Anthropomorphic factors of climate change
#Environment
✅Change in the land use pattern:Half of the land-use change is said to have happened during the industrial era.Most of the forests were replaced by agricultu ral cropping and grazing of lands.The increased albedo (reflectivity of an object in space) in the snow-covered high altitude regions due to deforestation led to the cooling of the planet’s surface.
✅The lower the albedo, the more of the Sun’s radiation gets absorbed by the planet and the temperatures will rise. If the albedo is higher and the Earth is more reflective, the more of the radiation is returned to space, leading to the cooling of the planet.The tropical deforestation changes the evapotranspiration rates (the amount of water vapour put in the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration from trees), causes desertification and affects soil moisture characteristics.
✅From the satellite imagery, it is seen that the clearing of forest cover for agriculture and irrigated farming in arid and semi-arid lands can increase solar energy absorption and the amount of moisture evaporated into the atmosphere.
Noise Pollution
✅Noise pollution comes from sources such as "road traffic, jet planes, garbage trucks, construction equipment, manufacturing processes, leaf blowers, boom boxes" etc.
✅Sound is measured in decibels (dB). An increase of 10 dB is approximately double the increase in loudness.
✅A person's hearing can be damaged if exposed to noise levels over 75 dB over a prolonged period of time. The World Health Organization recommends that sound levels indoors should be less than 30 dB.
Effects of Noise Pollution
✅Even short exposure to noise can produce temporary hearing losses.
✅Prolonged exposure to noise can lead to a gradual deterioration of the inner ear and subsequent deafness.
✅Constant noise causes the blood vessels and muscles to contract. This causes a gradual loss of hearing, tension, nervousness and psychiatric illness. High intensity sounds emitted by many industries and supersonic aircraft, when continued for long periods of time not only disturb but also permanently damage hearing.
✅Noise has harmful effects on non-living materials too. Numerous examples can be cited where old buildings and even new constructions have developed cracks under the stress of explosive sounds.
Control of Noise Pollution
✅A green-belt effectively reduces the noise.
✅A 20 foot wide plantation inside the compound protects the house from the noise of vehicular traffic.
✅Decibel metres should be installed along highways and in factories to check and control the intensity of noise pollution.
✅Specific legislation and regulations should be proposed for designing and operation of machines to include vibration control, sound-proof cabins and sound-absorbing materials.
✅In metropolitan areas a green belt of vegetation and open spaces in general may have a great value in noise control as in air purification. It has been seen that plants are efficient absorbers of noise, especially noise of higher frequency. Plants can also absorb aeroplane noise, so a green belt should be planted around airports.
