2005 VCE Environmental Studies Review Lecture

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2005 VCE Environmental Studies Review Lecture

• Victorian Association of Environmental Education
• Presenter Francis Jeon-Ellis

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Exam Breakdown

• 90 points total
• 20 Multiple Choice
• 70 Short answer

48 points guarenteed
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48 Points Guaranteed

• Description of pollutant and management options
  13 points
• Description of ecologically sustainable
  development 16 points
• Reading graphs 8 point (5 mc, 3 sa)
• Calculations 11 points

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Description of Pollutant

• Name of pollutant
• Diffuse or point source
• Transport mechanism
• source -gt sink
• Fate in environment
• bioaccumulation?
• Effect or Impact on organism and environment
• Strategies for mitigation

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• Properties
• Solid /liquid gas
• Melting / Boiling Points
• Flammability
• Solubility

• Fate
• Persistence
• Elimination

• Mobility
• Transport mechanisms

• Impact
• Effects on Organisms and Environment

Source

• Exposure
• Dosage
• Toxicity

Strategies to mitigate effects
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Point-Source Pollution

• Pollutants released from specific points that may
  be collected, treated or controlled.
• eg
• domestic waste water
• industrial wastes
• sewage treatment effluent

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Non-point / Diffuse sources of Pollution

• a diffuse source of pollution that cannot be
  attributed to a clearly identifiable, specific
  physical location or a defined discharge channel.
• eg
• general runoff of sediments
• pesticide spraying
• fertilisers from farms and urban areas

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Transport Mechanism

• How does your pollutant move through the
  environment?
• Transport mechanism effects risk to organisms and
  environment
• Effects fate and persistence of pollutant

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Transport Mechanism

• Dispersed by air / wind currents are likely to
  be inhaled, absorbed through dermal (skin)
  contact and ingested.
• Dissolve in and are dispersed by water are
  likely to be ingested, absorbed through dermal
  contact but are less likely to be inhaled by
  terrestrial organisms.
• Compounds that are fat soluble are likely to
  biomagnify and therefore pass through the food
  web and be ingested.

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Persistence and Fate

• How long the pollutant lasts in the environment
• The fate of pollutants depends on
• Transport Mechanism
• Chemical Stability
• Photo-degradability
• Bio-degradability
• Bioaccumulation

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Fate of oil spilled at sea showing the main
weathering processes
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Fate Pollutant sinks

• Sink a process or place that removes, stores or
  absorbs a pollutant.
• Carbon dioxide sequestration
• by dissolving water.
• in plants, by photosynthesis.
• Phosphates
• adhering to particulate matter which settles out
  in bottom sediments.
• in organisms.

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Bioaccumulation

• an increase in the concentration of a chemical or
  nuitrient over time in a biological organism
  compared to the chemical's concentration in the
  environment.
• Compounds accumulate in living things any time
  they are taken up and stored faster than they are
  broken down (metabolised) or excreted.
• Vitamins A,D and K bioaccumulate.

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Biomagnification

• a process that results in the accumulation of a
  chemical in an organism at higher levels than are
  found in its own food.
• Concern is concentration increases exponentially
  as it moves up the food chain

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Biomagnification
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Examples of Biomagnifying Pollutants

• DDT
• Mercury
• Many heavy metals

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Bioconcentration

• The specific process by which chemical sbustances
  accumulate and concentrate in an organism.
• Usually applies to chemicals that are foreign to
  the organism.

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Effect of Pollutant on Organism and Environment

• What is the concern about the pollutant?
• Affects human/animal health?
• Obstructs waterways?
• Alters habitat?
• Changes atmosphere?

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Health Effects of Chemical Pollutants

• Toxic Substances
• Hazardous substances
• Carcinogens
• Mutagens
• Teratogens

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Terminology
Exposure How much of a pollutant an organism
is exposed to over a specific period of time.
Dosage The amount of a chemical absorbed per
unit body weight.
Toxicity A measure of the harm a substance can
cause an organism.
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Effects on organism and environment

• In Maine USA the USDA recommended that no more
  than two wild fish from rivers be eaten each
  month
• Exposure - fish per month
• Eating more than two fish was found to expose
  people to dioxin levels greater than the
  recommended 30 pg Dioxin/ kg body weight
• Dosage pg Dioxin per kg body weight

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Toxicity

• Acute toxicity
• the adverse health effects from a single dose or
  exposure to a toxic chemical or substance.

• Chronic toxicity
• the adverse health effects of repeated doses or
  exposure to a chemical or substance over a
  relatively prolonged period.

• Threshold
• the level of the exposure below which there is no
  adverse effect and above which there is a
  significant toxicological effect.

