An environmental issue that has not been discussed in class is Volcanic Eruptions. Since this is a natural disaster, we don’t think of it as a problem per se, because it is not within our control.
Still, it does have some negative consequences to our environment.
There are a number of toxic gases present in pyroclastic (ashes, gases and rock) flow. It contains carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide gas as well as hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide and volatile metal chlorides.
There are a number of toxic gases present in pyroclastic (ashes, gases and rock) flow. It contains carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide gas as well as hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide and volatile metal chlorides.
The carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes adds to the natural greenhouse effect (warming of the earth’s surface) and the sulfur dioxides turn into sulfuric acids, which is the leading cause of acid rain. There are also sulfate aerosols which form ozone destruction materials.
Last year I had a “natural disasters” theme in my class and we did projects based around certain types of disasters, with volcanoes being one of them. The “volcano group” researched how a volcano erupts, different types of tornadoes, as well as researched famous volcanoes and wrote about what a nearby community must do to prepare for a volcano eruption. As far as the negative impact on the environment, I can’t say we did anything specific related to that, but the more the students learn about these dangerous gases and the effects on the atmosphere, the easier it will be for them to understand down the road.
Going back to the fact that this is not a man-made occurrence, I wondered if I should pick this as a topic. But then I realized that if there are dangerous things going on in our atmosphere that we can’t control, it makes the things we do control even more important to control.
Source: http://www.lenntech.com/
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