Effects of Land Degradation in the Murray-Darling Basin Research Paper

Effects of Land Degradation in the Murray-Darling Basin - Research Paper Example The prevailing climatic conditions are also contributing to Murray-Darling basin reducing in size with each passing day. Desertification is a form of land degradation that mostly affects dry land ecosystems because of both natural and human activities (Dregne n.p). Desertification can be a cumulative effect of deforestation, poor irrigation, overgrazing, droughts, and over-cultivation that can lead to land degradation. Grasslands, savannas, and woodlands are the common indicators to the start of desertification in both arid and semi arid areas. Better-placed examples of these are Taklamakan Desert in China, the Adriatic Sea in Europe and the Sahara desert. One of the major causes of soil erosion is deforestation, as this aspect tends to weaken the soil to an extent that it cannot retain any water. Evaporation easily occurs when the soil is weak and soil erosion is usually rampant in areas near water bodies. Drought is another type of water evaporation, which is relatively a length in time when an area previously experienced rain. In areas where there are soil erosion and drought and to experience high rates of evaporation, making the areas slowly to turn into deserts. When water bodies begin to dry up, then this also becomes a sure sign that the region would eventually turn into a desert. In the end, these regions end up being unstable and can no longer sustain vegetation, human life, and wildlife hence displacing the population due to the land to become less suitable for cultivation (Dregne n.p).

The extra credit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The extra credit - Essay Example There are negative effects of these externalities in production for instance; industrial pollution causes the marginal social cost (MSC) to curve higher than the private marginal cost (MPC). The externality for this discussion will be sea pollution by water vessels. Sea pollution occurs due to oil spillage from ships and sea vessels on transit, especially in cases of accidents or leakage. Other forms of pollution by the sea vessels are from discharging domestic wastes into the sea when the vessel is in transit. Passenger ships are the main dischargers of domestic effluent into the sea such as kitchen wastes and waste from sanitation areas. Other pollution may be from chemicals, and garbage from the sea vessel that find their way into the water during transit. Scrapping of old ships on beaches may also pollute the water is the scrap metal, paints, and pieces find their way into the water. However, most of the sea pollution comes from people living near the beaches, when they dispose chemicals, soil, oil, and rubbish into the sea. Disposal of Bunker oil from cargo ship is very dangerous and toxic to the sea creatures and is very difficult to clean sea pollution is bad for the society as it destroys the marine ecosystem by killing the aquatic plan ts organisms. There are some policies to control sea pollution in various countries such as government intervention through regulations, which include taxing polluters and forcing the polluters to compensate the affected. International regulations to prevent marine pollution from ships aim at preventing and lowering ship pollution. Port waste management under Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels highlights the requirements for all vessels to give a prior notice to the port on the waste onboard. The vessels should also offload the waste at the port and pay for waste discharge facilities. All ships of between 150