Fun Facts

What causes an ecological crisis? An ecological crisis arises when the capacity of an environment, species or population can no longer cope with the imbalance in ecosystem or landscape brought about by their destructive use from human beings.

This can also happen when the quality of the environment is degraded compared to the needs of species due to imbalance of ecology brought about by rise in temperature, destructive practices such as overfishing or less significant rainfalls. This means that the environment becomes unfit for the survival of species or population due to its destructive use or excessive utilization. Lastly, it can also be due to increase in population.

What are the major effects of ecological crisis? The duration of ecological crisis can take a number of years or even a century. It can come in a natural way or in a drastic form created by man. It may be applicable to only 1 kind of specie or it may affect the whole species through an extinction process. An ecological crisis may be concentrated in 1 area such as an oil spill or it could affect the entire universe such as an increase in the water level because of global warming.

Based on the degree of casualty, a local crisis can result to the death of several persons or the extinction of the whole species. The impact of deterioration in the quality of food and their habitat can cause the extinction of 1 or more species attributed to chain reaction.

The consequences of global ecological crisis can be more destructive evidenced by the total extinction of existing species at a given time, as in the case of the dinosaurs. An ecological crisis can sometimes be a favorable phenomenon as it creates a room for new growth and development based on the ecosystem scale. In a few cases, the total extinction of certain species such as the dinosaurs due to ecological imbalance, gave rise to the growth of mammals.

But in the general point of view, the impact of an ecological crisis is more destructive than creative. An ecological crisis can cause extinction to a lot of favored species and can lower the quality of life of the remaining groups of people. Therefore, even if the existence of a specific group of people like the indigenous people is threatened by extinction, this is given some attention by the society in only a short period of time.
More attention is focused on the consequences caused by an ecological crisis such as illness, food shortage, effect on the quality of air, lesser space for dwelling, increase in toxic wastes and threats on endangered species. Lesser attention is given to the roots of all these problems because it seems difficult to accept that mankind is responsible for the creation and rise of an ecological crisis that leads to extinction of life.

In the advent of modern technology and a continuous increase in population, man has more influence on the survival of the environment and life on earth. It depends on his initiative to make ways aimed at creating a balance in ecology if he wants to survive.

Environment ecological, ecological crisis, extinction, species

The surface of the earth interacts with solar radiation and a part of this energy is reflected back into the space by the atmosphere of the earth. A portion of this energy is spread out by the molecules in the environment and a bigger portion goes through the earth’s atmosphere and interacts with the surface of the earth. The earth’s surface then absorbs the amount of radiation resulting in global warming.

This solar radiation interacts with the atmosphere once again as it leaves the earth, and some of them go to the space, but a great amount of this energy is reflected back to the earth’s surface by molecules present in the earth’s atmosphere.

Apart from the unfavorable effects of greenhouse gases in global warming, is there any good thing that they provide?

The molecules that reflect the solar radiation back to earth are called greenhouse gases because they trap re-radiated energy like the glass in a greenhouse, but these gases are also responsible for most life on earth. If not because of these gases, the surface temperature of the earth would likely be much colder.

Greenhouse gases keep the heat in like an insulator or blanket above the earth. When the amount of these gases in the atmosphere is increased, the atmosphere’s ability to block the escape of infrared radiation is also increased resulting in thicker earth’s insulator.

Therefore, a great amount of concentrated greenhouse gases can affect the earth’s climate badly thru global warming. Any amount in excess of the minimum requirement for greenhouse concentration is not suited for human life.

A study revealed that there is human influence in attaining the balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Many of the greenhouse gases that include carbon dioxide and methane have long duration of stay in the atmosphere, and it could even take centuries for the atmospheric burden to exist.

The level of all greenhouse gases has been increasing and carbon dioxide has the greatest effect on global warming. The release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere is made much faster due to the works of human beings. Since we are burning billions of tons per year of fossil fuels like oil, coal, natural gas, and their derivatives, then, we are causing the earth’s atmosphere to deteriorate faster. Why is this so?

That’s because the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere through these wanton activities does not evaporate immediately or even over the period of 1 year. In fact, the duration of stay of these greenhouse gases last for decades or even centuries. It clearly means that the CO2 that we emit today has the tendency to affect the climate of the next generations thru global warming.

However, despite this threat of atmospheric deterioration thru global warming, and widespread recognition of this problem, worldwide emissions of fossil fuels continue to rise at a rate of about 1% per year. These emissions are even expected to increase further as the world moves ahead towards greater industrialization.

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Electric cars are better for the environment and they are more energy-efficient than the gasoline-fueled vehicles. These cars produce lesser noise than gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles and their overall emissions in the environment are highly acceptable. However, the complexities involved in manufacturing them hinder automakers to make a mass production of these vehicles.

The electric-powered carmakers are assuming that drivers will recharge their cars in their home where it would be easy to find an electrical outlet. The problem is that many of the car owners reside in apartment type of homes where they have no garage to park their cars, so, they park them on the street. Therefore, recharging may pose as a great hindrance for their massive production.

If the owners recharge their cars from a coal plant, it would be harmful to the environment and it would add up to the existing pollution in the greenhouse, ozone and acid rain. Natural gas, nuclear and wind are best alternatives for the gasoline-propelled vehicles but their cost is higher and some of them are harmful to the environment. Electric cars are better for the environment than any kind of combustion engine and the cost of consumption per mile is lower.

The electric cars are cleaner even when they are charged in dirty electricity outlets, because of their high efficiency electric power trains. They don’t consume idle energy at stoplights and they are made up of regenerative braking which is not so difficult to make. Their mechanical parts are also limited which make them more economical to manufacture.

Electricity is available anywhere and its cost is practically lower than fuels, but we have to take into consideration the possible means that owners would prefer to use electricity for their cars. Electric cars use small amount of electrical power, but in general, the average car recharging could overwhelm the whole electrical system. Even if plug-ins suddenly becomes available in recharging stations, it could still result in a power problem.

Let us say 10 drivers in 1 area decide to recharge their cars at the same time, that would extremely affect the power grid in that particular area. In this case, the best solution is to improve first the electrical system in all areas. On the other hand, there have been many critics regarding the use of lead-acid and NiMH batteries in electric cars, ‘though the latest model electric cars are now using Li-Ion which is being abundantly used in laptops and cellphones. Battery recycling programs are now being considered and users are encouraged to use a companion house-top solar panel for recharging during the daytime.

The most significant benefit from the use of electric cars will be the reduced dependence on foreign oil, but the current economic situation is not conducive to buy an electric car because of its prohibitive price for an ordinary citizen.

If the price of electric cars is reduced to a level that can be reached by all people, and the power system is improved in all areas, then, the gasoline stations can be replaced by battery and recharging stations all over the country.

Environment electric, electric cars