lOMoARcPSD|12747375 UNIT 1 - Discussion POST Introduction to Environmental Sciences (University of the People) StuDocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Jan Hannah Kate Hayahay (hayahayjanhannahkate@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|12747375 1. What environmental concerns in your local area did you learn about? From my reading, I was able to reflect on a certain practice which is currently ongoing in my country, and it is a serious environmental concern. Tree harvesting for timber exporting is one major business in my country with absolute minimal or no functional regulations to protect forest reserves. Indiscriminate tree cutting happens daily and this have left many areas that were forests bare. Another environmental activity of serious concern is mining activity which does not on degrade the land but also introduce pollutants in the community. These are serious environmental concerns because they have consequences on the natural ecosystem and biodiversity. 2. Did they surprise you? Why or why not? I am not too surprised because in the past I have heard the Environmental Protection Agency here discussing the effects of some of the practices on our communities. 3. What do you think can be done to improve this (these) situation(s), hazard(s), problem(s), or concern(s)? What I think what can be done to improve these problems is to have better policies that can protects these natural reserves and can be only used in the best interest of the society. 4. Give two interesting facts that you learned about your country from the Environmental Snapshots page at the UN Statistics Division link. The two interesting facts learned about my country from the Environmental Snapshot page at the UN Statistics Division link are: Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected is only 4% Agricultural occupies a land size of 39 490 (sq km) out of a total area (sq km) 72 300 (UN Statistics Division, 2016) 5. What other thoughts would you contribute to the topic? Downloaded by Jan Hannah Kate Hayahay (hayahayjanhannahkate@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|12747375 My thought as contribution to the topic is, all governments should strongly implement environmental protection policies and to continue raising awareness about the proper use of natural resources in the best interest of the society. Referee: 1. UN Statistics Division. (2016) Environment Statistics - Country Snapshots Retrieved September 5, 2021, from https://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/envpdf/Country_Snapshots_De c_2016/Sierra%20Leone.pdf Downloaded by Jan Hannah Kate Hayahay (hayahayjanhannahkate@gmail.com)
