What are the Major Sustainability Issues?
August 15th, 2009 Posted in Green Living & News
Learning sustainability issues is important for anyone interested in conserving the environment and taking better care of health and home.
Major sustainability issues concern water, air, climate, wastes and pollution, global warming, green living, human health, and ecosystems.
Big on the radar today are water pollution and global warming, which are directly related.
Water, the most abundant resource on the face of the planet, is also the most vulnerable. Because we rely on it so much, we are susceptible to the harm of water pollution–a risk we also can avoid by sustainable solutions.
The EPA divides water pollution sources into two categories: point and non-point.
- Point sources of water pollution are stationary locations, such as sewage treatment plants, factories and ships.
- Non-point sources are more diffuse and include agricultural runoff, mining activities and paved roads. Under the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States.
Unfortunately, the Clean Water Act does not protect all of America’s waterways. According to the environmental non-profit agency, Clean Water Action, “Scientists estimate 7 million Americans are sickened by contaminated tap water every year, and nearly 40% of our rivers fail to meet current clean water standards.”
Moreover, Clean Water reports, “Regional and national water resources may become more seasonal as global warming intensifies, increasing the frequency and severity of droughts and floods. Without clean, reliable water resources, we cannot grow food, produce energy, fuel transportation or manufacture goods. Without water, we cannot survive.”
Global warming, meanwhile, is a real and scientifically verifiable threat.
The International Panel on Climate Change warns that “without intervention, temperatures may increase more than 10°F by the end of this century. As the world grows hotter, water resources will become scarcer and more seasonal. Increasingly frequent heat waves will be accompanied by intense storms, dangerous floods and severe drought” (Clean Water Action).
Pretty catastrophic, but accurate.
As Clean Water states, the world relies almost completely on fossil fuel and nuclear energy production methods, “which accelerate climate change while contaminating our water resources with ionizing radiation, heavy metals and chemical pollution. …In fact, the Department of Energy confirms energy production is the second highest water user in the country, exceeded only by agriculture.”
The scary thing is, while global warming intensifies and droughts become more common, our existing power plants may not be able to secure enough water to support energy production.
Clean Water recommends a few goals to decrease greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, a trajectory set by the IPCC.
They are:
- Dramatically reduce our current reliance on fossil fuel based energy sources.
- Make the switch to renewable energy sources for electricity, such as wind and solar.
- Increase efficiency and use of alternative fuel sources in the transportation sector and increase use of public transportation.
- Institute immediate energy efficiency and conservation measures, which reap benefits quickly and economically.
Since fossil fuels drive our current energy industry and accelerate global warming with the release of climate-altering gases into the atmosphere, we have to identify energy sources that are not dependent upon “consistent, reliable water supplies” (Clean Water).
Why?
According to Clean Water and the IPCC, “Power plants taint our drinking water and damage essential habitats with heavy metals and chemical pollution. … In fact, many of our current energy sources will no longer be available as water grows scarcer.”
Other sustainability issues?
According to Clean Water, they are:
- Coal
- Approximately half of U.S. electricity is generated by coal burning power plants.
- A typical 500 megawatt coal power plant uses more than 2 billion gallons of water each year.
- This water is used to wash coal, cool the power plant, drive power-generating turbines and clean emissions.
- In total, there are more than 500 coal-burning power plants located throughout the United States, which rely on more than 1 trillion gallons of water every year.
- Nuclear
- Nuclear power plants supply approximately 20% of U.S. electricity.
- They use billions of gallons of water every day to absorb excess heat, maintain safe operating temperatures and drive steam-powered turbines.
- As environmental water levels drop due to climate change, drought or increased competing demand, many nuclear reactors may not be able to harvest sufficient quantities of water.
- 24 of the United States’ 104 active nuclear reactors are sited in regions experiencing severe drought.
- Already, the Tennessee Valley Authority was forced to temporarily shut down an Alabama-based nuclear plant due to water restrictions during summer 2007.
- Ethanol
- One gallon of corn-based ethanol, which relies heavily on irrigation and chemical fertilizers (not to be confused with EcoSMART’s organic pest control products), requires more than 1,000 gallons of water to produce and dramatically increases water pollution via runoff.
For information on how you can make a difference, visit Clean Water Action’s website.
