Environmental Disasters: A Comprehensive Overview

Posted on May 20, 2024 in Geology

Natural Disasters

The land has never been a safe place. Anyone who wants a quiet life will be better off on another planet. Tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, meteorite impacts, to name a few, are increasingly frequent natural disasters. Our planet is constantly changing. But what can we do to prevent, minimize, or help the inhabitants of this planet? So far, we haven’t been transferred to another, quieter one.

The prevention of certain risks, such as earthquakes, is currently not available to scientists. In the case of earthquakes, post-disaster assessment often takes 50 years, which doesn’t fix much. So, for the moment, all we can do is manage the disaster after it occurs.

Since 2000, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been organizing a device that helps prevent and manage disasters. The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” came into force in 2000 on the initiative of the ESA. This system gathers information from all space agencies around the world to assist in emergency aid and facilitate relief operations. Space agencies offer free satellite observation to affected countries. The Charter is activated when there are fires or floods.

The control room, controlled by satellites around the world in real-time, coordinates all the European Space Agencies. Once the Charter is activated, the ESA analyzes the situation, and when everything is ready and analyzed, Germany takes control of the situation.

The University of Strasbourg uses data collected from satellites. The slogans of the Strasbourg center are “effectively and quickly.” Engineers analyze the information that comes to them. This center becomes something like a fire station. Maps of the affected areas are drawn. The maps produced in these areas are available to users on the Internet, but not everyone can access this data.

Who has access? Depending on the type of end-user requests, the nature and sensitivity of the data, and the phenomenon in question, access is given only to a group of users (governments, etc.), or it is attached to the network so that everyone can access those maps.

These very detailed and updated maps allow for the coordination of actions in the field through better visualization. With them, you can see, for example, which roads are still standing to bring aid to affected areas.

The praise comes from helping to manage these events in the best possible way, depending on the dimensions of the catastrophe. Naturally, for this to work well, international cooperation is required. The ideal would be to create a global organization that works with a single goal, which is expected in the future, I guess, out of the crisis.

Human Impact on the Environment

For several reasons that come to mind now, relations between human beings and the environment sometimes cause situations that seriously deteriorate the environment. Namely:

  • Discharges of any kind (oil, toxic liquids, etc.), usually ending up in the sea.
  • Landfills for waste of all types, usually deposited on the outskirts of large cities.
  • Liquid waste from industrial processes discharged into rivers and seas.
  • Prolonged droughts.
  • Overexploitation of different media (excessive farms, fisheries, etc.).
  • Deforestation of forests.
  • Smoke and fumes released into the atmosphere from industrial smokestacks, motor heating, and excessive burning.
  • Smog (the beret that sometimes covers larger cities).
  • Large works that do not evaluate the environmental impact, such as large hydraulic dams, installation of mills, etc.
  • Global warming of the atmosphere.

What can we do about all these things and more that are in the pipeline?

Internationally, there has been an awareness of these problems in recent years, assuming the reality that environmental problems are “global,” serious, irreversible, and threaten the future of humanity. Experts have raised the issue of “sustainable development,” which is the only development that can meet current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A sustainable activity would be, for example, cutting down trees in a forest and replanting them. An unsustainable activity would be, for example, using oil, as there is no known system to create it from biomass.

Today, we know that many human activities are not sustainable in the medium and long term, as we are now raising them. Putting the car at the door of the place where we are going is not sustainable at both the local and global levels and may, in fact, already be creating serious environmental problems that may become irreversible.

Can we take some “environmental protection” measures to stop this mess?

One step to take to alleviate this would be the creation of protected natural areas, such as parks, that constitute the global network of biosphere reserves recognized by UNESCO. The network consists of coastal and terrestrial ecosystems, marine areas, or combinations of these spaces. It harmonizes them, preserving unique natural environments with human presence and obtaining economic returns within the principle of sustainable development.

States dictate environmental laws aimed primarily at the “polluter pays” principle. It is assumed that the funds collected are directed at decontamination. They prohibit excessive emissions into the atmosphere, control water pollution, construct water treatment plants, populate deforested areas, and celebrate international conferences such as Kyoto, Stockholm, and Rio de Janeiro, which set emission limits and other premises that are then, in most cases, not met, but they come together.

The Kyoto Protocol agreed, among other things, to reduce atmospheric emissions of CO2, CH4, NO3, fluorocarbon compounds (the famous CFCs), F6, and S. However, some countries, based on the exercise of sovereignty, do not comply with the established limits. Other protocols include, among others:

  • The Montreal Protocol on reducing ozone, which prohibits the use of CFCs.
  • The Geneva Convention on acid rain, which prohibits the emission into the atmosphere of S, NO3, and NH3.
  • The Ramsar Convention to protect wetlands, and several others.

