Env.S . (Day) , (Time) .
Topical Summary Assignment.
Industrial Ecology.
INFORMATIONAL ABSTRACT.
For various commodities to be produced, raw materials have to undergo various processes in their specific industries until the final output is produced. This process takes place in industries. Industries need to regulate their manufacturing processes so that they take part in maintenance of the environment since lately it has been noted that the key factor destroying our environment is the industries through the manufacturing process. The emissions from the production of these commodities by the chimneys of factories pollute the air by releasing dangerous gases into the atmosphere. These gases combine chemically in the atmosphere to form more poisonous gases which contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer and they also contaminate the air we breathe in. This causes a negative shift in the ecosystem which is harmful to both plants and animals. These incidents have brought up a debate among environmental protection organizations all over the world a topic known as industrial ecology has been studied continuously so that various methods can be thought of and used to curb these negative effects on the ecosystem. (No of words, 150).
KEY ISSUES AND FACTS
- .For various commodities to be produced, raw materials have to undergo various processes in their specific industries until the final output is produced. This process takes place in industries. ( Mohamane 2012,p.48)
- Industries need to regulate their manufacturing processes so that they take part in maintenance of the environment since lately it has been noted that the key factor destroying our environment is the industries through the manufacturing process.(Mohamane 2012, p.18-19)
- A case known as industrialization-Industrialization is basically the process whereby a state stops ceases on dependence of human effort only and incorporates machines in the production process. The introduction of machines have made work easier for man hence for it has become a key element to many countries undergoing industrialization since through this, their economy can be raised via a variety of production activities which gains the mother state revenue by trading on the produced goods.(Moyle 2004, p.56)
- Industrialization has continuously contributed negatively to the cleanliness of the environment. As each day goes by and as more commodities are produced, pollution on the environment increases as a result of various processes that industries employ to get rid of their waste products. This leads to continuous depletion of the environment which consists of the natural resources of a country. Not only is the environment harmed but also those that live in it, a condition that leads to shifting the ecosystem’s balance unfavourably. (Adriano 2011, p.74)
- According to Hardin .B.C. (2000), the environmental issues facing industries are now not focused on local toxic impacts as much as this remains dangerously serious. There are now unintended effects on the total global environment, of which global warming and ozone depletion may be only the most visible of a multitude of adverse symptoms. (Mohamane 2012, p.43)
- The following figure shows the impact of global warming on the earth’s temperature over recent years as induced by environmental pollution.
- The pie chart below shows the emission of air pollutants by volume. It is through air pollution that the ozone layer is destroyed.
- Industrial ecology involves constructing industrial infrastructures as if they were a series of interlocking ecosystems. There is continuous development in various sectors such as global prosperity, global highways for telecommunication, global market, and global production in industries. This prospect induces a realization that, the current modes of industrial production cannot be adequate enough to sustain on such a level an environmentally safe growth and therefore they are obsolete. This challenge comes about since we are coming up with global systems that are artificial within the naturally pre-existing ones. Obviously the two cannot co-exist if one system overwhelms the other. (Moyle 2004, p.78-80)
- Therefore there is a need to formulate regulations which will govern the activities that the overwhelming system such that they do not infringe the other system. (Moyle 2004, p.42 -43)
- Nature is the uncompromised master for complex systems and within the model of a universal industrial system a lot could be learnt from the manner in which the natural universal ecosystem functions. By doing so, not only is the industry’s efficiency will be improved but also a more acceptable way of interacting with nature will be realised. The surest way of doing this is may be to design the systemic model of an industry within the natural systems ‘systemic design. This technique is at the core of the closely linked concepts of industrial metabolism, industrial symbiosis, industrial ecology, and industrial ecosystems, which have all emerging in the recent past. (Holsinger 2007,p.34-39)
- The main challenge facing industries is to establish how this thinking can function practically, and which implementations would be involved. (Mohamane 2012, p. 10-11)
- The outcry against globalization is usually cast in social and economic terms: developed versus undeveloped, north versus south, exploiters versus exploited rich versus poor. The wrongs evoked are socioeconomic and therefore political, bringing to mind visions of or semi enslaved workers labouring in Third World factories and on Third World farms to produce the goods and the growing number of the services consumed in the industrial nations. But there is another non-political side of globalization that demands attention which is the impact of globalization on the environment.(Mohamane 2012 , p.64-67)
- The environmental and social effects of globalization are intimately interconnected and equally important, yet it is the latter that receive nearly all of the attention. The social changes brought by the globalization process are still in flux, and the outcomes over the next few decades are unclear. There are various impacts of globalization that have been observed over the years. The major ones include:
- The Disappearance of Cheap Energy.
