What is Global Warming?

Global Warming is the increase of Earth's average surface temperature due to effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. This is a type of greenhouse effect.

he most significant greenhouse gas is actually water vapor, not something produced directly by humankind in significant amounts. However, even slight increases in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can cause a substantial increase in temperature.

Why is this? There are two reasons: First, although the concentrations of these gases are not nearly as large as that of oxygen and nitrogen (the main constituents of the atmosphere), neither oxygen or nitrogen are greenhouse gases.

Secondly, CO₂ tends to remain in the atmosphere for a very long time (time scales in the hundreds of years). Water vapor, on the other hand, can easily condense or evaporate, depending on local conditions

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. In 2013, CO2 accounted for about 82% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Carbon dioxide is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's carbon cycle (the natural circulation of carbon among the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and animals). Human activities are altering the carbon cycle—both by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere and by influencing the ability of natural sinks, like forests, to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

NO₂ forms quickly from emissions from cars, trucks and buses, power plants, and off-road equipment. In addition to contributing to the formation of ground-level ozone, and fine particle pollution, NO₂is linked with a number of adverse effects on the respiratory system.

Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is one of a group of highly reactive gasses known as “oxides of sulfur.” The largest sources of SO₂ emissions are from fossil fuel combustion at power plants (73%) and other industrial facilities (20%). Smaller sources of SO₂emissions include industrial processes such as extracting metal from ore, and the burning of high sulfur containing fuels by locomotives, large ships, and non-road equipment. SO₂ is linked with a number of adverse effects on the respiratory system.

34.Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil, dust lifted by weather (an aeolian process),volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Atmospheric or wind-borne dust, also known as aeolian dust, comes from arid and dry regions where high velocity winds are able to remove mostly silt-sized material, deflating susceptible surfaces. This includes areas where grazing, ploughing, vehicle use, and other human activities have further destabilized the land, though not all source areas have been largely affected by anthropogenic impacts. Dust in the atmosphere is produced by saltation and sandblasting of sand-sized grains, and it is transported through the troposphere. This airborne dust is considered an aerosol and once in the atmosphere, it can produce strong local radiative forcing. Saharan dust in particular can be transported and deposited as far as the Caribbean and Amazonia, and may affect air temperatures, cause ocean cooling, and alter rainfall amounts.^[4]

Lead compounds is a chemical compound that has pharmacological or biological activity likely to be therapeutically useful, but may still have suboptimal structure that requires modification to fit better to the target. Its chemical structure is used as a starting point for chemical modifications in order to improve potency, selectivity, or pharmacokinetic parameters. Furthermore, newly invented pharmacologically active moieties may have poor druglikeness and may require chemical modification to become drug-like enough to be tested biologically or clinically.

Smog is a type of air pollutant Causes of smog is burning fossil fuel.Traffic emissions – such as from trucks, buses, and automobiles – also contribute. Photochemical smog is the chemical reaction of sunlight, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere, which leaves airborne particles and ground-level ozone.^[14] This noxious mixture of air pollutants may include the following:

· Aldehydes

· Nitrogen oxides, particularly nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide

· Peroxyacyl nitrates

· Tropospheric ozone

· Volatile organic compounds

· Smog is a serious problem in many cities and continues to harm human health.^[19][20] Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxideand carbon monoxide are especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema,bronchitis, and asthma.^[21] It can inflame breathing passages, decrease the lungs' working capacity, cause shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing.

The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be in the absence of its atmosphere.^[1][2] If a planet's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases (i.e., greenhouse gases) the atmosphere radiates energy in all directions. Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface, warming it.

Earth’s natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life. Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests, have intensified the natural greenhouse effect, causing global warming

Green house gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone,

35.Sustainable development (SD) is a process for achieving sustainability in any activity that uses resources and where immediate and intergenerational replication is demanded. Sustainable development coincides with further economic growth and human development in the developed economy (and society) for finding the means of continual development beyond economic development. As such, sustainable development is the organizing principle for sustaining finite resources necessary to provide for the needs of future generations of life on the planet. It is a process that envisions a desirable future state for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use continue to meet human needs without undermining the "integrity, stability and beauty" of natural biotic systems.

The concept of sustainable development was the result of combining the three main points of view: economic, social and environmental. All three of these components are connected closely linked.

