Contemporary Issues in Credo Reference: Environmental Issues

“Climate change” is the now commonly used term, having replaced “global warming,” for the rapid rise in the average temperature of the Earth's surface, including air and ocean, for the past century or more.

From the perspective of global studies, complex human-driven processes of environmental transformation like deforestation are seen in the light of their relationship with concurrent historical processes of global economic, cultural, and social change. Thus, the meaning that forests have to people all over the world today is seen as continually changing in association with 500 years of modernization.

Any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities.

Emerged out of concerns over pollution, global warming, soil erosion, deforestation, waste disposal, and resource depletion. To the extent that many of these environmental problems have been created by industrial production, economic growth and Western-style consumption, environmentalists often offer a critique of the model of economic growth on which they are based.

Phenomenon of the Earth's atmosphere by which solar radiation, trapped by the Earth and re-emitted from the surface as long-wave infrared radiation, is prevented from escaping by various gases (the "greenhouse gases") in the air. These gases trap heat because they readily absorb infrared radiation. As the energy cannot escape, it warms up the Earth, causing an increase in the Earth's temperature (global warming).

Fishing at rates that exceed the sustained-yield cropping of fish species, resulting in a net population decline. For example, in the North Atlantic, herring has been fished to the verge of extinction, and the cod and haddock populations are severely depleted.

As a formal concept, overpopulation means that a human population is too large relative to some sustainable or optimal level. It pertains to global studies because it can be defined either globally or nationally; in each case, it has important consequences for international affairs.

Ozone layer or Ozonosphere, region of the stratosphere containing relatively high concentrations of ozone, located at altitudes of 12-30 mi (19-48 km) above the earth's surface. Ozone in the ozone layer is formed by the action of solar ultraviolet light on oxygen.

The business of discovering oil (petroleum), extracting it from the ground, refining it into a variety of products, and distributing it to the public.

Dense forest usually found on or near the Equator where the climate is hot and wet. Moist air brought by the converging trade winds rises because of the heat and produces heavy rainfall.

Ever since suburbanization became a mass phenomenon in the 1950s, urbanists have lamented the pattern of sprawl characteristic of that growth in places like the US and Canada. Sprawl is usually defined as ‘haphazard growth’ of relative low density over an extended region, with residential units dominated by single family homes.

Whaling, the hunting of whales for the oil that can be rendered from their flesh, for meat, and for baleen (whalebone).

Called “the Thoreau of the West,” A. is the preeminent natural history writer of the Southwestern deserts. His twenty-three novels, essay collections, travel books, and journal extracts constantly reiterate a poetics of wilderness, one in which undeveloped land is America's best and most sacred resource.

dams, Ansel, 1902-84, American photographer, b. San Francisco. He began taking photographs in the High Sierra and Yosemite Valley, with which his name is permanently associated, becoming professional in 1930. He specialized in characteristic regional landscape, particularly of the Southwest, and worked to emphasize the conservation of nature.

Naturalist and broadcaster, born in London, UK, the brother of Richard Attenborough.

The biologist Rachel Carson combined her understanding of science with her writing talent to produce books that transformed how people viewed the natural world and alerted the world to the dangers of pesticides. More than any other writer, Carson shaped the emergence of modern environmentalism out of an older conservation tradition.

US Democratic politician and environmentalist, vice-president 1993–2001. A member of the House of Representatives 1977–85 and senator for Tennessee 1985–93, he was on the conservative wing of the party, but held liberal views on such matters as women's rights, environmental issues, and abortion

US conservationist and ecologist. In addition to his pioneering research in game management, he worked out a philosophical concept he called "the land ethic". The concept, he wrote, "simply enlarges the boundaries of the (human) community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively the land".

Explorer, naturalist, and conservationist, born in Dunbar, East Lothian, E Scotland, UK.

US lawyer and consumer advocate. Called the "scourge of corporate morality", he led many major consumer campaigns. His book Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) led to US car-safety legislation. In 1996 and 2000 he ran for the US presidency as a candidate of the Green Party.

