The impact of people on their environment can be devastating. This is where the
respective role of governments can make decisions that shape environmental
policy and responsibilities. These governments can be broken up into four
different levels: local, state, federal and international. Air quality and
biodiversity are two current issues that can be related to the role of
governments. Global warming is also another implication that has a devastating
effect on the environment. Current examples include the rise in sea levels,
polar meltdowns, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers and human deaths due to
disease from the effects of global warming. Firstly the environment can be
defined as the natural features of our surroundings such as plant and animal
life and their habitats, water, soils and the atmosphere. A local government
named Rockdale Municipal Council has implemented certain actions to deal with
the quality in that region. They have recognized that the main source of poor
air quality originates from air pollution sources such as motor vehicles,
industrial premises and aircraft emissions. The solutions to these problems
include improvements to Ryde and Botany Bay cycle way, integration of land use
and transport planning strategies, production of "Air Quality - the
Facts" booklet for community, investigation of complaints regarding odours
and dust, tree planting and preparation of a Local Air Quality Management Plan
in 1999. Air quality is a major issue in most states within Australia that
affects our greenhouse, to tackle the implications state governments have
created policies and responsibilities. For instance Cities for Climate
Protection (CCP) is a program that enables mainly state governments to take
action on greenhouse. CCP provides these state governments with a strategic
framework to diminish greenhouse gas emissions by helping them identify and
recognize the emissions of their council and community, set a reduction goal and
develop and utilize an action plan to reach that goal. State actions include:
capturing the methane from landfill sites and public and non-car transport into
urban planning. On a federal or national basis Australia has employed policies
to increase the air quality. For example the Commonwealth Government will
guarantee that Australia carries its fair-share of the burden in worldwide
efforts to combat global air pollution through policy development and
implementation. They have also supported the National Greenhouse Strategy (NGS)
which began in late 1996. The government will also support the development of a
national strategy to observe and manage "air toxics". The air toxics
strategy will monitor, establish the levels of community exposure to, and manage
emissions of selected air toxics. The federal government will even consider the
inclusion of air toxics in a future National Environmental Protection Measure.
Further measures include the leading of the development of national ambient air
quality standards through the National Environmental Protection Council and the
assistance of the establishment of a National Pollutant Inventory which will
require large companies to publicly report their emission of 90 pollutants.
Local government Rockdale Municipal Council has introduced responsibilities and
policies to reduce the loss of biodiversity. This local government has learned
that the cause involves the introduction of species, pollution of land and
water, weed invasion and urban encroachment. Their solutions to these problems
comprise of the planting of over 3,500 plants and shrubs in Bardwell Valley and
Scotts Reserve, bush regeneration and planting in Scarborough Reserve,
involvement in Cooks River Foreshores Working Party and preparation of a flora
and fauna study in 2000. Policies towards the community include controlling
noxious weeds on your property, planting native trees indigenous to the area and
applying to the council prior to removing any trees. The Labor Tasmanian
Government has created a new Environment Policy on biodiversity that hopes to
preserve native plants and animals. The policies commit the government to
encourage community involvement in biological diversity programs, proclaim the
Tasman National Park, establish a State Biodiversity Committee with community
representation to arrange a Tasmanian Biodiversity Strategy, support the
development of a State Policy on the protection of remnant native vegetation,
examine the possibility of incorporating the Biodiversity Strategy into
legislation and seeking the co-operation of local government and the community
in including and enforcing biological diversity guidelines in development
criteria. The federal government has enabled several policies to deal with
conservation of Australia's biodiversity. The government will support the
National Reserve System program to expand Australia's National Parks, support
off-reserve biodiversity conservation including the planting of trees and the
protection of vegetation through the Bushcare program and work with the States
to reduce unsustainable land clearing, develop an "alert list" of
introduced plants and animals that pose a risk to our environment. The
government will also maintain a ban on the export of live fauna; support
research into Australia's floral and fauna assemblages as well as biodiversity
conservation methods and ratify the Desertification Convention. An international
conference held in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997 discussed issues on how best to
reduce global warming. Kyoto Protocol negotiations have reached a legally
binding agreement limiting the amount of gas emissions all industrialized
countries. The protocol also included provisions for emission trading between
industrialized countries. The overall nominal effect of the Kyoto protocol is
for a reduction of 5.2% of emissions by 2010. However the agreement has many
flaws and could lead to emission rising above 1990 levels. The protocol
