- The effects of ozone layer depletion
Just like humans wearing clothes to keep out the cold, the Earth has a layer that protects life on it from the sun's damaging ultraviolet rays. This is the ozone layer, which lies in the Earth's stratosphere. The ozone layer is very important to the Earth! Without it, people would be susceptible to various skin diseases and have an underdeveloped immune system. The ozone layer is said to have a high concentration of this gas. This is true, because this gives it a natural absorption capacity of almost 99%. destructive ultraviolet radiation. It protects us and life on Earth, and we often don't even realize it! However, the ozone layer is in fact under threat. This gas, it is not known exactly since when, because there are different theories on this subject, is diluting in the polar regions, which has been called by scientists the ozone hole, and this causes its cover to decrease. Comparing it to human clothing, it is as if we took off our warm outer clothing during a harsh winter. What is ozone depletion? The gradual thinning of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is called ozone depletion.
- A new industrial revolution
Changes in socio-economic development - both on a global and regional scale, and to some extent even on a local scale - are occurring faster and faster and have a specific feature in each subsequent cycle. Well, in the 1970s, problems of pollution of the natural environment[1] by the economy and related protective measures arose. Therefore, issues such as the limits of economic growth due to the depletion of raw materials and the sources of financing for investments in environmental protection have arisen. Of course, ecological issues turned out to be important, although they cause controversy to this day, but now the issues of digitization of the economy - especially enterprises and households - are coming to the fore. First of all, it leads to diametric and even revolutionary changes in people's lives and the functioning of society, i.e. to the creation of Society 5.0 in the near future. According to experts, this is supposed to be a great progress in civilization, but this issue also causes a lot of controversy and concern. Previous changes in the development of civilization were also revolutionary in nature, but they were slower and more gradual. The first industrial revolution involved the creation of the factory industry through the use of steam drive in machines in the years 1760-1780 and lasted until approximately 1870. The second industrial revolution was the result of the emergence of electricity and internal combustion engines as well as serial and mass production (e.g. H. Ford's car plants in 1913). - Radioactive isotopes may contaminate drinking water supplies
More than 250 nuclear weapons tests were carried out on the globe between 1948 and 1959, and then about 500 nuclear power plants began to operate. These two factors resulted in the contamination of groundwater by radioactive substances in the areas where tests were carried out and where power plant disasters occurred, i.e. in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Undoubtedly, the concentration of radionuclides increased dramatically in these regions, and over the years we realized that the circulation in nature was so intense that traces of them appeared even on other continents. Radioactive isotopes are carried by air currents and sea waters, and some amounts of them may even appear in our drinking water intakes. An example is the radioactive isotope of hydrogen called tritium with the symbol H3, which has always been present in trace amounts on our globe in the air, soil and groundwater. It is formed in the highest parts of the Earth's atmosphere, where under the influence of cosmic rays acting on hydrogen contained in the air, the tritium isotope is formed and then washed into groundwater by rains. - Advantages and disadvantages of waste incineration
Reduce, reuse, recycle and recover remind us how important it is to reduce waste production every day and thus avoid the piles of waste in landfills. There are several methods used to manage them. In addition to the 4Rs, i.e.: REDUCE - I read e-mails on the monitor, I do not print them, REUSE - I use recycled paper, RECYCLING - I reduce the use of paper and send the used one for processing, RECOVER - after eating fruit and vegetables, I compost the remains, obtaining ecological fertilizer. If we take a closer look at waste management, it turns out that most often waste is collected in landfills, and a minimal percentage of it is thermally utilized. Incineration is one of the methods of waste processing. Along with other high-temperature processes in converting waste materials into ash, exhaust gases and heat. Ash consists mainly of inorganic waste components and may be in the form of lumps or solid particles carried by the exhaust gases. Exhaust gases are excess by-products of combustion and should be cleaned of particulate matter and pollutants before being released into the air. As for the heat generated in the process, it can be useful in several ways. - Disposal, storage and recycling
