Land Pollution Essay Example for Free

Land Pollution Essay Causes of Land Pollution 1. Degenerative Actions Degenerative Actions encompass a lot of human actions, including deforestation, overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, desertification, mining, inefficient and / or inadequate waste treatment, landfill, litter, etc. 2. Misuse of Land Misuse of Land mainly refers to felling of trees to clear land for agriculture, as well as processes like desertification and land conversion. Desertification is when anthropogenic effects of human development or other actions convert a piece of (essentially) fertile land into desert-land or dry land. Land once converted to desert-land can never be reclaimed by any amount of corrective measures. This is also a serious issue because t does not only affect the land, but also the overall biodiversity of a place, especially when land is cleared for agriculture. A lot of indigenous flora and fauna is lost in the process. 3. Soil Pollution Soil Pollution is when the top-most soil layer of land is destroyed or polluted. Soil pollution is again another cause of land pollution that affects not only the land, but also a lot of other things such as forest cover of a region, productivity of land in terms of agriculture, grazing etc. Soil pollution is also caused by wrong agricultural practices, such as overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This causes non-biodegradable chemicals to enter and accumulate in the food-chain a process often referred to as biomagnification of a pollutant. 4. Land Conversion Land Conversion is the process whereby a piece of land is converted from its indigenous form to a form used for either agriculture or infrastructure. Land conversion is especially a growing problem that we possibly do not have a good or a good enough solution for. The best way to avoid land conversion is to make efficient use of the available land. Using a piece of land to its maximum potential is the key to eliminate many of the causes of land pollution. Effects of Land Pollution 1. Effects on Climate Land pollution can affect the general environment of the Earth. Land pollutions leads to loss in the forest cover of Earth. This is in turn going to affect the amount of rain. Less rains mean lesser vegetation. The effect of all different kinds of pollution will eventually lead to problems like acid rains, greenhouse effect, global warming. All of these problems have already initiated and need to be curbed before the situation runs out of control. 2. Extinction of Species One of the major causes of concern is the extinction of species. Species are pushed towards endangerment and extinction primarily by two processes. Habitat fragmentation is the fragmentation of the natural habitat of an organism; cause primarily by urban sprawl. Habitat destruction, on the other hand, is when land clearing adversely affects animals special such that their natural habitat is lost. Both the actions can cause some species to go extinct and others to become invasive. 3. Biomagnification Biomagnification is the process in which certain non-biodegradable substances go on accumulating in the food-chain (in one or more species). The most common example is of methylmercury in fish and mercury in eagles. Not only does biomagnification put the particular species at risk, it puts all the species above and below it at risk, and ultimately affects the food pyramid. 4. Effects on Biodiversity Species extinction and biomagnification is going to overthrow the balance of nature very significantly. The main reason for this is disturbance created in the food chain. To give you a very simple example on account of biomagnification of mercury in eagles, they might go extinct in the subsequent years. However, we know eagles prey on snakes. Less (or no) eagles will then result in more number of snakes! Ways to Reduce Land Pollution 1. Reduce toxic materials. Waste materials that are disposed of should have minimal toxic materials. This can be done by treating the waste materials with various chemicals to make them less toxic. Once the waste is treated, it can be disposed of using responsible methods. Harmful chemicals can also be replaced with less toxic, biodegradable materials. 2. Recycle waste materials. As explained by the Stanford Recycling Center, each American throws away 7 1/2 lbs. of garbage. Garbage requires landfills, which takes up large amounts of land. 3. Buy organics products, especially organic cleaners, pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers. The advantage of using organic products is that they are biodegradable and friendly to the environment. 4. Avoid littering. Excessive littering is one of most common reasons for land pollution. 5. Take initiative to inform others about the harmful effects of littering. Organic wastes must be disposed off in areas that are far from human or animal habitation. Waste like plastic, metals, glass and paper must be recycled and reused. 6. Improve fertility of the land by reforesting. Soils in forested lands are far more fertile than soil without trees, suggesting that trees have the ability to fertilize land.

