Regional/local environmental issues

Table 1.2 Major Regional or Local Environmental Issues and their Relevance to the Plastics Industry... 

It is probably true to say that the term environmental chemistry has no precise definition. It means different things to different people. We are not about to offer a new definition. It is clear that environmental chemists are playing their part in the big environmental issues—stratospheric ozone (C) () depletion, global warming and the like. Similarly, the role of environmental chemistry in regional-scale and local problems—for example, the effects of acid rain or contamination of water resources—is well established. This brief discussion illustrates the clear link in our minds between environmental chemistry and human beings. For many people, environmental chemistry is implicitly linked to pollution . We hope this book demonstrates that such a view is limited and shows that environmental chemistry has a much wider scope. 

Acidic deposition alters soils, stresses forest vegetation, acidifies lakes and streams, and harms fish and other aquatic life. These effects can alter important ecosystem services such as forest productivity and water quality. Decades of acidic deposition have also made many ecosystems more sensitive to continuing pollution. Moreover, the same pollutants that cause acidic deposition contribute to a wide array of other important environmental issues at local, regional, and global scales (see Table 3.1). 

These are aU aspects that are commonly used to evaluate the local, regional, and/ or national implications of implementing particular development decisions. These impacts are typically measured in economic and monetary terms, such as employment and monetary gains, although not aU of them are directly measurable. There is a plenty of other intangible aspects, which are normally related to social, cultural, and environmental issues, such as the reputation and the amenities of the area (i.e., natural landscape), which are not always considered in a decision-making process. 

Environmental issues of today are conveniently discussed within two broad classes global issues and regional or local issues. Table 1.2 summarizes the various issues in each category that impact the polymer industry. The following discussion examines each of these environmental concerns in an effort to understand the extent to which the plastics industry potentially contributes to it. Serious environmental problems that do not involve the polymer industry directly, such as the loss of biodiversity or the increase in urban population density, are excluded from the present discussion. 

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED TO THE POLYMER INDUSTRY LOCAL AND REGIONAL CONCERNS... 

The strongest effects on river flows, however, occur locally (1) in the abstraction (residual flow) sections between the water intakes and releases (where the river water is bypassed in pipes) and (2) in the river section immediately below the water outlets. In the first instance, environmental flow is an issue (Table 1), as diverting water can - in the extreme - completely empty river sections. The extent of water abstraction in alpine valleys is in some regions quite large, especially in central Europe, such as in the Swiss Alps as documented in Margot et al [2]. 

In the previous chapters, various issues of PTS contamination such as magnitude of pollution, environmental transport and fate, features of bioaccumulation in organisms as well as trends of contamination have been discussed with in-depth examples of case studies conducted in particular countries in the Asia-Pacific region. These chapters have provided both general and concrete concept of the ultimate fate of PTS in local perspectives and addressed a number of issues of PTS contamination that specifically exist in each country/area. 

The consumption of fossil fuels spawns environmental considerations in addition to issues of energy demand, national security, and resource availability. At the global level, scientists warn that the combustion of fossil fuels is significantly changing the world s climate system. Local or regional concerns include smog, acid rain, and health implications of urban air pollution. 

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