There are several options available for what to do with hazardous waste. It would be most desirable to reduce their production quantity at the manufacturer or use them for another purpose. However, while reduction and recycling are desirable options, they are not considered the final solution to the problem of hazardous waste disposal. There will always be a need to store a certain amount of them that cannot be disposed of in any way. Hazardous waste can be neutralized using chemical, thermal, biological and physical methods. Chemical methods include ion exchange, precipitation, oxidation, reduction. Among the thermal methods is high-temperature incineration, which not only can detoxify some organic waste, but can also destroy it. Special types of thermal devices burn them into a solid, liquid or slurry. They are incinerated using multi-section rotary fluidized bed furnaces. - Pollution control
In environmental engineering, there are many different measures used to reduce damage resulting from the discharge of harmful substances into the environment. Here are some examples of such measures: Mechanical cleaning. Water and air can be subjected to filtration, sedimentation and separation processes to remove solid particles and suspensions. - Re_cology project
2,276 primary schools, 13,214 classes and over 300,000 children took part in the implementation of the Re_kologia educational project. The project, the aim of which was to educate about waste segregation and recycling, was implemented by PepsiCo Polska and Rekopol, the Packaging Recovery Organization. The popularity of the project is proven by over 74,000 views of the program's website. In June 2023, at the end of school classes, the third edition of this program ended, thus ending the education of primary school students and their families on waste separation. - Kozienice Commune – Together we work for a green, competitive and socially integrated Europe
The project entitled: "Deep thermal modernization of the building of Public Primary School No. 3 in Kozienice" is implemented by the Kozienice Commune as part of a subsidy from the so-called Norwegian funds and EEA funds (European Economic Area). – This is the largest project from Norwegian funds implemented in our commune – said Mayor Piotr Kozłowski – Its value is over PLN 9 million, of which PLN 6,200,000. constitutes co-financing. - The role of plants resistant to temporary water shortages in improving biodiversity in ecosystems
Biodiversity protection is one of the specific goals of the National Ecological Policy (PEP) 2030 in the country's development management system. It is significantly related to the concern for a clean environment and water availability, which, among other things, is important in the range of plants and affects their condition. Currently, increasingly frequent water deficits and the expansion of urban areas make it necessary to introduce more plants into ecosystems with increased resistance to water stress, which also have decorative values and, above all, are valuable for beneficial organisms. - The value of ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are typically divided into three categories: provisioning, regulatory and cultural. Their economic value tells us how many other goods people are willing to – or would have to – give up if such services were not available. The economic value of supply services seems to be the easiest to estimate, but only apparently, because it requires separating the role of nature from the role of other inputs on which this supply is based. Cultural services require going into various details informing about what specific values people value when communing with nature. - Trees and people
Trees hold a magical place in our perception of the world, in all cultures. We are perhaps related to them by a sense of mysterious bond, just as we are related to the stars. These plants constantly arouse our curiosity, like life itself. We attribute mysterious properties to trees, wanting to express our feelings of admiration for the environment in which we live and work. No nation is alone in this, because in the history of each of them trees have always been held in a special cult and enjoyed the protection of the gods. It so happens that we all benefit from the effects of activities known as forest management. Our great-great-great-grandfathers were probably aware of this, but it was lost over time. The problem for all of us is that we have begun to use various types of forest goods and utilities without moderation. Until recently, we believed that this piece of forest closest to us would last forever and that access to it would always be free. Today we know that it does not have to be like this and it is not, and excessive use of the forest leads to its destruction, just like it happens to any "common good" deprived of a host. This leads directly to the impoverishment of this most beautiful of worlds. There is far too much evidence in the history of every country that the course of events may take this direction. This is not the way that foresters in Europe and around the world are calling for.
AURA Ochrona Środowiska (AURA Environmental Protection) - the whole list
