- Solar power, which has been used quite extensively. The sun is natural energy and should be used for lighting, especially outside lighting in order to preserve electrical resources.
- According to Brown (1999), urban transportation systems will change by using bicycles, walking and high-tech light rail systems as opposed to cars.
- Brown also suggests that the economy will become a reuse/recycle economy as opposed to a throwaway economy. There is no perceived problem with this because resources must be utilized before they are gone.
- Oil and coal expanded by just over 1 percent a year between 1990 and 1999, while solar cell use expanded by 16% per year
- Wind power expanded by an annual rate of 26 percent. And already supplies 8 percent of Denmark's electricity, 15 percent of the electricity for Schleswig-Holstein Germany, and expanded from 0 to 23% in Spain's northern state of Navarra within three years time.
- A new Japanese solar roofing material promises to revolutionize the electrical generating industry. In Germany, the 100,000 roofs program launched in December of 1998 by the new coalition government is leading to a joint investment by Shell Oil/Pilkington in a solar cell manufacturing facility that will be the world's largest.
- Replacing carbon-based energy to hydrogen based energy is already in place and Shell invested in the transition (Brown, 1999).
WASTE
All organisms produce waste. Enzymes help to breakdown proteins and starch, aiding in the process. Even if enzymes were able to breakdown all food entering the body, enzymes produce waste as well. Therefore, all organisms produce waste. Even mouth bacteria produce waste in our mouths. Waste can become a problem in the environment because some sewers lead to the ocean. Further, other types of wastes may harm the environment such as toxic wastes and illegal dumping of wastes (illegal landfills). Radioactive waste is harmful to the environment as high levels of radiation can kill and lower levels can cause cancer and birth defects (Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, n.d.). Many times, motor oil is spilled on soil, and oil spills effect oceans and the organisms living in the water.
NUTRIENT CYCLE
Everything comes around full circle. Energy flows through ecosystems from all organisms. For example, plants receive solar energy from the sun and use the energy to convert carbon dioxide into glucose and other sugars. Respiration is “the extraction of energy from carbon-carbon bonds at the cellular level" (). The flow of energy is essential in ecosystems, but natural events can interfere with nutrient cycles. Nature and human fouls can interfere with nutrient cycles such as wildfire, drought, hurricanes, volcanoes, and overgrazing. Humans manipulate ecosystems by improperly stripping mines which causes floods, pollution, monocultures and excessive predator control (Tree Dictionary, n.d.).
REFERENCES
Brown, L., (1999). World May Be on Edge of Environmental Revolution Retrieved on
August 27, 2005 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ecosystem.html
Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (n.d.) Retrieved on August 27, 2005 from
the World Wide Web: http://www.corwm.org.uk/content-358
MC Biology (n.d.) Environmental Biology-Ecosystems Retrieved on August 27, 2005
from the World Wide Web: http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ecosystem.html
Tree Dictionary (n.d.) Retrieved on August 27, 2005 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/hardtoget/ma149/pg_88-116/
