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Time: 9 hours
Level: Introductory
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 Introduction Resource- This unit examines why water shortages are predicted as a result of the world's growing population and the importance of access to clean and safe drinking water in public health. It looks at the distribution...
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| | 1 Water as a global resource
- 1 Water as a global resource
- We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking-water, sanitation and...
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- 2 The global water cycle Resource
- The flow of water through the land, the atmosphere and the sea is shown in Figure 3.
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| | 3 The distribution of water and its use by people
- 3.1 Water distribution and usage issues Resource
- People in many parts of the world currently face a chronic shortage of water. This is a developing crisis that is expected to get worse. As you read in Section 1, several factors underlie this dire prediction....
- 3.2 The impact of climate change on global freshwater resources
- The availability of freshwater will be significantly altered in a future world affected by climate change (Houghton, 2004). In some regions, water availability will decrease; in others it will increase....
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| | 4 Chemical pollution of water
- 4.1 Levels of toxic substances Resource
- Toxic substances are a feature of the natural world; many plants contain chemical compounds that make them anything from mildly distasteful to lethally poisonous to animals that might eat them. Some animals...
- 4.2 DDT: a classic case in ecotoxicology Resource
- DDT is very effective in controlling pests, being very toxic to insects, and is cheap to produce. Its effectiveness is enhanced because it is very persistent, remaining active in the environment for a...
- 4.3 Mercury Resource
- Mercury is a naturally occurring metal which, in its pure form, is not particularly toxic. Under normal conditions of temperature and pressure, it is a silvery-white liquid which readily transforms into...
- 4.4 Nitrogen: a developing threat to health Resource
- A great deal of attention, by governments and the media, is focused on the environmental threat posed by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and on the urgent need to reduce them. Mainly due to the burning...
- 4.5 Endocrine disruptors Resource
- Then he was a she…
- 4.6 Postscript to Section 4 Resource
- This section has considered a small number of chemical pollutants of water and has examined what is known about their harmful effects on animals, humans and the environment. You should be aware of a number...
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- 5 Unit summary Resource
- Freshwater is a finite and limited resource on Earth and, increasingly, much of it is polluted, by both pathogenic microbes and chemical contaminants.
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| | 6 Self-assessment questions
- 6 Self-assessment questions Resource
- Give three reasons why many people in the world face an increasingly severe shortage of fresh, safe water.
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| | References and Acknowledgements | |
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