The Green-House effect

A greenhouse is a house made of glass has glass walls and a glass roof and usually stays warm inside, even during winter. Sunlight shines in and keeps the interior warm. But the heat is trapped by the glass and can’t escape. So during the daylight hours, it gets warmer and warmer inside a greenhouse and stays warm at night too.

Earth’s atmosphere does the same thing as the greenhouse. Gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide do what the roof of a greenhouse does. During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere. Earth’s surface warms up in the sunlight. At night, Earth’s surface cools, releasing the heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

What causes the Greenhouse effect?

I) Deforestation

II) Burning of fossil fuels

III) Increase in population

Consequences

Some disastrous consequences of greenhouse effects are:

i) More droughts

ii) More floods

iii) Less ice and snow

iv) Rise above sea level

v) Climate change

Water Pollution

Water pollution is caused by the intentional or unintentional release of toxic chemicals/materials, contaminants and harmful compounds into various bodies of water such as rivers, lakes and the ocean.

Causes of water pollution

1) Water pollution may be caused by the intentional or unintentional disposal of hazardous chemicals and materials into a body of water.

2) Rainfall may cause polluted landscapes to disperse their poisonous materials into the water and poison the surrounding water.

3) Water pollution may also be caused by specific points or contributing factors such as large factories, oil refineries, construction sites, chemical waste management facilities, dump sites and other large scale operations that store/produce large amounts of chemical/hazardous waste

Effects of water pollution

1) Toxic rainfall can occur in areas where water and/or air is polluted with toxic chemicals and materials

.2) Polluted water can lead to sickness, disease, infections, deformities and even death among animals and plant life.

3) Once water becomes polluted it can affect people and animals either directly through consumption or indirectly through food sources, land degradation and the overabundance of plants and algae which can cover the surface of various bodies of water making it undrinkable and affecting the animals that live in that body of water.

Deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the loss or destruction of natural forests, mainly due to human activities such as the felling and burning of trees for timber, the cleaning of land for livestock grazing, the habilitation of land for agriculture, mining operations, mining of oil, construction of dams, expansion of cities or other types of development and expansion of the population.

 In short we could say that deforestation is the use and loss of forests for other purposes such as agricultural, industrial or urban.
 According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), an estimated 7.3 million hectares of forest are lost every year.

Causes

Not all deforestation occurs because of humans, sometimes it can be caused by natural processes. Floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and fires are the main natural causes of deforestation, but even so, 95% of the blame for deforestation is the fault of human beings.

 The WWF reports that half of the trees illegally removed from the forests are used as fuel.

 The other main causes of deforestation are:

 - To leave land available for housing and the construction of housing developments: Trees are cut for road construction. The overpopulation also affects directly since more land is needed to build houses and cities.

 - To use wood to create commercial items, such as paper, furniture and houses: Wood-based industries such as paper, matches, furniture, etc. They also need a considerable amount of wood supply. Wood is used as fuel, both directly and indirectly, therefore, the trees are cut.

 - To create ingredients that are highly valued as consumer items, such as palm oil, from which you get a vegetable oil, also known as "vegetable fat", which is used for all kinds of things, such as oil for food, frozen foods, margarines, pastries, ice cream, biofuels, household cleaning, personal care products

 - To create space for agricultural and livestock use: Due to the excessive growth of the demand for food products, a large number of trees were eliminated for cultivation and livestock.

Consequences

- The loss of biodiversity. This is probably the most serious consequence of deforestation. In short, it means the destruction and extinction of many species of plants and animals, many of which remain unknown and whose benefits will remain undiscovered.

 - Desertification: When forests are removed, the soil cover, which consists mainly of vegetation, is also removed. This leaves the ground bare and exposed to extreme conditions produced by the heat of the sun and rainwater, becoming desert. The forest soils are humid, but without protection from the trees that block the sun they dry quickly. The trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor to the atmosphere. Without trees that fulfill this mission, many forest lands can quickly become sterile deserts.

 - Floods: Deforestation can lead to watersheds that are no longer able to sustain and regulate the water flows of rivers and streams. Trees are very effective at absorbing large amounts of water, keeping the amount of water in the watersheds at a manageable level. The forest also serves as a hedge against erosion. Once the forest disappears, water can lead to flooding, many of which have caused disasters in many parts of the world.

 - Disappearance of tropical forests: A study estimates that if we continue this rate of deforestation, tropical forests could disappear completely within a hundred years.

 - Climate Change: Deforestation also drives climate change. The trees block the sun's rays during the day and keep the heat at night. This alteration results in more extreme temperature changes that can be harmful to plants and animals. Trees also play a fundamental role in the absorption of greenhouse gases that increase global warming. Less forests means higher amounts of greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere and as a consequence of this there is an increase in the average temperature of the earth.

 - Land not suitable for agriculture and livestock: Most of the areas that have been subjected to deforestation become inadequate for long-term agricultural and livestock use. Once deprived of their forest cover, the land degrades rapidly in its quality, losing its fertility.

Bibliography

http://www.areaciencias.com/ecologia/que-es-la-deforestacion.html

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestaci%C3%B3n