18.3By: Emily Geisheimer

10th period

Preserving the Ecosystem

• Environmental problems affect everybody in the world.

• Advances are being made to reduce air and water pollution.

• Secondary sewage treatment facilities remove chemicals and bacteria from sewage.

Preserving the Ecosystem• Pollutants produced

by coal have been reduced by 30% in ten years.

• Special car lanes promote car pooling which reduces the pollution from a car. It also reduces gas costs.

Environmental Laws• Cars are required to have

catalytic converters which reduces emissions.

• Clean Air Act- requires scrubbers on smokestacks and power plants.

• Scrubbers are more expensive. The result is that the consumer pays more to reduce pollution in the environment.

• Taxes can reduce pollution by reflecting the actual cost of pollution. Ex: Gas taxes

5 Steps to Solving Environmental Problems

• Assessment- Gather information, collect data, analyze data, make a model.

• Risk Analysis- Predict the consequences and check any negative effects.

• Public Education- present alternative actions and explain the probable costs and results of different choices.

5 Steps to Solving Environmental Problems

• Political Action- Elected officials select their approach and individuals can vote by speaking to their elected officials.

• Follow-Through- results of an action should be watched to see if the problem is being solved.

Nashua River• Stoddart moved to a town along

a river and was appalled at the pollution in the river. Stoddart organized the Nashua River Cleanup Committee.

• Steps the Committee took- presented dirty river water to politicians, spoke at town meetings, gathered people to help finance a waste treatment plant, and cleaned up garbage from the bank of the river.

• Resulted in the Massachusetts Clean Water Act which banned industrial dumping into the river.

Lake Washington

• Sewage plants would dump their industrial waste into the lake.

• The waste was thought to be harmless and said to be safe enough to drink.

• 20 million gallons were dumped in the lake each day.

Lake Washington• Professor Edmondson

heard that his research students had been finding blue-green algae growing in the lake.

• Algae needed a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus to grow.

• The Lake usually lacked them which made it surprising.

• The two nutrients in the lake had been fertilizing the algae.

Lake Washington• Bacteria that

decomposed dead algae would soon take all the oxygen out of the lake.

• Taxes helped clean up the lake.

• After 5 years, the lake was healthy and safe again.

Your Help with Environmental Problems

• Solving environmental problems will take everyone’s help. • An easy way to contribute is to know what is going on. • Ride a bike or walk instead of taking a car. • Take public transportation. • Recycle. • Install low-flow shower heads. This reduces shower water

by 50%.

Multiple Choice

1. What was in lake Washington?a.) blue-green algae b.) industrial wastec.) nitrogen and phosphorus d.) all of the above

2. Which one is an environmental law? a.) Clean Air Actb.) Biking Law of 1967c.) car poolingd.) Waste Dumping Act of 1834

3. What is an effect of car pool lanes? a.) they save gas an pollute lessb.) the pollute the environment more than 2 carsc.) it saves timed.) it’s dangerous