Geography 1

Geography
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Geography
1. What are some of the main threats to the world’s oceans today? Why are they

happening, and what can be done about these threats?

The vastness of the seas is a complex network of relationships that preserve the life of the planet.

However, the ocean system is as fragile as it is huge. Humanity extracts from the oceans and

dumps in them everything that is dictated by the benefit of today or the greatest - tomorrow. In

this case, as a rule, the consequences remote in time and space are ignored. The ocean today is

surrounded by shores that shake from demographic explosions and technological revolutions.

The level of severity of the oceanic pollution should be evaluated and analyzed from the Five

themes perspective, which are location on the Earth, the specific place, the human activity in the

given environment and the Earth, and the formation of polluted regions (Eriksen, 2014). The

threat of the ocean is coming from all sides. Marine accidents and collisions occur quite often.

Every year, about 7% of the ships of the world fleet collide with each other, most of the
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collisions occur with tankers, and hundreds of thousands of tons of oil flowing into the ocean

leaving huge areas of the sea and the coastal zone. The probability of a tanker collision occurs

every four days. This is especially dangerous, given that of the supertankers, for example, more

than one hundred thousand tons of oil can immediately enter the sea. A significant amount of oil

is discharged into the ocean consciously, when pumping ballast and washing cargo tanks. It is

estimated that this type of discharge exceeds five million tons of oil per year. About 10% of the

total pollution of the ocean is produced by oil from wells underwater mining. The flow of oil in

the form of industrial and automotive waste accounts for half a million tons. The total amount of

oil released annually into the ocean reaches fantastic figures and tends to grow (Zabala, 2018).

Oil breaks the integrity of the ocean's biological system: mollusks, oysters and mussels that feed

by filtration of water die; fish absorb the carcinogenic substances contained in the oil and

become inedible: birds covered with a layer of oil, lose feather heat and die from the cold. There

are also less noticeable but even more serious consequences of oil pollution: the internal

hydrocarbon system of marine organisms can be damaged, which leads to the disruption of

centuries-old migrations of valuable fish species to spawning grounds, and species will be

threatened with extinction. Absorption by birds even very small doses of oil reduces the

resistance to infections and threatens them with death. In closed seas, even the finest oil film acts

as an opaque filter, which disrupts the process of photosynthesis and reduces the release of free

oxygen (Lusher, 2014).

Marine underwater work also does not pass without a trace for the ocean. Dredger, leading the

marine extraction of sand and gravel, violate the structure of the bottom. In the areas of

excavation there are pits, boulders and heaps of pebbles, the water is polluted with clay and silt,

which violates the natural living conditions of marine life. The economic benefits of these

underwater works can turn an irreparable loss. Destructive and seismic explosions, which
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literally shake the whole ocean: caviar, larvae, juveniles are dying. According to some estimates,

each submarine explosion costs 1500 tons of potential catch. A serious problem for the ocean is

created by ships with nuclear installations, nuclear power plants located in the sea, during which

radioactive waste is generated, the volume of which is directly proportional to the capacity of the

installations, and the danger remains for hundreds of years. Projects are being developed for the

burial of radioactive waste on the ocean floor, which in certain situations can lead to a global

ecological catastrophe. Rivers carry a large number of heavy metals to the ocean: iron and lead

releases annually amount to millions of tons (Lavender, 2014). Unbelievable wastewater masses

enter the ocean from large coastal cities, which increases the content of bacteria that are

destructive to ocean life tenfold. Increasingly, there is a "flowering" of the sea - excessive growth

of some species of algae.

In conclusion, wastewater from industrial enterprises and large cities, as well as run-off from

agricultural fertilizers, caused supersaturation of water with chemical nutrients, which led to an

overgrowth of phytoplankton at the surface. After the withering away, this plant mass descends

to the bottom, where it absorbs all oxygen - the bottom layers of the Baltic Sea can become

lifeless. In a more difficult situation is the Black Sea, where as a result of a very weak vertical

circulation of water, the amount of oxygen in the lower layers is very small (Kwon, 2014).

Planktonic organisms cannot live in such an environment, the amount of hydrogen sulphide

dissolved in water continuously increases - water becomes completely lifeless. The "dead zone"

is already five-sixths of the entire mass of the sea, and at depths of 180-200 meters, the sea

bottom is lifeless - only anaerobic bacteria that produce sulfur compounds can live there.
2. What is the Climate Change crisis? Why is it happening and how might it effect the

future of life on earth? What can be done to prevent it on a global, national and individual

scale?
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In recent years, the climate on Earth has changed markedly: some countries suffer from

anomalous heat, others from too harsh and snowy winters, unusual for these places.

