Nas1001| Environmental Science | Safe Assessment Answers

1. 4 billion people around the world don’t have access to safe drinking water. Research an area outside the U.S. that does not have adequate drinking water. Describe the situation and what can be done about it.

Answer:

1. Safe water drinking around the world

With the changes in time, many countries are facing issues related to availability of the potable water. It is typically analyzed that in developed countries tap water meets the potable water quality standards. In many other countries such as China, Africa and other Asian countries, the toxins and suspended solids in water is found to be too high. Africa is one of the places where we could find the scarcity of clean and safe water. Ethiopia has been facing difficulties in getting safe and clean potable water for drinking. The state has found with the population of 82 million in which 40% of the population has access to an improved water supply. All rest of the population in the country are facing the problem of scarcity of safe and clean water to survive and sustain in the environment (Ecorazzi, 2012).  It is found that only 11 % of the population of the people having the clean sanitation. This lack of safe water contributes to the high infant mortality rate based on the collected statistical data of the research. In addition to this, due to the scarcity of safe water, people in these Asian countries are facing many health problems. People also have to face several troubles to get clean water due to no availability of the hand pump and water resources. This problem has caused many acute problems and malnutrition in some part of the African countries (All about water filters., 2018).

2. Human impact on the Ocean

The ocean is the place for thousands of species on Earth which are surviving on it. Many species and human beings get their food and survival from the oceans on the earth.  It is analyzed that not only for the animal species, Oceans are essential for human life as well. Humans with their careless attitude have been impacting the ocean and the ecosystem of the earth. The biggest impact which human is doing with the oceans is destroying the marine ecosystem out of balance which leads to various species decline (National Geographic., 2018). It is analyzed that human activities affect the marine eco-system as a outcome of pollution, overfishing, introducing invasive species and acidification which have tremendous high impact on the marine food web and lead to negative consequence for the survival of the marine life forms. As the entire ecosystem are interconnected and interrelated to each other therefore, it will also affect human lives adversely (Sciencing., 2018). For example, Agricultural runoff and coastal development can cause marine pollution, overfishing, overharvesting, pollution and dumping waste in the waterways make the survival of the species difficult and adversely affect the ocean adversely (National Geographic, 2018).

3. National Park

The national park which I have selected for this post is King Canyon. This national park is worlds”second largest measured trees” covered in 461,901.20 acres (1,869.2 km2). This park is featured as part of the Kings River, Sculptor dominating the dramatic granite canyons. The Kings Canyon national park was designed in 1940 and subsumed as general grant national park as fourth United States national park.  This national park is characteristic by its big trees scenic mountainous terrain & large. It is situated in California and attracts higher number of tourist due to its unique environment and atmosphere. These large number of trees featured with the big mountains are the biggest attractions for tourist. This park has a climate with wet and dry seasons and found with the high-density outgrowth of rainforest which makes the survival easy for the species. This park is the center of attraction for the tourist in USA. It is highly visited by the tourist who loves to see greenery with the adventure of mountains. The most interesting thing about this park is related to its climate. Most of the tourist visits this national park due to its atmosphere and air in the environment (Kings River 2017).

4. After assessing secondary data available in journals and books and government statistical data, it is found that US is more accompanied with the national parks and forests and national wildlife refuges. It has been analyzed that there are more than 400 national parks, 560 national wildlife refuges and around 250 of the public lands are controlled by the interior, US department. In the US, there are many public lands exists (U.S. Department of the interior, 2016). The wilderness act, 1964 has allowed the Congress to designate the wilderness areas to ensure that the America pristine wild lands will not get disappeared and have to exist so that our future generation can able to see it. This act covers all the national parks wildlife refuges; forest and public managed and are managed by the Bureau of land management. The major difference between all these terms is that national parks are highly bested in the preservation while changing the existing state. On the other hand, the national forest is managed for many purposes which include the recreation, timber, grazing, wildlife and fishing (National Wildlife Refuge system, 2017). In addition to this, most of the earning of cash inflow in tours and travel industry comes due to these national parks and other wildness is. These are the main reason for the increased foreign exchange reserve in US which eventually strengthen the $ value as compared to other countries’ currency value

