GLG110 Geologic Disasters and the Environment

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GLG110 Geologic Disasters and the Environment
Today Geology, society, and the future Chapter 17
Instructor Professor Ramon Arrowsmith Email
ramon.arrowsmith_at_asu.edu Office PSF-640
480-965-3541
TA Tom Foltz Email Thomas.foltz_at_asu.edu Office
PSH-574
Course Website http//glg110.asu.edu
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Announcements

• Test review
• Grades posted at
• http//glg110.asu.edu/Exams/ex3/110ExamIIIPosting.
  htm
• http//glg110.asu.edu/Exams/ex3/postexIIIscores.gi
  f
• Writing assignment still grading! (should be
  done by Thursday night (pre final exam).
• Extra credit estimate 50 credit conservatively
• Final Exam If you choose to take all four
  exams, the three highest scores will be used in
  determining your grade.
• Study the three exam study guides and the exams
• 12/131000-1150 am F123

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Questions to ponder

• What are the hazards about which you are most
  concerned personally?
• What are the most important hazards globally?
• What are the most important hazards the more
  common, but lower magnitude ones, or the rare
  really big ones?

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Geology and environmental health

• Many environmental factors control health and
  well-being
• Toxicologystudy of poisons (toxins) and their
  potential effects on people and ecosystems as
  well as clinical, economic, industrial, and legal
  problems associated with toxic materials in the
  environment.

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Geology and environmental health

• Diseasean imbalance resulting from poor
  adjustment between an individual and the
  environment.
• Health is an organisms state of adjustement to
  its own internal environment and to its external
  environment.

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Heart disease and the geochemical environment

• Higher concentrations of calcium, magnesium, and
  iron make it hard.
• Relatively hard water correlates with relatively
  lower heart disease.

(Keller, 2002)
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Heart disease and the geochemical environment

• Why?
• Soft water is more acidic and may through
  corrosion of pipes release toxic trace elements
• Some characteristics of soft water may directly
  contribute to heart disease
• Hard water may help prevent heart disease
  directly.

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Ohio Glacial deposits may promote hard
water Correlation may not be conclusive!
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Waste Management

• Waste is a resource out of place (?)
• Increasing cost of raw materials makes it more
  desireable to recylce more resources
• Waste management more than just moving waste
  from one site to another. Landfills may cause
  environmental problems.

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

• Better package design could reduce total US waste
  stream by 10
• More and better recycling can further reduce
  waste stream by another 30.

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Landfill solid waste
Keller, 2002
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Keller, 2002
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Garbage analysis

• University of Arizona researchers
  (http//bara.arizona.edu/gs.htm)
• Excavated four landfills one in Tuscon, Arizona,
  two in the Bay Area of California, and one in
  Chicago, Illinois.
• Results help with landfill design.

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Garbage analysis

• Fast-food packaging 0.5
• Diapers 1
• Newspapers 14
• Plastic bottles are flattened glass bottles are
  not
• Biodegradable 65
• Paper and cardboard gt50, yard waste 5, food 1.
  
• Not well degraded because of low oxygen (15 year
  old hot dogs!) can still read the newspapers.

http//www.acnatsci.org/research/kye/landfills.htm
l
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Landfill site selection

• Topography
• Location of water table
• Amount of precipitation
• Type of soil and rock
• Location of the disposal zone with respect to the
  surface and groundwater flow system

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Sanitary landfill design
Keller, 2002
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Hazardous chemical wastes

• Materials highly toxic to other living things
• Wastes that may explode or ignite when exposed to
  air
• Wastes that are extremely corrosive
• Wastes that are otherwise unstable

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Keller, 2002
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Uncontrolled dumping
Keller, 2002
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Environmental impacts at Superfund sites
Keller, 2002
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What kind of world do you want?

• Must use a systems-based approach (dont pollute
  groundwater to save the air MTBE?)
• Environmental issues evolve from cost overhead to
  strategic in economics
• Earth is a human artifactnothing is untouched.
  US trade policy effects ecology. Natural systems
  are increasingly influenced by human activities.

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What kind of world do you want?

• The global economy is increasingly
  service-oriented and knowledge-based. What is
  environmental effect of internet revolution?
• Global governance systems are increasingly
  undergoing discontinuous change (Nation-states,
  NGOs, Multinational companies, Communities)Nike
  human rights versus Asian companies

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What kind of world do you want?

• Firms are increasingly held responsible for
  environmental and social externalities.
• Meaning of environment has changed from something
  to be conquered and feared to a resource (jungle
  versus rainforest)
• Our ignorance is profound, matched only by our
  hubris
• Brad Allenby 12/4/02 ASU EFD seminar on
  Industrial Ecology