Waste Of Water, Energy AND Food In The Environment Reports Examples

In recent years, the problem with the environment has become a very important issue and one of the most discussed themes in the world. The history of waste can be traced back for many centuries; however, the seriousness of this issue grew together with urbanization as well as growing population. Moreover, until the industrial revolution the quantity of produced waste was not big. Nevertheless, starting from 1870’s waste management policies became inseparable from our lives in which industry plays a very important role (Barles in Agnoletti and Serner 199). Nowadays, water, energy and food are mainly the three resources on which human life depends and the problem of their waste requires particularly prompt attention from the government of every country. For example, if the governmental policies do not react now, then “by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages” (worldwildlife.org). Food famine in many countries is one more issue that needs a strong reaction these days. The aim of this report is to describe the main causes of water, energy and food waste in the environment as well as to discuss the negative effects of these phenomena on natural surroundings.
The second type of the most widespread wastes is energy waste and the causes of that are mainly inefficiency of energy production and inappropriate usage of that energy. As WWF claims, “most of our methods of producing, distributing and using energy are massively inefficient”. Firstly, it appears that the everyday energy that power plants produce has not only advantages for the mankind, but also definitely contributes to energy waste in the environment. It must be noted that only about 30% of the energy turns into electricity suitable for usage. The rest of energy is wasted in the beginning of the process of energy production (wwf.panda.org). Secondly, the energy used from transport, such as cars or airplanes is also considered to be causing energy waste. In WWF’s estimations “an average car emits approximately 3 times its weight in CO2 per year”. In addition, airplanes are considered to be even more inefficient than cars, since they use much higher energy and, consequently, make higher CO2 emissions. Moreover, people also use energy inefficiently from heating and cooling systems. For example, they overheat the houses and then air the rooms because it is hot inside. Such behavior is only due to people’s personal bad habits. With regards to the effects of energy waste, air pollution and shortage of natural resources can be named. First of all, polluted air and smog in urban areas can a direct result of power plants involving a process of coal combustion as well as big number of cars and planes in the world. Furthermore, the same power plants and transport has an impact on the quantity of natural resources, which unfortunately nowadays has been rapidly decreasing (foe.co.uk). Consequently, the world observes sudden rise in prices on oil.
Finally, the causes and effects of food waste need to be discussed. According to FAO’s claims, the two of the main reasons for food waste are production of food which exceeds demand for it, and the consumer’s attitude to the food. U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization reports that 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted annually “causing huge economic losses and a lot of needless hunger” (qtd. in DiBenedetto), in spite of this fact farmers all over the world try to be on a safe side and produce higher quantity of food than is required. Consequently, the excess of food is simply wasted. In addition, FAO describes a similar situation that appears to happen in supermarkets which reject some products due to their “appearance quality standards”, i.e. weight, size, shape and appearance. As a result, the products are diverted to other aims or are just wasted. Furthermore, the consumer’s attitude to food in industrialized countries is very important when talking about food waste (fao.org). In some restaurants and even at home people are used to throw away the food which apparently would not be used anymore. The effects of food waste can be observed at several levels, according to FAO’s Food Wastage Footprint: climate, water use as well as biodiversity. Firstly, it is estimated that 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases are due to food produced and not eaten. As a result, the air becomes polluted and the climate changes. In addition, “the consumption of surface and groundwater resources of food wastage is about 250 cubic kilometers” (qtd. in DiBenedetto), which certainly contributes to water waste. Finally, FAO’s study suggests that such human activity as mono-cropping and agriculture expansion into wild areas have a negative impact on the variety of plant and animal species, i.e. biodiversity, such as mammals, birds, fish and amphibians.

Works Cited

Agnoletti, Mauro and Simone Neri Serner. The Basic Environmental History. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
DiBenedetto, Bill. Food Waste Has a Big Impact on Climate, Water, Land and Biodiversity. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
fao.org. Causes and Prevention of Food Losses and Waste. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
foe.co.uk. Overconsumption? Our Use of the World´s Natural Resources. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
worldwildlife.org. Water-scarcity. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
wwf.panda.org. Wasting Energy. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.