Air
Quality
Introduction | Invitation | Exploration | Explanation | Taking Action | Conclusion
The purpose of this lesson is investigate the relationship between human population growth and environmental pollution. We will investigate the impact that an ever increasing human population has had on global environmental health and air pollution in particular.
Objectives
Materials
(1) Outline map of the world
(2) World population map
(3) Color pencils
Invitation
1) On a blank world map work with your partners to color in the regions that you think have the largest population (the darker the shade, the higher the population).
2) Obtain a data Per capita map from your instructor. Compare this map with the data map. What similarities and differences can you discover?
3) What do you think the air quality will be in the darkly shaded areas?
Top
Exploration
Now let's check out
these Internet websites so that we can make some comparisons
between the United States and Russia:
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Answer the following questions using the data you found:
(1) Locate 2 environmental issues that are similar in the United States and Russia.
(2) Locate 2 environmental issues that are different.
(3) List 3 international agreements that Russia as in the United States are participating in.
The Impact of Overpopulation
Each day, the Earth is getting more crowded with people. In October of 1999, we broke the 6,000,000,000 human barrier. But numbers this high are tough to understand. In order to better comprehend the size of this number, work through the following population riddle with your partners.
So You Want to be
a Billionaire
Suppose your extremely
rich aunt died and has left you one billion dollars.
The only requirement is that you have to count all of the
money before you can start to spend it. For some
reason, she left you all brand new one dollar bills that
tend to stick together. As a result, you can only
count them at a rate of one per second and she will only let
you count for eight hours per day so that you don't
ignore your family responsibilities. When you are
finished counting, you can spend it where you want, on what
you want, as fast as you want. You have 30 seconds to decide
whether or not to accept your aunts offer.
Do you accept your aunts offer? Explain your answer.
How long would it take you to count to a billion dollars at this rate?
How old would you be by the time you got there?
At this rate how
many years would be needed to count each of the 6 billion
people on the planet?
Many people think
that we are rapidly approaching the human carrying capacity
for the Earth and some scientists argue that we are already
there. We continue to add people to the Earth's population
every second of every day. Click on the
following link and calculate how much our human population
increases during each minute of time.
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Some scientists propose that the increase in the Earth's human population has led to a wide range of environmental problems. Read through the list of the key emerging environmental threats, and choose the three that you consider to be the most important.
As the final part of this activity, use the same link given above, but click on to the pollution link and then consider the following questions:
1. According to the Australia's Commonwealth Science Center, how many people die each day from causes related to air pollution?
2. Do the majority of these deaths occur from indoor or outdoor air pollution?
3. Create a graph to compare deaths from indoor air and outdoor air pollution.
Explanation
Now that you've learned about the overpopulation problem, it is time to express your new understanding of this problem in a useful and creative manner. Your task in this this section is to develop a brochure, bumper sticker, poster, commercial, or role play that brings light to the overpopulation problem and/or offers possible solutions. Try to be creative and colorful in your approach. It is recommended that you work in groups for this activity.
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of a good thing. |
Upon completion of this activity, you will be asked to present your assignment to the other members of your class.
Taking Action
In this section, you will take action by posting your opinion of the following statement:
"Some countries such as China have begun to limit the number of children that each family is allowed to have. The government believes that such action is necessary to prevent the depletion of natural resources and further destruction of the Earth".
In a paragraph or two, post your opinion of the following question on the Innovative Project Bulletin Board.
Should parents worldwide be limited to having two children per family? Explain your answer.
Special Optional Activity: Arrange through your teacher an Internet Chat with your partner school to discuss the population problem using one of the Chat Rooms of the Innovative Project
Conclusion
In this lesson we investigated the relationship between human population growth and environmental pollution. We learned that the environmental health of the Earth may be in jeopardy due largely to our rapidly expanding human population.