specifies that Japan must reduce emissions by 6%, USA by 7% and the European
Union by 8%. The chairman of the conference negotiators, Raul Estrada said that
further discussions were needed to find a way of implementing a system of
trading in emissions. Trading allows countries that produce high levels of
greenhouse gases, such as the USA, to buy the right to retain or even increase
emissions. Global warming refers to an expected rise in global average
temperature due to the continued emission of greenhouse gases produced by
industry and agriculture which trap heat in the atmosphere. Higher temperatures
are expected to be accompanied by changing patterns of precipitation frequency
and intensity, changes in soil moisture and a rise of the global sea level. To
assess current examples relating to global warming, an examination is first
needed on these examples. Sea levels could rise six feet and up in future
centuries. The entire Amazon rainforest will be lost if the level of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere increases by more than 50%. But no matter whatever
action the world takes to stop global warming, sea levels are set to rise and
wipe out several island nations. The worst news is that whatever governments do
to cut emissions, sea levels will rise by at least 2 metres over the next few
hundred years, devastating Tuvalu and Kiribati in the Pacific and the Maldives
in the Indian Ocean. Low-lying farmland and cities occupied by hundreds of
millions of people will also be engulfed. Robert Nicholls of Middlesex
University in London stated that "thermal expansion of the ocean will
continue for many hundreds of years after CO2 is stabilized, due to the gradual
penetration of heat deeper and deeper into the ocean. All around the world ice
sheets and glaciers are melting at a rate quite remarkably since record keeping
began. A worldwide institute, based in Washington DC says that glaciers and
other features are particularly sensitive to temperature shifts, and that
"scientists suspect the enhanced melting is among the first observable
signs of human induced global warming. Some of the effects of global warming are
as follows: arctic ocean sea ice shrunk by 6% since 1978, with a 14% loss of
thicker year round ice, Greenland ice sheet has thinned by more than a metre a
year on its southern and eastern edges since 1993 and 22% of glacial ice volume
on the Tien Shan mountains has disappeared in the last 40 years. Worldwatch
declared that the Earth's ice cover reflects much of the sun's heat back into
space and the loss of much of it would affect the global, raise sea levels, and
threaten water supplies. They also stated that the land and water left revealed
by the retaining ice would themselves retain heat, creating a feedback loop that
would speed up the warming process. The institute pronounced that the world's
glaciers, taken as a whole, are now shrinking faster than they are growing.
Worldwatch also warns of the outcomes of retaining ice on wildlife. In northern
Canada reports of hunger and weight loss among polar bears have been associated
with ice cover changes. And in Antarctica, sea loss, rising air temperatures and
increased condensation are altering the habitats and the feeding and breeding
patterns of seals and penguins. Cornell University ecologists believe that
global warming may account for millions of human deaths from disease. David
Pimentel a professor of ecology at Cornell stated and assumes that "Most of
the increase in disease is due to numerous environmental factors, including
infectious microbes, pollution by chemicals and biological wastes and shortages
of food and nutrients. Global warming will only make matters worse." Global
warming will produce a favorable climate for disease producing organisms and
plant pests. Global climate change will result in a net loss of obtainable food,
for example the decline in rainfall (due to global warming) causes crop and
plant production to die out. Infectious disease and environmental factors are to
blame for more than 75% of all deaths in the world. Environmental disease may
comprise of organic and chemical pollutants, including smoke from tabacco and
wood sources. More than three billion people are malnourished. Malnutrition
increases vulnerability to pollution-related illnesses and diseases such as
diarrhea. Therefore Pimental concluded, "we're seeing the first signs that
global climate change can influence the incidences of human disease". And
that "this change combined with population growth and environmental
degradation, will probably intensify world malnutrition and increases in other
diseases as well." Melting is taking on vast and unprecedented level in the
Arctic sea ice, the Antarctic and in dozens of mountain and sub-polar glaciers,
and the rate has accelerated immensely in the past decade. The Earth's ice cover
could have intense changes on the global climate and rising sea levels could
start regional flooding. Melting of mountain glaciers could also endanger urban
water supplies and the habitats of plant and animal species in fragile
environments. Within the next 35 years, the Himalayan glacial area is expected
to shrink by one-fifth, to just 100, 000 kilometres. A prediction forecasts that
the remaining glaciers could disappear in 30 years. The melting has been
especially noticeable in the past three decades, and scientists believe that it
is the result of human behaviour and the build up of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. All current examples of
global warming are significant due to the effects that it has on the environment
and people. For people, it can cause infectious diseases and pollution-related
illnesses that in turn effect our standard of living. Some examples can be more
significant than others. For example diseases amongst people is more so
important than the rise in sea levels and melting of glaciers since peoples
existence are endangered.