Technology in Auditing Using Benford?s Law :: essays research papers

Technology in Auditing Using Benford’s Law What started out as a curious observation by an astronomer in 1881 has the potential to have a significant impact on the audit profession 125 years later. In 1881, the astronomer â€Å"Simon Newcomb noticed that the front pages of his logarithmic tables frayed faster than the rest of the pages†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Newcomb concluded â€Å"the first digit is oftener 1 than any other digit†. Newcomb quantified the probability of the occurrence of the different digits as being the first digit and as well as the second digit. For the most part, Newcomb just considered it a curiosity and left it at that. (Caldwell 2004) In the 1920’s, a physicist at the GE Research Laboratories, Frank Benford, thought it more than a curiosity and conducted extensive testing of naturally occurring data and computed the expected frequencies of the digits. In Table 1, there is a table of these expected frequencies for the first four positions. Benford also determined that the data could not be constrained to only show a restricted range of numbers such as market values of stock nor could it be a set of assigned numbers such as street addresses or social security numbers. (Nigrini 1999) The underlying theory behind why this happens can be illustrated using investments as an example. If you start with an investment of $100 and assume a 5% annual return, it would be the 15th year before the value of the investment would reach $200 and therefore change the first digit value to 2. It would only take an additional 8 years to change the first digit vale to 3, an additional 6 years to change the first digit to 4, etc. Once the value of the investment grew to $1,000 the time it would take to change the first digit (going from $1,000 to $2,000) would revert back to the same pace as it took to change it from $100 to $200. Unconstrained naturally occurring numbers will follow this pattern with remarkable predictability. (Ettredge and Srivastava 1998) In 1961, Roger Pinkham tested and proved that Benford’s law was scale invariant and therefore would apply to any unit of measure and any type currency. In the 1990’s, Dr Mark Nigrini discovered a powerful auditing tool using Benford’s law. He was able to determine that most people assume that the first digit of numbers would be distributed equally amount the digits and that people that make up numbers tend to use numbers starting with digits in the mid range (5, 6, 7).

University of Washington Admissions

The challenging family situation I would like to share with you is our move from Korea to the United States. In 1989, my life was changed when my family immigrated to a new country, hoping for a better future. My life in Korea was hopeless, because I was a failing student with not much interest in school. I spent the majority of my time in Arcades, wasting my coins on video games. Rather than studying with my friends, as I had told my parents I would, I obsessed over the games. The only positive aspect to my life was my private computer programming lessons. Programming in Apple BASIC presented me with an opportunity to create my own world. One day, my parents told me that we were going to move to the United States of America, and I developed a strong feeling that my life soon would change forever. After spending eleven years in Korea, our family moved a totally different environment. This I knew would be my toughest challenge to date. As a fifth grader attending a new elementary school in a new country, I felt left out because of my inability to communicate. Some kids assumed that I did not understand them at all, so they made rude remarks about me. I understood them, maybe not completely, but I knew the intent of their messages. All that I had was my Apple II computer at which I just sat and programmed when I came home from school. At home, my parents pressured me to study all of the time, but I was frustrated and wanted to return to Korea. I wanted to go back and talk freely with my friends and play games with them. My parents often told me that they decided to move here because of the educational opportunities, yet I continued to rebel and refused to listen to what they said. Over time, my English improved. I moved on to regular sixth grade classes; some of which were challenging, but tolerable because of my teachers whom were willing to help. I always enjoyed class trips to the computer lab, where I would start programming on the computer. Other kids would start to gather around and treat me like a genius. Before long, I made more friends and found that I was enjoying school. Thoughts of going back to Korea faded, and my grades rose to a satisfactory level. This pleased my parents who now encouraged me to invite friends to dinner. When my friends came over, I became the translator between my parents and my friends. Since then, I often translate for my parents in any occasion where translation is needed. Talking to some adults was intimidating and sometimes embarrassing, but I felt mature and responsible. The rest of my school year went by very smoothly, and my self-confidence grew. Now I help other Korean people with language difficulties, helping them to understand English and American customs. Prior to my arrival to the United States, I thought everything would be nice and easy, but it did not turn out that way. Life was difficult, since I had to learn a new language, culture, and customs. One of the best things I learned was that my parents were right. This experience helped change me from a hopeless kid to a confident and responsible young adult. From this experience, I have learned that if one sets goals, works hard towards those goals, dedicates oneself to those goals, and takes advantage of opportunities presented, they can achieve anything.

United States Use of Tageted Killing (TK) Essay - 1294 Words

Targeted killing (TK) is the premeditated killing of an individual by a state organization or institution outside a battlefield. It is with this method that the United States use to capture terrorist around the world. The only problem is that this particular act is not morally right due to the innocent lives this method takes. Though it can get the job done of capturing terrorist that wishes to attack the United States, it’s still morally wrong for us to use this. And I will propose that the Unite States use another method to capture terrorist that doesnt involve the lives of those that in the surrounding areas. It’s the only way that American will be able to kill who’s needed without starting another war. Engagement in TK only promotes†¦show more content†¦Targeted Killings are also considered extrajudicial killings. An extrajudicial killing is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are by their nature unlawful, since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which they occur. If there is no collateral damage, targeted killings in another country’s territory threatens to draw criticism from local domestic constituencies against the government, which either acquiesced or was too weak to stop the operation in its territory. Such is the case now in both Pakistan and Yemen, where opposition forces criticize the governments for permitting American armed intervention in their countries. Ultimately, the ever-escalating violence and the cycle of revenge, misery, and public outrage wrought by these killings cheapen human life and humane values. According to The Supreme Court Sitting as the High Court of Justice, petitioners claim that the targeted killings policy violates the rules of international law even if the laws applicable to the armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are the laws of war. These laws recognize only two statuses of people: combatants and civilians. Combatants are legitimate targets, but they also enjoy the rights granted in