U5 L5 Protecting Earth's Water, Land, & Air

Unit 5 Lesson 5 Protecting Earth’s Water, Land and Air

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Unit 5 Lesson 5 Protecting Earth’s Water, Land, and Air

Indiana Standards


• 8.2.6 Identify, explain, and discuss some effects human activities have on the biosphere, such as air, soil, light, noise and water pollution.

• 8.2.7 Recognize that some of Earth’s resources are finite and describe how recycling, reducing consumption and the development of alternatives can reduce the rate of their depletion.


Indiana Standards


• 8.2.8 Explain that human activities, beginning with the earliest herding and agricultural activities, have drastically changed the environment and have affected the capacity of the environment to support native species. Explain current efforts to reduce and eliminate these impacts and encourage sustainability.

Keeping It Clean


What are conservation and stewardship?• Humans greatly affect the land, water, and air.

• If we wish to keep using our resources in the future, we need to conserve and care for them.

• Conservation is the wise use of natural resources. By practicing conservation, we can help make sure that resources will be around for future generations.


What are conservation and stewardship?• Stewardship is the careful and responsible

management of a resource.

• Stewardship of Earth’s natural resources will ensure that the environment stays clean enough to help keep people and other living things healthy.

• Any action that helps to maintain or improve the environment is an act of stewardship.



Water Wise!


How can we preserve water resources?

• Earth’s freshwater supply is limited, so it is important to use this resource very carefully.

• There are many ways to reduce water usage.


How can we preserve water resources?

• The main way to protect drinking water is by keeping pollution from entering streams, lakes, and other water sources.

• Laws help indicate how clean drinking water must be and limit the types of chemicals that can be released into water.

• Individuals can help by disposing of toxic chemicals safely and by reducing the amount of fertilizer used on gardens.



This Land Is Your Land


How can we preserve land resources?

• We must protect land resources from overuse and pollution and repair damage that has already been done.

• Preservation, or protecting land from being damaged or changed, is very important.

• Local, state, and national parks protect many natural areas and help ensure many species’ survival.



• Reforestation, which is the process of planting trees to re-establish forests, is important.

• Some old forests need to stay intact for the animals that need them to survive.




• Land is damaged by mining and other activities.

• Reclamation is the process by which damaged land area is returned to nearly the condition it was in before people used it.

• Many national and state laws guide land reclamation.




• Urban sprawl is the outward spread of suburban areas around cities.

• Urban sprawl leaves less land for native plants and animals.

• Reducing urban sprawl helps protect land resources.




• One of the most important things we can do to preserve land resources is recycling.

• Recycling is the process of recovering valuable materials from waste or scrap.

• Everyone can help protect land resources by recycling.




• Soil conservation protects soil from erosion or degradation by overuse or pollution.

• For example, farmers can change the way they plow to conserve soil.

• Soil conservation can be done through contour plowing, strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, or no-till farming.



Into Thin Air


How can we reduce air pollution?

• There are many ways we can reduce air pollution.

• Everybody can help reduce air pollution in many different ways.

• Energy conservation is one of the most important ways to reduce air pollution.



• Fossil fuels are the most commonly used energy resource.

• When fossil fuels are burned, they release pollution into the air.

• If we use less energy, we burn fewer fossil fuels.

• There are many ways to conserve energy.




• There are many ways to generate energy without creating much air pollution.

• By developing technology for alternative energy resources, we reduce the amount of pollution created by burning fossil fuels.

• For example, compact fluorescent lightbulbs help limit air pollution. They use less energy to make the same amount of light.




• Governments in many countries work independently and together to reduce air pollution.

• Because air isn’t contained by borders, some solutions must be international.

• The Kyoto Protocol is a worldwide effort to limit the release of greenhouse gasses—pollution that can warm the atmosphere.



U5 L5 Protecting Earth's Water, Land, & Air

Science

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