Question

These Questions are from the Textbook "The Environment and You"

1. Biodiversity Conservation                                                      Chapter 8

• Why biodiversity matters?
• What are the threats to biodiversity?
• What are the strategies for conserving biodiversity?

2. Climate Change and Global Warming                                   Chapter 9

• What are the causes of global warming?
• What are the consequences of global warming?
• What are the mitigation and adaptation policies?

3. Air Quality                                                                              Chapter 10

• Which are the sources of air pollution in the stratosphere?
• Which are the sources of air pollution in the troposphere?
• What is the cause for acid rain?

4. Water                                                                                      Chapter 11     

• What problems are connected to groundwater overuse?
• How to manage and conserve water?
• How to treat wastewater?

5.   Agriculture and the Ecology of Food                                  Chapter 12

• How to manage soil resources?
• How to manage genetic resources?
• How to manage pests sustainably?

6. Forest Resources                                                                     Chapter 13     

• What are the values of forests?
• What is the environmental impact of deforestation?
• How to manage forests sustainably?

7. Nonrenewable Energy and Electricity                                    Chapter 14

• What is the environmental impact of coal?
• What is the environmental impact of oil and natural gas?
• What is the environmental impact of nuclear power?

Answer 1

1. Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life forms on the Earth including plants, animals, bacteria, fungi.

Biodiversity is a life supporting system which enables all the organisms to survive in a healthy way. It provides food, shelter and clothing to the living organisms. It provides various medicines which helps in curing diseases. It also acts as natural pest control, maintains population, helps in pollination, nutrient cycling, etc. Hence, biodiversity is very essential for us and we should conserve our biodiversity.

2. Threats to Biodiversity

i. Habitat destruction. One of the major threat is the habitat destruction which leads to loss of biodiversity.

ii. Over exploitation. As the population is growing natural resources are being used excessively at a faster pace to meet the needs of this growing population. This destroys the habitat of the animals and leads to extinction of species.

iii. Climate change. Deforestation is done at a faster pace to create space for living and agriculture of the growing population. Trees fix carbon dioxide gas from atmosphere, cutting of trees leads to release of this gas into the atmosphere causing global warming.

iv. Alien species invasion. When alien or exotic species are introduced to a habitat they fight with the native species for food and space. This leads to the extinction of species.

v. Diseases. Anthropological activities increase the incidence of disease which leads to the extinction of species.

3. Humans being are using nature of all its benefits without paying attention to the effects on the biodiversity. We, humans, are not taking proper care of the biodiversity. We need to conserve our biodiversity to maintain essential life supporting processes and preserving diversity of species.

Below are some strategies for Conservation of Biodiversity:

i. We should preserve all types of ecosystems and main focus should be on the unique and endangered ecosystems.

ii. There should be no poaching and hunting of wildlife.

iii. Development reserve and protected areas should be done (like national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves).

iv. We should reduce the pressure on the environment due to our activities. This will lower down the pollution levels and stress on ecosystem.

v. People should be aware of biodiversity, its importance and threats to it. They should be educated well and should be taught to preserve the biodiversity.

vi. We should stop over exploiting useful products and prevent them for our future generations too.

vii. There should be strict laws which need to be followed by people and government.

4. Global warming is the heating up of the atmosphere when excess of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants accumulate in the atmosphere. They absorb the bounced back radiations of the sunlight. The major causes of global warming are burning of fossil fuels. Another cause of global warming is deforestation. Trees fix carbon dioxide from atmosphere. When trees are cut, carbon dioxide is released back into the air causing heating up of the atmosphere. This leads to global warming.