Human Activities and the Environment Quiz

Human Activities and the Environment

• Environment encompasses all that surrounds living organisms, including air, water, soil, and living things (flora and fauna).
• Ecosystem—a community of organisms interacting with each other and their non-living environment.
• Ecosystem services—direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human survival and quality of life.

Types of Ecosystem Services

• Support services: Include nutrient cycling (nitrogen and phosphorus), organic matter decomposition, water cycles, and primary production.
• Provisioning services: Provide basic necessities like air, water, shelter, food, and energy.
• Regulating services: Regulate climate, hazards, and disease through processes like carbon sequestration.
• Cultural services: Include non-material benefits like spiritual enrichment, tourism, recreation, and aesthetic enjoyment of nature.

Human Activities

• Human actions significantly affect ecosystems by altering land use, introducing invasive species, exploiting resources, and causing pollution.
• Burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming.
• Poor agricultural practices can diminish soil quality and lead to water pollution (eutrophication).

Types of Solid Waste

• Solid waste encompasses discarded household, commercial, industrial, agricultural, construction material, and street sweepings.
• Municipal waste: consists of unwanted items from homes, businesses, and institutions.
• Agricultural waste: includes materials from farming and poultry operations.
• Industrial waste: encompasses different materials stemming from industries other than mining.
• Mining waste: includes rocks, soils, and tailings (leftover materials) from extraction activities.

Methods of Waste Disposal

• Landfill: A method of waste disposal where garbage is covered with soil to prevent spreading and groundwater contamination.
• Incineration: Burning waste to generate energy, though the ash and smoke require treatment prior to release.
• Mulch and Compost: Natural decomposition methods converting organic matter into humus-like material.
• Source reduction: Reducing waste by designing products for durability and reuse.
• Recycling: Transforming discarded materials into new products.

The Resource Cycle

• The resource cycle describes the transformation of raw materials into usable products and their eventual disposal.
• Steps include extraction, processing, transportation, manufacturing, use, and disposal/recycling.
• Waste generation occurs at each stage affecting the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
• Minimizing resource consumption, and recycling/reuse can balance resource use and waste disposal.

Waste Management

• Proper waste management involves reducing waste generation, reusing materials, recycling, recovering energy from waste, and managing disposal.
• Prevention, reuse, recycling, recovery, disposal—waste management hierarchy of options.