Environmental and social impacts Vegetal oils are one of the most rapidly expanding sectors in agriculture. Palm oil is an example of it, being the most produced than any other vegetable oil. The oil palm plantations are found in tropical forests, ecosystems really suitable for this kind of practices due to their high conservation values. The deforestation practiced for the plantation of this monoculture, lead to a destruction of the habitat and the consequent eviction of the forest-dwelling people. The impacts can be explained from two points of view: the environmental and the social. The environmental impacts of monoculture oil palm plantations include: 1. Forest conversion. Due to the lack of reliable data in land-cover change and incomplete …show more content…
First, it releases CO2 to the atmosphere, so it contributes to climate change. Second, the haze leads to serious health problems to plantation workers and people throughout Southeast Asia. As well, the haze diminishes the productivity of the palm oil trees and the pollinating activity of some species like for example the weevils. Although this practice is outlawed in Malaysia and Indonesia, it still occurs in other parts of the world. 5. Soil and water pollution. The main source of freshwater pollution from the palm oil industry comes from processing wastes. For every metric tonne of palm oil produced, 2.5 metric tonnes of effluent are generated from processing the palm oil in mills. Being the average biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of palm oil processing effluent 25,000 parts per million, it makes it illegal to discharged it. This is the case in some countries like in Malaysia where the BOD level must be below 100 parts per million before effluent can be legally discharged into streams. Other pollution sources are the pesticides and the fertilizers used. These can pollute surface and groundwater sources, and soil. Nevertheless, oil palm plantations do not use a huge amount of this pesticides or fertilizers in comparison with other kind of crops like the oilseeds. 6. Climate
“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, three common goals immigrants came to America seeking with hopes of the promise to prosper and gain success. However, during the Gilded Age it seemed as though these were attainable only for the select few, while others left the land they knew to spend their lives toiling away in pursuit of the American dream, many never understanding how unattainable it really was. While the Gilded Age was a time of an industrial boom and a growing economy, those working by the sweat of their brow to make the success of this time possible, were not actually ever grasping this wealth, but rather putting right back into the pockets of the wealthy. The Gilded Age compromised the American Dream by limiting the chances of the immigrant working class, and thus creating a cycle of missed opportunities keeping the immigrants from progressing much further then when they came to America to begin with.
The drought increases the likelihood of wildfires, which release harmful smoke into the air. The California drought produces many harmful substances, which affect air quality and harm human health. Ozone is the principal component of smog and it is dangerous at ground level, which affects human health, crops, and buildings. Ozone smog is formed when vehicle and factory pollution react with sunlight and heat (Climate Change, 2007).
World Growth, 2011. The Economic Benefit of Palm Oil to Indonesia, Palm Oil Green Development Campaign, 1-27
Many companies have turned to sustainable palm oil, palm oil that is produced on plantations that reuse the land for their agricultural purposes, thus supplying more palm oil without the destruction of natural forests. Some choose to boycott palm oil entirely, but this alternative will not significantly change the demand for palm oil. Vegetable oil is used abundantly and oil palm trees are the quickest producing oil crops, concluding them necessary to satisfy the demand for edible oils. Not only is palm oil versatile for its uses and quick to produce, but it is a major component to the economy in Indonesia and Malaysia. Many people living in these countries struggle with poverty, and agriculture of sustainable palm oil is how a great deal of people support themselves and their families. If the boycott of palm oil were successful, a considerable population of people would be unemployed and
Deforestation is a widely used term, but one with different meanings. Disturbance deforestation refers to all man made disturbances that alter a forest, these are the most common. This argumentative essay discusses the positive and negative aspects of deforestation. In the first part of the essay the pro arguments of deforestation will be discussed. For example, the issue of Global population and how forests are being used, land use and the ways forests contribute, wood use, forest growth, destruction and the reasons for cutting down the trees. The second half of the essay will cover the issues that are harmful to the environment because of deforestation. Many environmental issues take place everyday; a big question that arises, is if the global economy will ever finds middle on the issue of forest thinning. If deforestation was used only in the most crucial of times, the world might become a better place.
Overall, humans impact the global environment in multitudinous ways whether positive or negative. While creating issues such as overpopulation, pollution, biomagnification, and deforestation they also intrude into many other factors such as environmental, social, political, and economic. Problems caused by society itself are leading up to solutions to fix these environmental problems and may also just benefit the world as a whole.
Prenzel, Paula V., and Frank Vanclay. 2014. "How social impact assessment can contribute to conflict management." Environmental Impact Assessment Review no. 45 (0):30-37. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2013.11.003.
GreenPalm (2015) states how ‘the removal of acres of rainforest threatens the rich biodiversity’ in the ‘ecosystems’. Highlighting the risks of the cutting of the oil palm trees to produce the palm oil to both the environment and also the organisms which live within the areas, as certain species in the areas of the clearing of land, mainly with the palm oil ‘exported from Indonesia and Malaysia’ according to Say-No-To-Palm-Oil (2015), face possible extinction. There is still however ways in which the production of palm oil can be sustainable to the environment, as palm oil is essential for the use by humans because of the containment of the nutrients and also with the production of foods and
In an effort to create a sustainable global environment a significant area of focus needs to be on the interrelationships that contribute to this goal. As with the relationships associated with globalization our actions are interconnected with one another, one nations decisions in a particular geographical area can often times impact those in another geographical areas. The same cause and effect theory applies to environmental interrelationships. An area that this can be most prevalent...
The effects of using fossil fuels are starker than their timelines. Humans release approximately two billion metric tons of pollution annually, mostly from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas; this pollution is destroying our environment and the ozone layer. Ozone and smog damage forests, crops, and other plant life, and reduces visibility. Other pollutants have the same
ü AIR POLLUTION- Sulphur dioxide from burning fossil fuels leading to acid rain, carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels and methane from cattle and rice fields leading to greenhouse effect and global warming. ü LAND POLLUTION - pesticides, herbicides, and nitrates wash into rivers and lakes affecting food chains. Habitat reduction by Humans = ==
Although subsistence activities have dominated agriculture-driven deforestation in the tropics to date, large-scale commercial activities are playing an increasingly significant role. In the Amazon, industrial-scale cattle ranching and soybean production for world markets are increasingly important causes of deforestation, and in Indonesia, the conversion of tropical forest to commercial palm tree plantations to produce bio-fuels for export is a major cause of deforestation on Borneo and Sumatra.
implications of CO2emissions for climate change), broader range of environmental consequences to be considered (from implicationsto impacts), wider set of linkages and trade-offs with economic and social issues (e.g. a national energy policy or plan compared to a power
These two case studies along with the other information above provide examples of the vast impacts that climate change is currently having and further changes that are predicted to have on both the environment and human development in the future. Some of these impacts are positive however overall negative impacts are expected to occur. This will create many consequences and issues for future generations, some challenges which may be overcome, and some which may not.
they create many breathing and heart conditions like cancer and other threats in the body, that is why children who are exposed through air pollutants are most likely to have pneumonia and asthma.