5. Pesticides

With the increasing scarcity of the agriculture products in economy, pesticides are worldwide used to manage the agriculture pests and increasing the overall production of food products. The use of pesticides kills and repels unnecessary pests and also causes many human deaths each year. It is analyzed that with the decreased production of food products, pesticides are used to strengthen the agriculture production. It is surely makeable to note that benefits of pesticides outweigh the risks as the most common pesticides herbicides and insecticides, are used by humans in their agriculture activities to kill unnecessary plants and insects. The benefits of pesticides includes increased food production, strengthen the farming activities for better output and saving corps and livestock from the unwanted pests. It is analyzed that to pay more for the organically grown products, it is effective to use pesticides by all the farmers as it saves the lives of many species (Frantic Foodie., 2017). It is found that use of organic farming is good for the overall environment. Using the organic fertilizers while growing the crops has its own advantages and is used to save the crops from unwanted crops. Organic farming makes use of the insects and birds to reduce the pest and diseases. However, use of natural manure and fertilizers to feed the soil and plants are good for the land also (Bigoven, 2018).

Invasive species could be defined as species of living organism such as an amphibian, plant, fish, fungus and bacteria. Mongoose and brown tree Snakes are invasive species which were brought to Guam, an island in South pacific. These Snakes and mongoose quickly multiplied and they were responsible for the extinction of nine’s of Island’s forest- dwelling bird species. These Mongoose and brown tree Snakes multiplied with the tremendous rate as there were no other species who could hunt them. These Mongoose and brown tree Snake destroy the habit and places. However, Mongoose and brown tree Snake were deliberately introduced to control the native rodent populations. The problem was that these Mongoose and brown tree Snake devastated several island’s native vertebrate population counting.  To control this invasive species, department understand the issues of spread of the invasive species and disease. This was done by coordinating all the networks exist at local, regional, continental and global scales (Ecological Society of America, 2008).  In order to control Mongoose and brown tree Snake, officials from the national wildlife refuge waded into the specific areas and tracked these invasive species using global positioning system equipments. It was used to set up traps to kill the rodents. This operation took more than 6 months to control the situation.

References

All about water filters. (2018).Lack of Clean Water in Africa: Understanding the Reasons behind the Water Crisis[Online] Retrieved from: https://all-about-water-filters.com/lack-of-clean-water-in-africa/

Bigoven (2018). Organic vs Inorganic Foods [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.bigoven.com/organic-vs-inorganic-foods

Ecological society of America.(2008). The spread of invasive species and infectious disease as drivers of ecosystem change [Online] Retrieved from: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/070151

Ecorazzi. (2012). World water day: 10 places most in need of clean water [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.ecorazzi.com/2012/03/22/world-water-day-10-places-most-in-need-of-clean-water/

Frantic Foodie (2017). 10 biggest pros and cons. [Online] Retrieved from: https://franticfoodie.com/10-biggest-pros-and-cons-of-pesticides/

Kings River (2017).  Forestry and National park [Online] Retrieved from:  https://www.kingsriverarkansas.com/.

National Geographic. (2018). Human Impacts on the world Ocean. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/lesson/human-impacts-world-ocean/

National Wildlife refugee system. (2017). Wilderness. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.fws.gov/refuges/whm/wilderness.html

Sciencing. (2018). What Human Activities Have a Negative Impact on the Ocean? [Online] Retrieved from: https://sciencing.com/human-activities-negative-impact-ocean-17206.html

The National Wildlife Federation. (2018).Invasive Species. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Invasive-Species

U.S. Department of the Interior (2017). America’s Public Lands Explained [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.doi.gov/blog/americas-public-lands-explained