Environmental problems – An overview - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 29

45% of the global S-flux). Amongst the compounds of these surplus elements are
some very harmful ones, such as methane, N and S oxides, methylated mercury
and other volatile metals, ozone-depleting volatile organic contaminants;
- Water flow and water quality are damaged by soil compaction, causing decreased
infiltration rate, increased runoff, impairing drainage, an increase in temporary
wetlands on agricultural land, floods, landslides, mud flows;
- Environmental quality in general is highly endangered by contaminants and
wastes;
- Some contaminants and connected problems : Toxic, mutagenic, reprotoxic, persis-
tent chemical substances such as chlorofluorocarbons, DDT and other chlorinated
volatile and nonvolatile industrial chemicals, biocides, pesticides and herbicides,
dioxins, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), toxic metals, endocrine disruptors,
nanomaterials, and toxic nanopollutants in the air, water, spill, and food. Persis-
tent usage of these chemicals leads to bioaccumulation and waste problems: toxic
waste, landfills, waste disposal incidents, marine debris, leachate, off-gases and
ashes from incineration, lack of recycling;
- The high anthropogenic load cannot be reduced by natural waste decomposition
and contaminant detoxification mechanisms. Some contaminants are accumulated
in the air, water and soil, the background concentrations are becoming higher and
higher, ozone depletion endangers life on earth, acid rain kills plants and sensitive
aquatic ecosystem members;
- Deforestation : Increasing the size of the affected area makes natural erosion, flood
and landslide prevention impossible;
- Regulation of the environmental quality is highly problematic in urban regions:
The environment and the ecosystem cannot solve this problem alone; overpop-
ulation, wastewater and solid waste production, waste disposal, and burials are
unsolved problems in the megacities of the globe;
- Disturbances in climate self-regulation are today's urgent problems: climate
change, as a result of global warming, global dimming, depletion of fossil fuels,
the melting of polar ice, the general rise of sea level, greenhouse gases.
6.3 Damage in the ecosystem's habitat services
The ecosystem's habitat services are endangered directly due to anthropogenic activities
and indirectly through the loss in provisioning and regulatory services of the ecosys-
tem. The loss in quantity and quality of habitats further decreases biodiversity, the
provisioning and regulating potential of the ecosystem—it is a vicious circle. Some
of the typical and already identified problems, land misuses, and other contributions
of humans are the following:
- Logging : Clear cutting, deforestation, illegal logging;
- Lack of conservation , encouraging species extinction, pollinator decline, coral
bleaching, invasive species, poaching, illegal fishing, endangered species, endan-
gered migratory species;
- Pollution and other stress on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems;
- Deterioration of human habitat : Urban sprawl, excessive house building, light
pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution, esthetic pollution.