For example, economic growth alone will not be able to guarantee the well-being of our citizens. It is not difficult to imagine a prosperous economy in which people from year to year are getting sicker as a result of wrong approach to their health and environmental pollution. As soon as we build our society, to make growing efforts to ensure that our citizens are healthy throughout his life, and a healthy environment.

36.Sustainable development (SD) is a process for achieving sustainability in any activity that uses resources and where immediate and intergenerational replication is demanded. Sustainable development coincides with further economic growth and human development in the developed economy (and society) for finding the means of continual development beyond economic development. As such, sustainable development is the organizing principle for sustaining finite resources necessary to provide for the needs of future generations of life on the planet. It is a process that envisions a desirable future state for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use continue to meet human needs without undermining the "integrity, stability and beauty" of natural biotic systems.The concept of sustainable development was the result of combining the three main points of view: economic, social and environmental. All three of these components are connected closely linked.As in other countries in Kazakhstan, the concept of human development is reflected in strategic documents such as the "Kazakhstan-2030", "Kazakhstan-2050", national, regional, sectoral programs and plans of action, including poverty reduction, improvement of health and education of the population.In the period of globalization labor and the labor market acquire new qualitative sense. At the present time, when the Republic of Kazakhstan has formed the basis of a market economy and a new stage of development, focusing on human development. This problem is particularly relevant for our country yet because of its small population compared to its territory.Conceptual approach to human development, developed by a group of experts, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), was first introduced in the global Human Development Report for 1990. Created a new tool to measure social and economic progress: the human development index (HDI), which integrates the life expectancy, educational attainment of the adult population and income. HDI is an alternative to GNP for measuring the socio-economic development of the country.In the period of globalization labor and the labor market acquire new qualitative sense. At the present time, when the Republic of Kazakhstan has formed the basis of a market economy and a new stage of In recent years, economic growth in Kazakhstan has allowed to raise the standard of living of the population. This is essentially reflected in the human development. To achieve a higher level of HDI for Kazakhstan is rich in natural resources, it is necessary to conduct qualitative changes in the economic structure of the country. That Kazakhstan has achieved its objectives in the field of sustainable human development, in our opinion it is necessary to implement the following priorities:

1. provide of Kazakhstan as an independent sovereign state preserving its complete territorial integrity.2. maintain and strengthen political stability and national unity, which will allow Kazakhstan to implement a national strategy in the current and subsequent decades.3. continuously improve living conditions, health, improve education, improve the ecological environment

37. Hydrosphere — the most important element of the biosphere, unites all the waters of the globe, including oceans, seas and surface water from land. By the hydrosphere was treated the same underground water, ice and snow in the Arctic and Antarctica, atmospheric water and water contained in living organisms. Water masses in the earth’s surface form a thin shell, which occupies most of the planet’s surface and forms the world’s oceans. Water surface of the planet is 71%, and in view of glaciers and snow cover — 86% of its total surface. According to current estimates, the volume of water on the planet is approximately 1.39 billion cubic meters. But 96,4% of the hydrosphere, the water falls on mineralized waters of the seas and oceans, fresh water makes up only 2.65% — although this figure does not reflect the actual amount available for consumption of fresh water. If we take all the fresh water for 100%, it becomes evident that a large part of it — 70.2% «locked» in the form of ice and permanent snow cover, mainly in the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. Another sizable portion — 28.7% are in the lithosphere. Only 0,27% of the total fresh water readily available for use, flows through the planet’s surface in the form of rivers, accumulates in lakes and reservoirs. But these small percent of fresh water would be enough if it was evenly distributed across the planet and its anticipated expenditure solely for domestic purposes. Unlike mineral resources, water is a renewable natural resource. Being in a natural cycle, the water falls to earth as rain, solid precipitation, with river flows back into the sea, then from the surface of smooth sea surface evaporates into the atmosphere and re-transformed into the clouds, only to again fall to the ground of life-giving moisture. Water ensures the existence of living organisms on Earth, and the course of their life processes. It is part of the cells and tissues of any animal and plants. On average, water is about 90% of the mass of all plants and 75% of the mass of animals. Climate and weather on Earth is largely dependent on and determined by the presence of water spaces and water vapor content in the atmosphere. In human water are widely used. Water is used in industry, serves as coolants used in the construction and. Agricultural activities associated with the consumption of vast quantities of water. Rivers, canals, lakes — important means of communication.

