The Environment as a Whole

A facet of the chemically centred study of the environment is a greater integration of the treatment of environmental media. Traditional boundaries between atmosphere and waters, for example, are not a deterrent to the transfer of chemicals (in either direction), and indeed many important and interesting processes occur at these phase boundaries. 

In this book, the treatment first follows traditional compartments (Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5) although some exchanges with other compartments are considered. Fundamental aspects of the science of atmosphere, waters, and soils are described, together with current environmental questions, exemplified by case studies. Subsequently, the organic chemistry of the environment is considered in Chapter 6, and quantitative aspects of transfer across phase boundaries are described in Chapter 7, where examples are given of biogeochemical cycles. 

For readers requiring knowledge of basic chemical principles R.M. Harrison and S.J. de Mora, Introductory Chemistry for the Environmental Sciences, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996. 

For more detailed information upon pollution phenomena Pollution Causes, Effects and Control, 4th edn, R.M. Harrison (ed), RSC, Cambridge, 2001 or R.M. Harrison (ed), Introduction to Pollution Science, RSC, Cambridge, 2006. 

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Discussions of the value to be attributed to the preservation of a natural system invoke two distinct sources of value extrinsic and intrinsic values. Extrinsic value arises from the fact that the environment increases the satisfaction or utility of humans. In this utilitarian philosophy, nature has value insofar as it is useful or agreeable to humans. The intrinsic value of a natural system exists irrespective of its usefulness or amenity to humans. This view explicitly grants rights to exist to nonhuman species or to the environment as a whole. The intrinsic value approach may thus require decision makers to make decisions knowingly counter to their own present on future interests (Pannell and Schilizzi 1999). 

There is a possibility that the promotion of countermeasures for climate change will affect or be influenced by other enviroranental problems. For example, the promotion of the use of diesel for automobiles will reduce CO2, but will increase SOx and NOx. Recycling of resources consumes energy, and may increase CO2 emissions. Accordingly, when promoting measures thoroughly, it is necessary to identify the position of the climate change problem in all environmental problems, and fully analyze the impact of such measures on the environment as a whole. 

There is also the obvious difference between the evaluation of the effect of a pollutant dispersed in the environment as a whole and one that is dispersed in an industrial area where both the level of pollution and the duration of exposure are known, where the total duration of exposure cannot in any case exceed 45 years and where an individual can be withdrawn from the risk at any time. 

The definition of BAT is given in fhe Direcfive as follows "The most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their methods of operation which indicate the practical suitability of parficular techniques for providing in principle fhe basis for emission limit values designed to prevent and, where that is not practicable, generally to reduce emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole."... 

The purpose of the Directive is to achieve integrated prevention and control of pollution arising from the activities hsted in its Annex I, leading to a high level of protection of the environment as a whole. The legal basis of the Directive relates to environmental protection. Its implementation should also take account of other Community objectives such as the competitiveness of the Community s industry thereby contributing to sustainable development. 

The information provided in this document is intended to be used as an input to the determination of BAT in specific cases. When determining BAT and setting BAT-based permit conditions, account should always be taken of the overall goal to achieve a high level of protection for the environment as a whole. 

The presently available information about offshore dumps of chemical munitions (CM) and chemical warfare compounds (CWC) do not allow the accurate assessment of their quantities, their location and distribution on the sea bottom, the state of corrosion of the containers and shells, their effect on the benthic environment and data like drift rate, dispersion and sedimentation. Therefore a risk and impact assessment of those dumps on flora and fauna and on the environment as a whole has not been possible with the necessary accuracy. Four national reports from Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Germany have emphasised... 

This option is used when emissions are released to more than one environmental medium and ensures that there is least impact to the environment as a whole. 

It should be recognised however, that it is not always feasible (economically, technically or environmentally) to follow this shategy. Other means and principles may be necessary to formulate local waste strategies such as the precautionary principle, tire proximity principle, life cycle analysis and the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO), which all apply to decisions about waste management. The BPEO is the option that provides the most benefits or least damage to the environment as a whole, at an acceptable cost, in the long term as well as the short term. 

The conventional approach to making chemical processes less dangerous to workers and less harmful to the environment has emphasized exposure reduction in which the hazard is still present, but workers are protected from it. In the arena of worker safety, this has involved measures such as wearing protective gear to prevent contact with hazardous chemicals. For the environment as a whole, it has largely consisted of end-of-pipe measures to prevent the release of pollutants once they are generated. 

There are other laws regulating different aspects of the environment. As a whole, they are the lower bounds for environmental protection and human safety for the chemical industry. Many conpanies go beyond these minima (see, for exanple, Responsible Care, in Section 24.2.3.1. Nine current, major laws are summarized in Table 25.1. and many of these laws have subsequent amendments. The text of all of these laws is available at http //www.epa.gov/lawsregs/Iaws/index.html. 

The group yP°/Pj- can be viewed as a partition coefficient K, which for the substances mentioned is generally quite high. The loss of even a small amount of solution by evaporation could thus be expected to result in a marked drop of pollutant concentration. This is small comfort for the environment as a whole since the toxic substances are merely transferred from one medium to another. Their fate nevertheless needs to be tracked. 

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