shifted
causing a record amount of extreme disasters
including record breaking hurricanes, year-long
droughts in parts of the US and Canada,
excessive loss of crops and cattle, health risk from
the extreme heat.
 Here is a short clip to sum out the extreme
weather from the hottest year recorded, 2012
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/climate-
change-impacts/

11. Extinction of Species
 It is the nature of the world that different species
will die off and be replaced. With much research,
scientists have discovered that approximately 1-5
species a year are supposed to become extinct.
Due to human activities such as agriculture and
deforestation, scientists have estimated that we
are losing about 1000 – 10000 % more than what
we are supposed to.
 We are currently in the world’s sixth wave of
extinction.
 The group of species that have been greatly
impacted are the amphibians due to air pollution
and climate change.

12. Extinction Due to
Deforestation
 The main reasons that deforestation occurs if
to find more natural expensive resources such
as gold, or to build urban areas, roads and
manmade rivers.
 The impacts of deforestation are massive
including the loss of biodiversity that may
result in extinction, since animals no longer
can live in their habitat.
 Other impacts include loss of water recycling,
changes in climate (more carbon dioxide in
the air), and less natural resources.

13. Reasonable Solutions?
 Unfortunately there are no easy solutions to
any environmental problems
 Governments need to enforce new laws
about the usage of fresh water in areas that
overuse it, and spread awareness through
seminars and advertisements about over
water usage.
 Politicians need to spend more money and
bring more attention to the overuse of fossil
fuels like coal and create other alternatives of
energy. This can include more money towards
nuclear power, windmills, solar panels etc.

14. Reasonable Solutions Cont.
 Governments should help communities
that are likely to be hit with severe
weather like hurricanes, tornadoes, and
flooding
 Environment conservationists should
continue their approach with limiting
areas that can be subjected to
deforestation for agriculture, logging
industries and urban centers

15. Conclusion
 The environment is essential to every species
in the world and humans need to
acknowledge that their activities are
destroying our necessity
 We need to do our job of spreading
awareness of environmental issues so that we
can limit the negative impact the humans
have.
 This could potentially save thousands of plants
and animals, and even humans that may die
due to natural disasters or health issues.

16. References
 Alley, R. (2011). Earth: The Operators Manual, Top documentary
films. Retrieved from: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/earth-
operator-manual/
 Center of Biological Diversity (n.d). The extinction crisis, Wildlife
Services: Retrieved from:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_
of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/
 Effects of Global Warming (n.d). Retrieved from:
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/global-warming-
prevention/images/250238/title/effects-global-warming-wallpaper
 Fellmann, J., Getis, A., Getis, J., Shrubsole, D., Hopkins, J. (2009).
Human Geography, Second Ed. McGraw-Hill. Ryerson.
 Mooney, L., Holmes, M., Knox. D., Schacht, C., (2013).
Understanding Social Problems. Nelson.

17. References
 National Geographic (2014). Freshwater crisis, Environment National
Geographic. Retrieved from:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwa
ter/freshwater-crisis/
 Natural Resources Defense Council(2014). Extreme weather:
impacts climate change. Retrieved from:
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/climate-change-impacts/
 Shah, A. (2005). Global dimming, Global Issues. Retrieved from:
http://www.globalissues.org/article/529/global-
dimming#Healthandenvironmentaleffects
 The World Bank (2014). Environment. Retrieved from:
http://data.worldbank.org/topic/environment
 World Wildlife Foundation (n.d.). Forest burn, soil dwindles, people
suffer, Problems in the Amazon. Retrieved from:
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/amazon/prob
lems/