High Speed Rail Affirmative

Biodiversity loss triggers extinction

4. Biological Diversity. -- The main premise of species preservation is better than simplicity. As the current mass extinction has progressed, the world's biological diversity generally has decreased. This trend occurs within ecosystems by reducing the number of species, and within species by reducing the number of individuals. Both trends carry serious future implications. Biologically diverse ecosystems are characterized by a large number of specialist species, filling narrow ecological niches. These ecosystems inherently are more stable than less diverse systems. "The more complex the ecosystem, the more successfully it can resist stress... [l]ike a net, in which each knot is connected to others by several strands, such a fabric can resist collapse better than a simple, unbranched circle of threads -- which is cut anywhere breaks down as a whole." By causing widespread extinctions, humans have artificially simplified many ecosystems. As biologic simplicity increases, so does the risk of ecosystem failure. The spreading Sahara Desert in Africa, and the dustbowl conditions of the 1930s in the United States are relatively mild examples of what might be expected if this trend continues. Theoretically, each new animal or plant extinction, with all its dimly perceived and intertwined affects, could cause total ecosystem collapse and human extinction. Each new extinction increases the risk of disaster. Like a mechanic removing, one by one, the rivets from an aircraft's wing, mankind may be edging closer to the abyss.

Air Pollution

Urban sprawl significantly increases air pollution

Frumkin, 02- Professor of Environmental and Health sciences at University of Washington (Howard, “Urban Sprawl and Public Health,” 201-204)
One of the cardinal features of sprawl is driving, reflecting a well-established, close relationship between lower density development and more automobile travel. For example, in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one of the nation’s leading examples of urban sprawl, the average person travels 34.1 miles in a car each day—an average that includes the entire population, both drivers and non-drivers.17 More densely populated metropolitan areas have far lower per capita daily driving figures than Atlanta, e.g., 16.9 miles for Philadelphia, 19.9 for Chicago, and 21.2 for San Francisco.17 On a neighborhood scale, the same pattern is observed. In the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago metropolitan areas, vehicle miles traveled increase as neighborhood density decreases. Automobile use offers extraordinary personal mobility and independence. However, it is also associated with health hazards, including air pollution, motor vehicle crashes, and pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Motor vehicles are a leading source of air pollution.20 Even though automobile and truck engines have be- come far cleaner in recent decades, the sheer quantity of vehicle miles driven results in large releases of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons into the air. Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, in the presence of sunlight, form ozone. Nationwide, “mobile sources” (mostly cars and trucks) account for approximately 30% of emissions of oxides of nitrogen and 30% of hydrocarbon emissions. However, in automobile-dependent metropolitan areas, the proportion may be substantially higher. In the 10-county metropolitan Atlanta area, for ex- ample, on-road cars and trucks account for 58% of emissions of nitrogen oxides and 47% of hydrocarbon emissions, figures that underestimate the full impact of vehicle traffic because they exclude emissions from related sources, such as fuel storage facilities and filling stations. In various combinations, the pollutants that originate from cars and trucks, especially nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, ozone, and particulate matter, account for a substantial part of the air pollution burden of American cities. Of note, the highest air pollution levels in a metropolitan area may occur not at the point of formation but downwind, due to regional transport. Thus, air pollution is a problem not only alongside roadways (or in close proximity to other sources) but also on the scale of entire regions. The health hazards of air pollution are well known.24 Ozone is an airways irritant. Higher ozone levels are associated with higher incidence and severity of respiratory symptoms, worse lung function, more emergency room visits and hospitalizations, more medication use, and more absenteeism from school and work. Although healthy people may demonstrate these effects, people with asthma and other respiratory diseases are especially susceptible. Particulate matter is associated with many of the same respiratory effects and, in addition, with elevated mortality. People who are especially susceptible to the effects of air pollution include the elderly, the very young, and those with underlying cardiopulmonary disease. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas, accounting for approximately 80% of emissions with global warming potential. Motor vehicles are also a major source of other greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds. As a result, automobile traffic is a major contributor to global climate change, accounting for approximately 26% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.28 During the decade of the 1990s, greenhouse gases from mobile sources increased 18%, primarily a re- flection of more vehicle miles traveled.28 In turn, global climate change threatens human health in a number of ways, including the direct effects of heat, enhanced formation of some air pollutants, and increased prevalence of some infectious diseases. Thus, the link between sprawl and respiratory health is as follows: Sprawl is associated with high levels of driving, driving contributes to air pollution, and air pollution causes morbidity and mortality. In heavily automobile-dependent cities, air pollution can rise to hazardous levels, and driving can account for a majority of the emissions. Although ongoing research is exploring the pathophysiology of air pollution expo- sure and related issues, there are also important re- search questions that revolve around prevention. Technical issues include such challenges as the development of low-emission vehicles and other clean technologies. Policy research needs to identify approaches to land use and transportation that would reduce the need for motor vehicle travel. Behavioral research needs to identify factors that motivate people to choose less-polluting travel behaviors, such as walking, carpooling, or use of more efficient vehicles. Sprawl and car usage have been linked together, which has in turn been linked to pollution. Stone, 06-(Brian, “Urban sprawl and air quality in large U.S. cities,” 689-690)//I.S. A significant relationship between land use and vehicle travel has been widely documented (Transportation Research Board, 1995; Apogee, 1998). Perhaps the most compelling evidence of this relationship is provided by the handful of studies that has examined readily available measures of land use and travel within a large number of cities. In one of the most widely cited of these studies, Newman and Kenworthy (1989) documented a strong and significant negative relationship between population density and per capita fuel usage within 63 large metropolitan regions around the world (R2 1⁄4 0:86).1 Similar significant relationships have been found to exist between population density and vehicle ownership, vehicle trip generation, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in American cities and abroad (Pucher and Lefevre, 1996).

Air pollution causes extinction

Driesen 3 (David, Associate Professor – Syracuse Univeristy Law, 10 Buff. Envt'l. L.J. 25, Fall/Spring, Lexis)

Air pollution can make life unsustainable by harming the ecosystem upon which all life depends and harming the health of both future and present generations. The Rio Declaration articulates six key principles that are relevant to air pollution. These principles can also be understood as goals, because they describe a state of affairs that is worth achieving. Agenda 21, in turn, states a program of action for realizing those goals. Between them, they aid understanding of sustainable development's meaning for air quality. The first principle is that "human beings. . . are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature", because they are "at the center of concerns for sustainable development." 3 While the Rio Declaration refers to human health, its reference to life "in harmony with nature" also reflects a concern about the natural environment. 4 Since air pollution damages both human health and the environment, air quality implicates both of these concerns. 5

Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2012
2012 -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It?
2012 -> Aa and na members Dying from Tobacco
2012 -> [Baby Crying] 01: 04 [Ching
2012 -> Unit Name / Nom de l’unité uic / ciu dates
2012 -> What We Owe Jehovah’s Witnesses
2012 -> Oceans Challenge Badge
2012 -> Canadian cycling olympians
2012 -> Greg landry, june olkowski and tom lysiak
2012 -> William goldman
2012 -> Does translocation and restocking confer any benefit to the European eel population? A review

Download 487.05 Kb.

Share with your friends: