Geography [5 Mark Question Answer]

The role of every individual in environmental protection is of great importance because if every individual contributes substantially, the effect will be visible not only at the community, city or national level but also at the global level. Each individual should change his or her life style in such a way as to reduce environmental pollution. It can be done by following ways:
(i) Use carry bags made of paper or cloth instead of polythene.
(ii) Use eco-friendly products.
(iii) Use CFC free refrigerators.
(iv) Use organic manure instead of commercial inorganic fertilizers.
(v) Plant more trees, as trees can absorb many toxic gases and can purify the air by releasing oxygen.

Water treated by primary treatment is not fit for drinking. Therefore, it undergoes the process of secondary treatment. Secondary treatment has the following two steps:
(i) Softening: The hard water has actions of calcium and magnesium. To soften water lime and soda ashore-added to the water to precipitate calcium and magnesium ions as carbonates. The precipitate is then filtered out. The water so treated goes through porous actions exchanger in which water becomes action free.
(ii) Aeration: In order to make the water fit for drinking some amount of oxygen is forced into it. Aeration of water is carried out by forcing air through water in the form of air bubbles. This process adds oxygen and other gases and reduces the content of carbon gases and reduces the content of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide in the water.

The government is hot just the protector of the country’s environment but also has a major responsibility for sustaining environmental conscience. The government’s environmental policy focusses on the following areas:
(i) The check degradation of land and water through wasteland management and restorations of river water quality programmes.
(ii) To monitor development through environmental impact assessment studies of major project proposals; and
(iii) To make laws and acts for environment protection and to initiate penal measures against those who violate these laws.

Incineration is the process of destroying waste materials by burning. Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals, and so on a large scale industries.
Advantages:
(i) It is a useful technology to deal with large quantities of organic hazardous wastes that have high calorific value and cannot be dealt with by other methods.
(ii) Incineration kills pathogenic organisms and reduces the volume of the waste up to 50 percent.
Disadvantage:
(i) Incineration equipment has high maintenance requirements.
(ii) Incineration consumes significant amount of energy to achieve high temperature.

(i) Ammonia seems to be an internal poison to fish as it gets into the body through the gills.
(ii) Bio-accumulation in sea-birds and marine mammals has been linked to reduced breeding success.
(iii) In aquatic ecosystems, cadmium can bio-accumulate in mussels, oysters, lobsters and fish.
(iv) Air contaminated with ozone has irritant qualities and is responsible for pulmonary changes, edema and haemorrhage in dogs, cats and rabbits.
(v) Oil is reported to coat the gills of fish which affects their respiration.

(i) Aluminium cans are melted down and recycled into new aluminium cans and other products made of aluminium.
(ii) Newspapers and telephone books are ground up and made into newsprint, cereal boxes, cellulose insulation for keeping homes warm, paper egg cartons, and ceiling tiles.
(iii) Glass bottles are crushed, melted and recycled into more glass bottles, or used along with sand and gravel in asphalt roads.
(iv) Automobile scrap tires are generally chipped and burned as a fuel in place of or in addition to coal. Scrap tires are also manufactured into numerous rubber products including rubber mats and rubber bumpers.
(v) Yard and food waste can be composted in your backyard. Since the compost contains plenty of nitrogen and other organic nutrients, it is great in gardens and flower beds.

Recycling is important for several reasons:
(i) Recycling conserves natural resources. Some of these natural resources such as oil, natural gas and minerals are non-renewable resources. Simply put, they don’t get replaced as we pull them out of the ground. Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.
(ii) Recycling conserves landfill space. Landfill space will last longer if we only put items that are not recyclable into them. It costs a great deal of money to build a landfill and we need to be careful how much and how fast we fill them up.
(iii) Recycling employs people. Recycling employs people who (a) collect the recyclable material, (b) process the material or get it ready to sell to a manufacturer, (c) transport the materials to factories where it will be turned into new products, (d) take the material and manufacture it into new products, (e) manufacture equipment and products used by the recycling industry, and (f) manage local, state and federal government recycling programs and private and non-profit recycling programs.
(iv) Recycling conserves energy. Without question, recycling conserves the energy that would be necessary to create the same product from its raw resource.
(v) Recycling reduces our dependence on overseas natural resources. This is important in two very important ways, (a) it reduces our dependence on overseas oil and gas which has national security implications and (b) it reduces our foreign trade deficit which is important to the strength of our economy.