Abstract The following paper examines how fossil fuels affect climate and contribute to global warming as well as the way in which acid rain and oil spills affect local wildlife. The writer also discusses the effects of mining waste, farming and pharmaceutical waste.
From the Paper "Fossil fuels have become a major factor in our lives, they are used to power cars, ships, aircraft's and entire economies but at an ecological price. From the combustion of fossil fuels is water and carbon dioxides. This the major waste gases. Others include nitrous oxides, carbon monoxides and sulphur oxides. These contribute vastly to global warming. When the sun radiates electromagnetic radiation through our atmosphere it hits the earth and then the earth reflect this back in the form of longer wavelengths as infra red radiation. "
This paper discusses the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, an area of hypoxic ocean waters, meaning that the area is oxygen-deficient and unable to support marine life.
Abstract This paper explains that, now roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone was first discovered in the early 1970s when the phenomenon occurred only once every two or three years; however, due to an increase in environmental pollutants, the dead zone currently occurs every summer in Gulf waters. The author points out that hypoxia occurs when pollutant-ridden water from the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico; this carries an excess of nutrients, especially nitrogen, into the salt water, encouraging local algal populations to thrive by killing off the fish. The paper stresses that the dead zone in the Gulf affects not only marine life, but also human welfare because fishing and farming industries are the most directly and adversely affected by hypoxia.
From the Paper "The effects of the Gulf dead zone are far-reaching. For example, the algal blooms cause shellfish poisoning, which can cause permanent memory loss. The dead zone is also an aesthetic problem, including the sight of millions of dead fish. Elizabeth Carlisle (2000) notes that hypoxia in the Gulf causes ?food chain alterations, loss of biodiversity, and high aquatic species mortality.? The consequences are therefore long-term and affect not only the local ecosystem, but ecosystems across the globe."
