Environmental Problems Part 3-Land Pollution

Environmental Problems (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

Over the past 50 years, humans have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other comparable period of time in history (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). As a result, humans have created environmental problems, including depletion of natural resources; air, land and water pollution; global warming and climate change; environmental illness; threats to biodiversity; and light pollution. Because many of these environmental problems are related to the ways that humans produce and consume energy, we will begin with global energy use.

Land Pollution

About 30 percent of the world’s surface is land, which provides soil to grow the food we eat. Increasingly, humans are polluting the land with nuclear waste, solid waste and pesticides. In 2013, 1,320 hazardous waste sites in the United States (also called Superfund sites) were on the National Priorities List (EPA 2013a).

Solid Waste

In 1960, each U.S. citizen generated 2.7 pounds of garbage on average every day. This figure increased to 4.4 pounds in 2011 (EPA 2013b). This figure does not include mining, agricultural, and industrial waste; demolition and construction wastes; junked autos; or obsolete equipment wastes. Just over half of this waste is dumped in landfills; the rest is recycled or composted. The availability of landfill space is limited, however. Some states have passed laws that limit the amount of solid waste that can be disposed of; instead, they require that bottles and cans be returned for a deposit or that lawn clippings be used in community composting programs.

Solid waste includes discarded electrical appliances and electronic equipment, knows as e-waste. Ever think about where your discarded computer, cell phone, CD player, television, or other electronic product ends up when you replace it with a newer model? Most discarded electronics end up in landfills, incinerators, or hazardous substances, such as lead, cadmium, barium, mercury, PCBs, and polyvinyl chloride, can leach out of e-waste and contaminate the soil and groundwater.

Pesticides

Pesticides are used worldwide for crops and gardens; outdoor mosquito control; the care of lawns, parks, and golf courses; and indoor pest control. Pesticides contaminate food, water, and air and can be absorbed through the skin, swallowed, or inhaled. Many common pesticides are considered potential carcinogens and neurotoxins (Blatt 2005). Even when a pesticide is found to be hazardous and is banned in the United States, other countries from which we import food may continue to use it. In an analysis of more than 5,000 food samples, pesticide residues were detected in 43 percent of the domestic samples and 31 percent of the imported samples (Food and Drug Administration 2013). Pesticides also contaminate our groundwater supplies.

Sources

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis. Washington. DC: Island Press.

EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 2013a National Priorities List (NPL), Available at www.epa.gov/superfund/sites

EPA, 2013b. Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2011 Facts and Figures. Available at www.epa.gov

Blatt, Harvey. 2005. America’s Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Food and Drug Administration. 2013. Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Results and Discussion FY 2009. Available at www.fda.gov