The surge in energy use was unavoidable, this is because the undeveloped parts of the world adopted the energy-wasting industrialization model of the developed part, and goods which were manufactured locally began to be transported all over the world at a very high cost of energy as fuel used in ships and other carriage vehicles.
(2). Loss of Agricultural Biodiversity.
Among many other environmental consequences of globalization, reduced genetic and cultural biodiversity in agriculture is most important. As members of the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries, many subsidiary seed corporations market their patented seeds in more areas majorly isolated from global trade, farmers are neglecting their traditional crop varieties, the reservoir of our accumulated genetic agricultural wealth, in favour of a few, high-yielding, often chemical-dependent seeds.
(3). Loss of Wild Species.
The decrease of diversity in agriculture is paralleled by the loss and a change of wild species globally. The global extinction of species coming up, unprecedented in its rapidity, is the only partly the result of globalization, but globalization is a major cause of extinctions. It increases species loss in multiple ways; it increases the numbers of exotic species carried by the soaring plane, ship, rail, and truck traffic of global trade. (Harte 1993, p.44)
KEY TERMS AND PHRASES.
- Industrial ecology-the study of the material and energy flows through an industrial system(harte 1993, p.43)
- Pollution-refers to the introduction of contaminants to the natural environment causing an adverse change(moyle 2004,p.78)
- Globalization-it is the process of international integration of ideas, products, opinions and other aspects of the economy (mohamane 2012,p. 64)
- Biodiversity-it is the different variations of species, plants, genetic compositions of living things in the environment (Adriano 2011, p.74)
- Ecosystem-a combination of the living and non-living components in an environment. (mohamane 2012, p.44)
- Industrialization- process whereby a state stops depending on human effort only and incorporates machines in the production process.( holsinger 2007, p.39)
- Ozone layer-the top most layer of the atmosphere that protects the earth from the sun’s dangerous ultra-violet rays. (mohamane 2012, p.19)
- Global warming- process through which the earth’s temperature rises due to repeated bouncing of the sun’s radiations on and off the earth’s surface(mohamane ,p.18)
- Environment-anything that surrounds a living or non-living thing.(wikibook 2012,p.13)
- Industry-a firm that is involved in producing products and selling them to get profits. (moyle 2004,p. 54)
RECOMMENDATION.
Managers of industries have to take the environment into consideration when making their decisions. Bad decisions in the past have led to the negative effects we see on the environment today. A lot needs to be done to ensure that these decisions do not impact the environment negatively. For example, courts of law can issue a ruling that allows managers only a certain jurisdiction over which they can make certain decisions. Failure to act under this jurisdiction should result in them being fined or appearing in front of a court of law. This can be a definite way of ensuring that the industries co-exist with the environment therefore enforcing a balanced ecosystem.
CONCLUSION.
It is evident that the environment needs our protection. As its custodians we need to constantly protect it from harm. For these efforts to succeed, every person involved in the industrialization process has to contribute to making our environment safe and preserved for future generations.
REFERENCES.
- Clark, William C., "Managing Planet Earth," Sdentfic Americon (Special Edition, September 1989), p. 51
- Frosch, Robert, and Nicholas Gallopoulos, "Strategies for Manufacturing," Scientific American (Special Edition, September 1989), pp. 144-152.
- Hertwich, E. G., W. S. Pease, and C. P. Koshland, 1997. “Evaluating the environmental impact of products and production processes: A comparison of six methods,” Science of the Total Environment, 196, 13-29
- O'Rourke, D., L. Connelly, and C. P. Koshland, 1996. “Industrial ecology - a critical review,” Int. J. Environ. Pollution 6 (2-3), 89-112.
