BIOSPHERE: PRACTICAL REPORT ON THE URBAN BIOSPHERE

Biosphere: Practical Report on the urban biosphere

Biosphere: Practical Report on the urban biosphere

Introduction

Today in the Biosphere all species face problems, present and upcoming, due to the human race. Side affects caused from our growing population and increasing technology has contributed and will continue to contribute to the degradation of our shared natural environment. Global air and water pollution, resource depletion, and species extinction are examples of these problems, which we must recognize and find realistic solutions for.

Discussion

Pollution in the air is mainly caused by fossil fuel burning. By targeting this source in ways that are practical we can significantly reduce it's harmful output. Cars give of one third of the world's carbon pollution and electric vehicles are being phased in through legislation requiring automobile manufactures to put electric vehicles on the market. The power to run these cars ultimately comes from electricity generating plants though. Coal burning power plants are a main source of the world's power and can not be completely eliminated. Through developing scrubbers that eliminate more carbon soot and sulfuric emissions than do presently, these operations could be able to produce cleaner power. Other options such as hydropower and nuclear power can be used to cutThe drawback to solar power in poor countries is the expensive cost. Local people could construct windmills for a foreign power company that would supply the generators and computers. Although the only way for bringing the rest up the world up to speed with digital country is through electricity, maybe it is not the best answer. If crowded, undeveloped countries would begin teaching agriculture instead of the Internet, progress would be made in the right direction.

By affixing values to the negative environmental output from industry operation, and by publicizing the importance of saving and recuperating the environment, there is reason to be optimistic about the future. There are many things to be done to slow down the brown out of our environment. Many of these changes will be very costly to businesses but in the long run it is worth surviving more than 500 years in the future. I believe the main goal of our generation is to make sure that new generations learn the importance of our natural environment and that we make wise investment decisions based on what impact they will have on the future.

Case study

The Istanbul Province is the most populated part of the country, with over 10 million people (in 2000), experiencing a population growth of about 5% annually since the 1950s. The last two population censuses indicate that the growth rate has been slowing down to around 3% annually (SIS 2000). The province increased almost 700 percent in the built-up area as its metropolitan population grew from about 1 200 000 in 1955 to about 9 119 000 in 2000 (Tezer 1997; Tezer Kemer 2004). Such drastic rates of growth of urban population and land area have inflicted widespread and devastating impacts on ecological life support systems of the region, ...