It is oil and petroleum products moved into first place among the pollutants of oceans and seas. The main causes of pollution by these substances of the seas and oceans are sinking and oil discharges to wells located in the high seas. We know that one ton of oil, spreading over the surface of the ocean, occupies 12 square kilometers. Every year in the ocean, according to various estimates, gets about 10 million tons of oil. Oil, creating a film on the surface of water, prevents gas exchange, including the absorption of water of oxygen. Lack of aeration and oxygen deficiency leads to the death of many aquatic organisms. Petroleum, like all fossil fuels, primarily consists of a complex mixture of molecules called hydrocarbons (molecules containing both hydrogen and carbon). When it comes out of the ground, it is known as crude oil, and it may have various gases, solids, and trace minerals mixed in with it. Through refinement processes, a variety of consumer products can be made from petroleum. Most of these are fuels: gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, kerosene, and propane are common examples. It is also used to make asphalt and lubricant grease, and it is a raw material for synthetic chemicals. Chemicals and materials derived from petroleum products include plastics, pesticides, fertilizers, paints, solvents, refrigerants, cleaning fluids, detergents, antifreeze, and synthetic fibers. Petroleum products used for fuel are mined from the earth deep below the ocean surfaces. Occasionally, offshore drilling rigs experience accidental leaks. Ships carrying oil have also been known to cause devastating oil spills, but these are large-scale disasters. Oil seepage occurs on a smaller but continuous level, leaching from factories and other plants. In fact, one of the greatest sources of oil pollution is people who pour various cooking oils and grease down the sink drains in their homes.

Petroleum is a useful chemical substance for many important purposes. But it is also a nonrenewable resource with a highly toxic composition, and it poses significant problems when used in huge volumes throughout the industrialized world.

Specific examples

• Chinese and Russian industrial pollution such as phenols and heavy metals in the Amur River have devastated fish stocks and damaged its estuary soil.^[69]
• Wabamun Lake in Alberta, Canada, once the best whitefish lake in the area, now has unacceptable levels of heavy metals in its sediment and fish.
• Since the end of World War II, various nations, including the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, have disposed of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea, raising concerns of environmental contamination
  
  