There are many actions to reduce the impact on the environment, but we must start with governments, which, due to greed and corruption, do not actually protect the environment. So it is in our hands to protest and demand that they do. Additionally, individually, at home, we can do several things, such as:

  • Save water by reusing household water, for example, for watering.
  • Make the most of sunlight to save energy, for example, by reading near the window, turning off lights when leaving rooms, using energy-saving light bulbs, etc.
  • Use public transportation whenever possible, mostly for mental health.
  • Use cycling for health if we are lucky not to be run over.
  • Walk to places if we can, which is very healthy and relaxing. It also serves to keep the line.
  • Use biodegradable soaps.
  • Buy products that have little environmental impact.

Space Debris

No need to go to landfills to find that if a little more original. Since the 60s, when the former USSR launched Sputnik, to today, there are 898 plus or minus approximately 8,000 operational satellites launched into space by man. You’ve already guessed that we will talk about what we might call space junk.

In an effort to address this trash, man has designed an ecological network and waste tracking system for all space objects that roam the vicinity of the earth. This network aims to trace any object smaller than 10 cm that is in orbit. Since its founding, it has tracked approximately 26,000 objects orbiting the earth. Most have fallen into unstable orbits and have been burned in contact with the atmosphere, but the 8,000 satellites are intact, and there are thousands of pieces of junk lying around, from nuts and bolts to astronaut gloves lost on spacewalks.

There is a risk that this junk belt will lead to collisions. In fact, abandoned Russian and American satellites have collided, generating more trash in space. We have turned the space near the earth into a global garbage dump. From earth, we keep track of all this rubbish and have estimated that there are 17,000 objects 10 cm or larger and a calculated orbit of around 200,000 of about 5 cm and tens of millions less than 2.5 cm. All this is concentrated at a distance of about one-tenth the Earth-Moon distance and buzzing about 27,000 km/hour, so that new shocks will produce even more existing garbage. The problem is that there is no way to go and pick it up. It is likely that it will eventually fall to the ground, and statistically, it would go to sea. What is certain is that it will still be up there for a long time.

Technological Waste

Let’s change the term “garbage.” We will call it technological waste. Waste from PCs, televisions, washing machines, mobile phones, and so on. The world currently produces more than 50 tons per year of this type of waste, and it is increasing. In some countries, like India and China, Au, Pb, and Cd are recycled from microelectronic components, but this is not an adequate treatment in many places.

Leaving this waste in the trash threatens the health of both people and the environment, as they contain elements such as Pb, As, Sb, Hg, Fe, C, S, and others. By breaking down, these materials emit toxic metals and can be deadly. PC monitors and fluorescent tubes contain toxic gases that are released when they break. The mercury-containing gas in fluorescent lights can be absorbed and pass into the brain. Mobile phones and all types of devices use batteries that should be recycled after their useful life.

Electronic information appliances generate many specific problems, so it is important to make responsible consumption choices, including recycling electronic products. Otherwise, we are headed for a huge garbage dump with a huge technological risk to the health of everyone. To manufacture the world’s most dangerous weapons, very dangerous materials must be used.

Nuclear Waste

were stored in barrels and thrown into the sea. In June 2002, took images of the sea where these barrels were thrown into the pit with these barrels Atlantic corroded by salt and containing no remnants Where were the residues?. In the environment were part of the food chain accumulated in the fish so hopefully we could have finished those years plato.En every country in the world who had something to throw it threw into the pit Atlantic, France, England , USA, Russia, Switzerland, at that time the sea was considered the great global garbage.Is considered to be released well over 100,000 barrels a mar.Las Tm images Greenpeace environmentalists fighting discharges into the sea were seen around the world. Following this in 1993 the UN banned mar.Actualmente discharges to both armies in the world like nuclear power plants continue to generate such waste. Bars nuclear rectors are stored in pools and generate U which in its natural decay process generates other elements such as Pu, Am, Kr, Cs and longevity otros.Su añosAdemás reaches millions of other mischief Atlantic fossa have made during the first occurred in tiempo.La Hanford (USA) where nine plants were built in 1942 to produce Pu to produce among other bombs in Japan, 1945. This is called the Manhattan Project and was authorized by President Roosevelt. Everything was secreto.Las leakage of these plants went to the Columbia River which in turn was used to cool significantly polluting plants. Today the river retains a bed of radioactive elements that nobody knows how to remove. The debris removed in the environment.