Born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 12, 1817, Thoreau developed his attachment to words and ideas at an early age. At ten years old he composed his first known work, “The Seasons”; at eleven he attended Concord Academy with his beloved older brother John; by sixteen he had matriculated at Harvard College; and two years later he was already teaching school between college terms.

Contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health.

On 26 April 1986 the unit IV nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Soviet Union caught fire and exploded. An estimated 100 million Ci (⇒ curies) of radioactivity were emitted with up to half deposited within 30 kilometres of the plant.

Section of Niagara Falls, N.Y., that formerly contained a canal that was used as chemical disposal site. In the 1940s and 50s the empty canal was used by a chemical and plastics company to dump nearly 20,000 tons (c.18,000 metric tons) of toxic waste; the waste was sealed in metal drums in a manner that has since been declared illegal.

From Guide to Global Hazards
Contaminants enter the sea either through direct discharge, or indirectly through rivers and the atmospheric transport of particles in aerosols and gases. Around 80 percent of all marine pollution is derived from land‐based sources, a further 10 percent results from marine dumping, and the remaining 10 percent from maritime operations, such as ship‐based discharge of sewage.

From Guide to Global Hazards
Low‐level nuclear waste is buried at 15 principal sites in the United States. These wastes are buried, under a philosophy of ‘dilute and disperse’, in areas where the hydrological and geological conditions are believed to curtail the migration of radioactivity. Not all of these buried sites have, however, been successful in providing the needed environmental protection.

Oil discharged from an ocean-going tanker, pipeline, or oil installation, often as a result of damage. An oil spill kills shore life, clogging the feathers of birds and suffocating other creatures. At sea, toxic chemicals spread into the water below, poisoning sea life.

The concept of pollution consists of the inappropriate or undesirable mixing of items or elements that may in themselves be quite appropriate or desirable.

Dense, visible air pollution. Smog is commonly of two types. The gray smog of older industrial cities like London and New York derives from the massive combustion of coal and fuel oil in or near the city, releasing tons of ashes, soot, and sulfur compounds into the air. The brown smog characteristic of Los Angeles and Denver in the late 20th cent. is caused by automobiles.

Contamination of water resources by harmful wastes.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Fuel made from natural, renewable sources, such as new and used vegetable oils and animal fats, for use in a diesel engine.

In the life sciences, action taken to protect and preserve the natural world, usually from pollution, overexploitation, and other harmful features of human activity.

Agency established to safeguard the environment.
Congress officially brought the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) into existence in 1970, but its roots go back as far as 1962. The impetus for the USEPA was a best-selling book by Rachel Carson, a bird watcher, titled Silent Spring.

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) grew out of an awareness in the 1980s of transboundary environmental problems and the accompanying recognition that efforts to improve matters would be costly (Sjöberg 1994).

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that directly converts a fuel to electricity by means of reactions on the surfaces of electrodes and transport of ions through an electrolyte. A fuel cell can be thought of as a chemical battery whose reactants are fed from external sources rather than packaged as part of the battery. A key feature of a fuel cell is transformation of the chemical potential energy of a fuel directly into electricity, a high-value form of energy that can be put to many uses.

Land available for public enjoyment. National parks include not only the most scenic places, but also places distinguished for their historic, prehistoric, or scientific interest, or for their superior recreational assets.

Reusing a material not necessarily in its original form. The natural recycling of the substances required for life are the keystone of our existence on earth.

Renewable energy is the energy produced by using natural resources that will regenerate in time. Primary sources of renewable energy are water, geothermal heat, wind, and sunlight. The energy produced by using different organic materials, such as wood, agricultural rejects, forestry residues, and urban solid waste (called biomass) is also regarded as “renewable.”

Energy from sunlight is one of the world's most important natural resources. Fossil fuels and agriculture would be impossible without it. Solar power has been used for thousands of years, and the technology continues to evolve.

Harnessing of wind energy to produce power. Since the 1970s, advanced aerodynamic designs have been used to build wind turbines that generate electricity.