Environmentalists talk about global climate change, including an increase in the average annual

temperature causing melting of glaciers, and an increase in the level of the world's oceans. In

addition to warming, there is also an unbalance of all natural systems, which leads to a change in

the regime of precipitation, temperature anomalies and an increase in the frequency of extreme

events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts (Newman, 2016. Experts note that between 2000

and 2010, the most powerful increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the past 30 years has

been observed. If the temperature rise cannot be stopped, the consequences for the planet are:

natural disasters, unsuitable territories for living, the impact on biological diversity, lack of

drinking water, hunger and epidemics and increasing the level of the world ocean (Fann, 2014).

The climatic zones will shift, the weather changes will become more severe (severe frosts,

followed by sudden thaws in winter, an increase in the number of abnormally hot days in

summer). The frequency and strength of abnormal phenomena such as droughts and floods will

increase. The connection between climate change and the emergence of natural disasters was

proved by American scientists who discovered traces of warming in the study of tropical

cyclones in the Pacific, unusually high summer temperatures in Europe, China, South Korea and

Argentina, and forest fires in the US state of California. Climate change has also catalyzed

drought in Africa and the Middle East, snowstorms in Nepal and torrential downpours that have

caused floods in Canada and New Zealand. According to a study by American scientists, Qatar,

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other countries of the Middle East are at

risk. According to the calculations of climatologists, at the current rate of growth of greenhouse

gas emissions by 2070 the average air temperature in the countries of the Persian Gulf can reach
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74-77 ° C (Shine, 2014). This will make the territories unsuitable for people. An exception may

be large megacities with a developed air conditioning system.

UN experts warn that warming will negatively affect yields, especially in the underdeveloped

countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, which will lead to food problems. Hunger, water

scarcity, and insect migration can lead to an increase in epidemics and the spread of tropical

diseases such as malaria and fever in the northern regions. Climate change can affect not only

people's health, but also increase the risk of political disagreements and conflicts for access to

water and food resources (Urry, 2017). One of the most tangible consequences of climate

warming is likely to be the melting of glaciers and an increase in the level of the World Ocean.

Millions of people on the coast will die from frequent floods or will be forced to relocate, UN

analysts predict. According to the expert community, sea level rise in the 21st century will be up

to 1 m (in the 20th century - 0.1-0.2 m). In this case, the most vulnerable are the lowlands,

coastal areas and small islands. The first to enter the risk zone are the Netherlands, Bangladesh

and small island states, such as the Bahamas, the Maldives. Significant territories can be flooded

in countries such as Russia, the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Iraq,

Thailand and Vietnam. Serious damage threatens China, where about 140 million people can lose

their homes, and Japan, where it can flood more than 30 million people - a quarter of the

country's population (Hansen, 2016).

In conclusion, we must honestly admit that people cannot immediately stop global warming.

Even if at this minute humans stop emissions of absolutely all greenhouse gases, which is not

possible even theoretically, the average global temperature will continue to grow. Therefore, it is

necessary to act in the direction of slowing down global warming and mitigating its

consequences. Discarding the slogans, we come to the fact that really mankind can only limit
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greenhouse gas emissions and introduce energy-saving technologies. It is noteworthy that both

the first and the second can be implemented at the international, state and personal level.
References
Eriksen, Marcus. (2014). Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces

Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. PLOS one. Retrieved from

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
Fann, Neal. (2014). The geographic distribution and economic value of climate change-related ozone

health impacts in the United States in 2030. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2014.996270

Hansen, James. (2016). Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data,

climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous. Atmos. Chem.

Phys. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3761-2016

Kwon, Bum Gun. (2014). Regional distribution of styrene analogues generated from polystyrene

degradation along the coastlines of the North-East Pacific Ocean and Hawaii. ScienceDirect. Retrieved

from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2014.01.019
Lavender, Kara. (2014). Distribution of Surface Plastic Debris in the Eastern Pacific Ocean from an 11-

Year Data Set. Environ. Sci. Technol. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es4053076

Lusher, Amy L. (2014) Microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean: Validated and

opportunistic sampling. ScienceDirect. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.08.023

Newman, Todd. P. (2016). Tracking the release of IPCC AR5 on Twitter: Users, comments, and sources

following the release of the Working Group I Summary for Policymakers. Public Understanding of

Science. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662516628477

Shine, Keith. (2014). Pollution: causes, effects and control. Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved from

http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/37242/
Urry, John. (2017). Climate Change and Society. Springer Link. Retrieved from

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137269928_4
Zabala, Aiora. (2018). Ocean microfibre contamination. Nature Sustainability. Retrieved from

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0071-7