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LD50 test - Acute toxicity

• LD50 Lethal Dose 50
• the dose of a substance that will kill half the
  test animals.
• usually expressed as mg/kg.
• eg
• if it took 400 milligrams of a test substance to
  kill half the rabbits weighing 4 kilograms, then
  the LD50 is 100mg/kg.
• Oral LD50(rat) - 100mg/kg

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Synergistic action
2 2 8

• The phenomenon in which two factors acting
  together have a much greater effect than would be
  indicated by the sum of their effects separately.
• eg the impact of a low dose of toxin A and B
  administered together has a far greater effect
  than the sum of the toxins administered
  individually.

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Stratagies for Mitigation

• Specific
• Relate it back to main characteristics of
  pollutants life cycle.
• Source
• Transport mechanism
• Persistence and fate
• Acute/chronic effects
• Individual, societal, industry strategies

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• Properties
• Solid /liquid gas
• Melting / Boiling Points
• Flammability
• Solubility

• Fate
• Persistence
• Elimination

• Mobility
• Transport mechanisms

• Impact
• Effects on Organisms and Environment

Source

• Exposure
• Dosage
• Toxicity

Strategies to mitigate effects
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Specifics

• Point vs. diffuse source
• Bioaccumulation/biomagnification
• Exposure, dosage
• LD50
• Chronic vs acute toxicity
• Synergistic effect

48 4 52 points
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48 Points Guaranteed

• Description of pollutant and management options
  13 points
• Description of ecologically sustainable
  development 16 points
• Reading graphs 8 point (5 mc, 3 sa)
• Simple calculations 11 points

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Ecologically Sustainable Development

• What is sustainable development?
• What are the potential impacts/risks of the
  project?
• Who are stakeholders involved, what are their
  concerns?
• What environmental management tools were used?
• Assess risk/impacts before project began
• Address, minimize impacts as project continues
• How well did the project address impacts/risks
  and stakeholder concerns?

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What is ESD

• Development that meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs.
• Not just about now
• Not just about money

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What is ESD?

• Considers values other than immediate financial
  gain.
• ie. Clear-cut timber harvest vs. selective
  logging

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Ecologically Sustainable Development

• Triple Bottom Line
• Economic
• Monetary gain
• Social
• Community benefit
• Environmental
• Ecological enhancement

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ESD

• Shift in burden of proof
• Traditional Unless harm is proven, development
  will continue
• ESD Development should not be done unless it
  can be shown to be safe (Precautionary Principle)
• Scientific uncertainty
• If not everything is known, err on the side of
  safety
• eg. GMOs, Carbon Sequestration

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Precautionary principle

• Where there are threats of serious or
  irreversible environmental damage, lack of full
  scientific certainty should not be used as a
  reason for postponing measures to prevent
  environmental degradation.
• In the application of the Precautionary
  Principle, public and private decisions should be
  guided by
• careful evaluation to avoid, wherever
  practicable, serious or irreversible damage to
  the environment and
• an assessment of the risk-weighted consequences
  of various options."

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Potential Impacts

• Environmental, social, financial impacts.
• Local, national, international
• Immediate, long-term

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Stakeholders

• Who has responsibility?
• Who has an interest/investment in the resources?
• Individual, community, industry
• Public versus private ownership

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Environmental Management Tools

• Before project begins
• Risk Assessment Pollutants, introductions
• Environmental Impact Assessment Development,
  building
• Life-Cycle analysis - Products

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Environmental Risk Assessment

• Provides detail of the potential adverse effects
  of substances or activities on humans and the
  environment.
• Risk assessment integrates
• Toxicological data,
• Human experience,
• Exposure information,
• Fate of a chemical,
• Transportation data,
• Statistics and probability.

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Environmental Risk Assessment

• Steps involved
• Hazard Identification what are the problem
  chemicals and what problems might they cause.
• Exposure Assessment how long will the exposure
  occur, what dosage will be received.
• Risk Estimation what is the probability of the
  chemicals causing harm, is the risk acceptable.
• Risk Prevention plans to manage or remove the
  risks identified.
• Risk Communication Communication of the issues
  to stakeholders and community.

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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENTEIA(National)/
EES (Victoria)

• A decision making tool required which determines
  the environmental effects of a construction or
  project prior to it's implementation.

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Environmental Impact Statement

• Description of the proposed action and
  alternatives.
• Prediction of the nature and magnitude of the
  likely environmental changes.
• Identification of the relevant human concerns and
  social impacts.
• Definition of criteria to be used in measuring
  the significance of environmental changes,
  including relative weightings given to different
  changes.

