Ecological problems of usa

Ecological problems of USA.

Uzbekistan's main environmental problems are soil salinity, land pollution, and water pollution. In 1992, Uzbekistan had the world's 27th highest level of carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 123.5 million metric tons, a per capita level of 5.75 metric tons. In 1996, the total dropped to 94.9 million metric tons. Chemicals used in farming, such as DDT, contribute to the pollution of the soil. Desertification is a continuing concern.

The nation's forestlands are also threatened and continue to dwindle. Between 1990-1995, deforestation occurred at an annual average rate of 2.65%.
The country's water supply also suffers from toxic chemical pollutants from industrial activity as well as fertilizers and pesticides. Uzbekistan has 16.3 cu km of renewable water resources, with 94% used for farming and 2% used for industrial purposes. The Aral Sea has been drying up and, as a result, pesticides and natural salts in its water have become increasingly concentrated. The nation's cities produce an average of 45.8 million tons of solid waste per year.
As of 2001, only 1.8% of Uzbekistan's total land area is protected. In 2001, 7 mammal species and 11 bird species were threatened with extinction. Threatened or rare species include the markhor, Central Asia cobra, Aral salmon, slender-billed curlew, and Asiatic wild dog. The Jeseter hladky has become extinct.
Despite Uzbekistan's rich and diverse natural environment, decades of environmental neglect in the former Soviet Union, have made Uzbekistan one of the most serious environmental crises in the CIS. An overview of Uzbekistan's environmental problems presented by Naturvernforbundet, Factsanddetails, and Countrystudies will show the ill-conceived nature of human economic activity in the country.
The intensive use of agrochemicals, the diversion of huge amounts of irrigation water from the two rivers that feed the region, and the chronic lack of water treatment facilities are among the factors that have caused enormous health and environmental problems. Environmental devastation in Uzbekistan is best illustrated by the Aral Sea disaster. Because of the diversion of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for cotton growing and other purposes, which was once the fourth largest inland sea in the world has shrunk in the last thirty years to about one-third of its 1960 volume and less than half its 1960 geographic size.
Lake desiccation and salinization caused severe storms of salt and dust from the dried seabed, damaging the region's agriculture and ecosystems and public health. Desertification has resulted in large-scale plant and animal mortality, loss of cropland, changes in climatic conditions, depletion of crops on cultivated lands that remain, and destruction of historical and cultural monuments. Many tons of salt are reportedly transported up to 800 kilometers each year.
Regional experts claim that salt and dust storms in the Aral Sea have raised the level of particulate matter in the earth's atmosphere by more than 5 percent, seriously affecting global climate change. However, the Aral Sea disaster is only the most visible indicator of environmental destruction. The Soviet approach to environmental management led to decades of poor water management and lack of water treatment and purification facilities; excessive use of pesticides, herbicides, defoliants, and fertilizers in the fields; and construction of industrial plants without regard to human or environmental impact. This policy poses enormous environmental problems throughout Uzbekistan.
Industrial waste and intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture have contributed to serious pollution of rivers and lakes in Uzbekistan. Contaminated drinking water is considered the cause of many human health problems. Agricultural chemicals have also contaminated the soil in areas where crops are grown. In 1992, the government established the State Environmental Protection Committee. Nevertheless, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) became leaders in environmental initiatives, especially with regard to preserving and protecting regional water resources.
The widespread use of chemicals to grow cotton, inefficient irrigation systems, and poor drainage systems are examples of conditions that have led to high seepage of saline and polluted water back into the soil. Post-Soviet policies became even more dangerous, in the early 1990s the average use of chemical fertilizers and insecticides in the Central Asian republics was twenty to twenty-five kilograms per hectare, compared to the former average of three kilograms per hectare for the entire Soviet Union. As a result, the freshwater supply received additional pollution. Industrial pollutants also damaged water in Uzbekistan. In the Amu Darya, concentrations of phenol and petroleum products were measured well above acceptable sanitary standards.
Drinking water quality is a serious problem, especially in the western province of Karakalpakstan, where water is not properly distributed and sources are subject to various types of surface and underground pollution. Inadequate wastewater treatment contributes to Uzbekistan's water pollution problem: only 40 percent of the population is served by sewerage systems. About 15,000 hectares of pasture are lost annually to salt and dust. Soil contamination is the highest in agricultural areas, which have been subjected to annual overdoses of fertilizers and pesticides. Uncontrolled logging has endangered the few remaining forest stands.
Most industrial cities and settlements are located in zones characterized by low atmospheric dispersion capacity, especially for low and cold emissions. Climatic conditions of Uzbekistan are characterized by weak winds, surface temperature inversion, air stagnation. Fogs are rare here and the amount of precipitation that washes impurities out of the atmosphere is low. High intensity of solar radiation contributes to photochemical reactions in the polluted atmosphere, which result in formation of various substances, in particular ozone, often more toxic than the primary ones coming directly from pollution sources. Such cities include Tashkent and located in the region Olmaliq, Angren, Okhangaron, Bekabad, Chirchik; enterprises of Andijan and Fergana regions are located in the zone of very high potential atmospheric pollution.
High levels of heavy metals such as lead, nickel, zinc, copper, mercury and manganese were found in the atmosphere of Uzbekistan, mainly as a result of fossil fuel combustion, waste and ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. Particularly high concentrations of heavy metals were registered in the Tashkent region and in the southern part of Uzbekistan near the Olmaliq metallurgical plant.
Particularly noteworthy is atmospheric pollution in the Saryassi and Denaussi districts of Surkhandarya province, where the air content of hydrogen fluoride, fluorides, sulfur compounds, nitrogen, carbon determine the emissions of the Tajik aluminum plant, which uses raw materials with elevated fluoride content. As a result, in recent years, nut groves, orchards and vineyards in Saryassia district have died, and 75 families - more than three hundred people - have moved to live in other districts. Increased fluorine content in the air affects the health of the population, the yield of cotton (despite the sanitary protection zone of the plant of 2.5 km). The current situation forced to reduce the plant's capacity by 1/4.
Thus, the country's environmental problems are largely the result of misuse and mismanagement of natural resources, driven by economic and other priorities. For the preservation of the natural environment and the solution of environmental problems, the level of ecological culture of the whole society plays an important role. In order to form and develop environmental culture among the population, it is necessary to create a special methodology of environmental education, on the basis of which and with the help of which people could control their actions and actively form environmental culture.