38. The air pollution level of cities and industrial centers, despite the reduction of production, remains rather high. The most high level of air pollution is registered in Leninogorsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Almaty, Zyryanovsk, Aktau, Shymkent, Taraz, Petropavlovsk and Temirtau. One of the problems in Balkhash is air pollution by disulphide. After long period of idleness Balkhash copper smelter has started its operation. However, copper is produced without purification and utilization of disulphide. The main polluting substances are the following: dust, sulphur and nitrogen dioxides, hydrocarbons emitted by the enterprises of heat power system and metallurgy. The enterprises of the Pavlodar Oblast and enterprises of oil and gas complex in West-Kazakhstan, Atyrau and Mangistau Oblasts play the negative role in air pollution. Harmful industrial factors – emissions of polluting substances into the air, noise, vibration, electrical magnet fields, and other physical factors. Last years the role of automobile transport in air pollution with lead, benzaperen and formaldehyde has increased. Automobile transport emits dozens of polluting substances together with exhausted gas, the total volume of which is more than 2 million tons. In most of the large cities the contribution of automobile transport to the air basin pollution has reached in the recent years more than 60%, and in the city of Almaty - 90 % of the total emissions. Air pollution in Kazakhstan is another significant environmental problem. Acid rain damages the environment within the country and also affects neighboring countries. In 1992 Kazakhstan had the world's 14th highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 297.9 million metric tons, a per capita level of 17.48 metric tons. In 1996, the total had dropped to 173.8 million metric tons. Pollution from industrial and agricultural sources has also damaged the nation's water supply. UN sources report that, in some cases, contamination of rivers by industrial metals is 160 to 800 times beyond acceptable levels. Pollution of the Caspian Sea is also a problem. Most of Kazakhstan’s water supply has been polluted by industrial and agricultural runoff and, in some places, radioactivity. The Aral Sea, which is shared with Uzbekistan, has shrunk to three separate bodies of water because of water drawdowns in its tributary rivers. A Soviet-era biological weapons site is a threat because it is located on a former island in the Aral Sea that is now connected with the mainland. The reduction in the Aral Sea’s water surface has exacerbated regional climatic extremes, and agricultural soil has been damaged by salt deposits and eroded by wind. Desertification has eliminated substantial tracts of agricultural land. Plants in industrial centers lack controls on effluents into the air and water. The Semey region in the northeast has long-term radiation contamination from Soviet-era weapons testing. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is underfunded and given low priority. Some new environmental regulation of the oil industry began in 2003, but new oil operations on Kazakhstan’s Caspian coast add to that sea’s already grave pollution. International programs to save the Aral and Caspian seas have not received meaningful cooperation from Kazakhstan or other member nations. The Aral Sea covers 26,300 square miles with Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south.Soviet irrigation projects begun in the 1960s and other environmental challenges have severely depleted this once massive inland sea and by 2007, it had shrunk to 10 percent of its original size. The most common pollutants of the Aral Sea are considered to be oil hydrocarbons, phenols, synthetic surface active substances, chlorine organic pesticides, heavy metals, mineralisation. The technological backwardness of industry and agriculture, extensive use of natural resources have resulted in the significant degradation of soils in Kazakhstan. Deserted and salted areas are at the territory of more than 50 thousand square kilometres in the Aral Sea and Balkhash Lake basins. Fertility of soils of the flooded area of the Irtysh River is reduced in connection with the excessive regulation of the runoff and the long-term poly-metal production. Problem of soil degradation is especially sharp in North Kazakhstan, zone of the grain agriculture. For the period of the long-term plugging of virgin lands the content of humus has decreased by 5-20 % and more. 1.2 billion tons or 28.3 % from 4.3 billion tons of the humus stocks of the arable layer (0-25 sm.) are irrevocably lost because of mineralising the organic substance, subtraction with a crop, water and wind erosion. Simultaneously the soil fertility is reduced at the expense of deterioration of its agro-physical characteristics, in basic owing to soil compaction by machines. In grain regions of the north of the country 17.8 million hectares are potentially subject to deflation and 2.6 million hectares suffer from strong wind erosion. According to the last inventory of irrigated lands a half from them requires meliorate improvement or restoration of fertility. In the industrial regions the intense environmental situation takes place in connection with the environmental pollution with toxic waste. In The Caspian oil-production region more than 4.3 million hectares of degraded lands, including 1.5 million hectares of technical zones, 1.9 million hectares of degraded pastures, 0.6 million hectares of oil polluted lands and 0.3 million hectares of lands with radioactive contamination. On the territory of the former Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing site about 2 million hectares of agricultural lands were subjected to the radioactive contamination. In Kazakhstan soil pollution is marked in all industrial regions. For example, in technogenic zone of Shymkent-city, soils are polluted with the mobile forms of lead (up to 1500 Maximum Admissible Concentration (MAC)) and cadmium (200 MAC). As a whole, in zones of non-irrigated agriculture and in the regions of irrigated lands the significant part of lands is deteriorated, degraded, salted or became polluted with toxic waste. More than a half of lands in the country are subject to processes of desertification of the various degree of intensity. For 35 years soils of the North Kazakhstan have lost 570 million tons of the organic carbon. At mineralizing the organic carbon of the soil humus, in basic, oxidises up to, and the emission of CO₂ in air for this period has made no less than 1.5 billion tons. At the first stage of sustainable “organic” agriculture it is necessary to expect the return process of linking of CO₂ of air and fastening it in soil organic substance in about the same volume. Simultaneously on the other territory of the country in organic substance of soils not yet less than 1.5 billion tons of CO₂ will be linked. These volumes of CO₂ require specification after recalculation on soil zones and sub-zones of Kazakhstan.

39. The problems of Caspian Sea, Aral Sea. The causes of these problems. Protection of seas.

Problems in the Caspian Sea:

1. The rise in sea level

2. Environmental pressures from economic activities

3. Threats to biodiversity

4. Human health risks

Problems in the Aral Sea:

1. Desiccation, shrinking and water quality

2. Reduction of inflows to the Aral Sea

3. Competing water requirements

4. Biodiversity reduction

5. Desertification

6. Climatic modifications

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 766