Reducing the effects of environmental issues
- Two of the main environmental issues are climate change and acid rain
- There are strategies that can be used to reduce the impact of these issues
Strategies to reduce climate change
- The production of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide and methane, needs to be reduced drastically to reduce climate change
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions
- Some measures that can be taken include:
- Being more ‘responsible consumers’ of energy by:
- Using hydrogen and renewable energy supplies such as solar or wind energy instead of burning fossil fuels
- Using more fuel-efficient vehicles, e.g. electric and hybrid cars
- Reducing the number of vehicles on the road, e.g. using public transport, car-sharing
- Recycling or reusing products made from crude oil and its derivatives
- Reducing household energy consumption, e.g. turning lights out, using more efficient appliances
- Reducing deforestation and / or re-forestation
- Planting more trees, can help reduce the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis
- Being more ‘responsible consumers’ of energy by:
Reducing methane emissions
- Reduce the amount of livestock farming
- Methane is produced during digestion in animals
Strategies to reduce acid rain
- Acid rain is caused by oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide
- The effects of acid rain can be reduced by decreasing the amount of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide that are produced
- Catalytic convertors in vehicles can be used to remove oxides of nitrogen
Reducing sulfur dioxide emissions
- Using fuels which contain low levels of sulfur
- Flue gas desulfurisation
- This is the main way to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions
- Waste gases from coal fired power stations are passed into a scrubbing chamber
- They are sprayed with a wet slurry of calcium oxide and calcium carbonate
- The calcium compounds react with sulfur dioxide to produce calcium sulfate
Sulfur dioxide scrubber
The scrubber sprays a lime slurry over the waste gases to remove 90 - 95% of the sulfur dioxide
Exam Tip
There are many other ways that carbon dioxide, methane, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide can be reduced, e.g. by reducing energy usage to reduce CO2 emissions but it is only the examples stated above that you need to know.