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EIS

• Estimation of the significance of predicted
  environmental changes , and
• Recommendation regarding acceptance or rejection
  of the project.
• Description of mitigation measures to be adopted.
• Recommend monitoring procedures to be followed
  after the action is completed.
• Evaluate of the implications of not proceeding
  with the project

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Life cycle analysis (LCA)

• An analysis of all the environmental impacts of a
  product during it's entire life cycle.
• aims to quantify the level of energy and raw
  materials used as well as the solid, liquid and
  gaseous wastes produced at every stage of a
  products life or process including
• Materials acquisition
• Manufacture
• Use
• Transport
• Disposal

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Life Cycle Analysis of Glass vs. Polycarbonate
Sidelights on a Motor Vehicle
System Overview
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Environmental Management Tools

• As project continues (during project)
• Risk Management
• Environmental management system
• Continual monitoring and improvement
• Can include many tools

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Risk Management

• involves the intelligent anticipation of events
  that could have harmful consequences and the
  adoption of courses of action aimed at either
  stopping the feared events or minimising their
  impact.
• Includes strategies to
• Prohibit the use of a potentially damaging
  process/object/substance.
• Regulating or modifying activities.
• Reducing the vulnerability of those threatened.
• Regular ongoing monitoring of environmental
  impacts.
• Development and implementation of post -event
  emergency response procedures.
• Institution of compensation schemes.

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Environmental Management System

• An Environmental Management System is a
  management system that is
• based on environmental criteria, standards and
  performance.
• aimed at continual environmental improvement
  performance and ecological sustainable
  development.

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Environmental Management Systems

• The principles of EMS
• Environment policy
• Implementation
• Environment audit
• Review and improvement
• EMS ensure
• environmental and safety risks are identified,
• progress is made towards reducing risks,
• a process is in place to ensure that procedures
  are monitored and reviewed.
• The basic framework of EMS is a risk management
  tool based on
• Risk Identification
• Risk Assessment and
• Risk Control

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To be awarded ISO14001 Certification
organisations must

• Be committed to comply with all legislative
  requirements.
• Have defined and documented corporate environment
  policy.
• Be committed to continual environmental
  improvement.
• Have a management representative with
  responsibility for implementing and maintaining
  the system.
• Specify environmental objectives at all levels
  within an organisation.

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ISO14001 Key elements cont

• Monitor compliance with requirements and
  achievement of objectives.
• Implement a procedure for corrective action and
  dealing with emergencies.
• Establish an environmental management program
  (ie. EMS).
• Designate responsibilities clearly.
• Outline approach for implementing and time
  frames.
• Employee awareness and training.
• Establishment and maintenance of an audit program.

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Review Environmental Management Plan/System

• Relate answer back to ALL stakeholder concerns
• Triple bottom line
• Consider whole life of project. Stakeholders at
  all levels of project
• Did they use the precautionary principle?
• Be specific

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Ecotourism

• Ecologically sensitive tourism ventures
• Benefits
• may be very effective for raising awareness about
  ecological issues
• May promote conservation/ESD elsewhere
• Concerns
• There is no compulsory requirement for ecotourism
  ventures to be accredited as environmentally
  sustainable
• Tourism ventures inevitably has an impact
• Needs ecological benefit/cost analysis

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Specifics
52 5 57 points

• Ecologically sustainable development
• Triple bottom line
• Precautionary principle
• Risk vs hazard
• Life cycle analysis
• Assessment vs. management

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Points Guaranteed

• Description of pollutant and management options
  13 points
• Description of ecologically sustainable
  development 16 points
• Reading graphs 8 point (5 mc, 3 sa)
• Simple calculations 11 points

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Figure 156 Annual average total suspended
particulates (TSP) monitoring results from 1994
to 1996. Source from BPEM (1998).
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Reading Graphs

• Look at title
• What is the measure on each axis
• What does each data point/bar represent exactly
• Average, maximum, minimum, total amount
• What exactly is question asking?

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Figure 156 Annual average total suspended
particulates (TSP) monitoring results from 1994
to 1996. Source from BPEM (1998).
In which years was the annual average total
suspended dust particle higher than the Target of
90 ug m-3 Which site had the highest average TSP
in 1995
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Figure 64 Greenhouse gas emissions per capita
from 1990 to 1998.Source AGO (2000a
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Figure 66 Emissions by gas, excluding forest and
grassland conversion, 1990 to 1998
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Points Guaranteed

• Description of pollutant and management options
  13 points
• Description of ecologically sustainable
  development 16 points
• Reading graphs 8 point (5 mc, 3 sa)
• Calculations 11 points

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Calculations

• Percentages and Ratios
• What percentage of Total emissions in 1990 was
  non-energy emissions
• 5/25 x/100
• 25x 500
• X 20 percent
• Or 5/25 100 20

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Calculations

• What percent increase in greenhouse has emissions
  between 1996 and 1990
• New original change
• (450 390) 60
• (Change/ original) 100 change
• (60/ 390) 100 15.38 increase

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The Rest of the points

• 60 points walking into the exam
• The other 30
• 15 related to scientific study sampling,
  monitoring of pollutants
• 15 discriminating/challenging question