Environmental Conservation: Water, Water, Everywhere

Water
Name
Institution
Water
With the present scientific and technological development, environmental conservation is a key issue. People have forgotten the importance of the environment and they have neglected it. Environmental conservation is now viewed as a corporate responsibility rather than a personal. Human overpopulation, hydrology and land issues are some of the major issues affecting the environment. If this issues are not dealt with, they result to climate change, environmental degradation, war and pollution.
Environmental conservation is very important in maintaining biodiversity. Biodiversity is a scientific term used to refer to the variety and variability of life on earth (Leveque, 2003). It is a vital component of nature and ensures survival of human species by providing food, shelter, medicine, fuel and other resources to man. The productivity of biodiversity is dependent on the climatic conditions of a given region. The rapid climatic changes have caused mass extinctions leading to a drop in biodiversity (Pereira, 2012). Increase in human activity and technological advancement has caused an ongoing diversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity.
The population growth model postulated by Thomas Malthus posits that the growth of the population is quite different from the growth of food supply due to the reduction of biodiversity (Paster, 2007). He predicted that in future the population was likely to grow significantly to a point where the population would be incapable of feeding itself (Tietenberg & Lewis, 2000). As the population grows the environmental impact become more severe due to increased human activity.
The continuous growth of the human population has great implication. Shortage of resources, wars and social conflicts, limited social freedom and overcrowding are some of the problems brought about by population growth (Tietenberg & Lewis, 2000). Population growth has raised important ethical issues on the balance between reproductive rights and social and environmental responsibility. Environmental ethics is concerned with people’s ethical relationship with the natural environment (Kavka, 1978). Its importance is outlining the moral obligation in the face of moral concerns like overpopulation. Coercive population restraint policies on ethical grounds have been implemented to deal with the issue of overpopulation in order to protect the future generations. (Kavka, 1978)
Four essential chemicals support life on earth: water, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The movement of this chemical through the biotic and abiotic compartments of the earth is known as the biogeochemical cycle (Willey, 2011). The circulation of this chemicals involves the biological, geographical and chemical factors. The biogeochemical cycles comprises of a series of events that make the earth capable of sustaining life.
Among the four, water is the most crucial element that is vital to the survival of all living species. The water cycle explains the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the earth. It involves the process of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff and subsurface flow (Tietenberg & Lewis, 2000). The water changes states during this process to liquid, solid or gas. The water cycle is dependent on exchange of energy, which leads to temperature change. The sun is the driver of the cycle and it heats water in oceans which evaporates into the air. Ice and snow can also sublime into vapor. This vapor undergoes other steps and is later converted back to water in the oceans and the cycle begins again (Willey, 2011).
Carbon is a chemical element that also supports life and can be found in almost all living things. The carbon cycle records the movement of carbon across the earth spheres, that is, biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere and hydrosphere (Cooper, Kendig & Belcher, 2011). Carbon flows between each reservoir in an exchange, which has slow and fast components. Any change in the cycle that shifts carbon out of one reservoir puts more carbon in the other reservoirs. Changes that put carbon gases into the atmosphere result in warmer temperatures on Earth. The cycle maintains a balance and prevents all the earth’s carbon from entering the atmosphere.
Phosphorus is a chemical element found on Earth in numerous compound forms, such as the phosphate ion, located in water, soil and sediments. The phosphorus cycle differs from the other major biogeochemical cycles in that it does not include a gas phase. Phosphorus moves in a cycle through rocks, water, soil and sediments and organisms (Willey, 2011). Rain and weathering causes rocks to release inorganic phosphorus into the soil where it is taken up by plants. The plants may then be consumed by animals and incorporated into organic molecules such as DNA. When the plant or animal dies, it decays, and the organic phosphate is returned to the soil. Within the soil, organic forms of phosphate can be made available to plants by bacteria that break down organic matter to inorganic forms of phosphorus. This process is known as mineralization (Filippelli, 2002). Phosphorus in soil can end up in waterways and eventually oceans. Once there, it can be incorporated into sediments over time.
The nitrogen cycle is the process by which nitrogen is converted between...