Human+Impact+of+Urban+Development

= Human Impact of Urban Development = = By Jasmine and Brendan Year 5 2012 = = = ‍ ‍

= =  **__ What is Urban Development? __** ==== **Urban Development is the expansion into natural areas such as deserts, forests,swamps and more. The building of cities and towns (urban areas) dramatically changes the environment. Not only does land have to be cleared but many resources are needed for buildings, roads, transport and more energy.This kills all species and all the animals habbitats are destroyed.** ====

__ **‍‍‍Why is Urban Development bad for the Environment?** __ === Urban development is bad for the environment because when cutting down trees, replacing grasslands with cities or taking away nature it affects all the animals and creatures that live in that particular area. ‍‍The world population is estimated to be bear 6 billion. ‍‍ As populations continue to grow the demand for more house will continue and we will see new developments ( Bad developments). Also when we are taking down trees the amount of oxygen will increase. We need trees to breath. ‍‍‍ But a huge impact of urban development is the waste people are creating! ===

** What a waste! **

====** We send more and more rubbish ‘away’ to landfill every year. There is no away, everything ends up somewhere and we are all responsible. Throwing stuff away is not just a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Most of the stuff that we throw away takes quite a while to decompose. In fact, some of the stuff that we throw away will be around for much longer than any of us. **====

** * Worldwide, nearly 3 millions tonnes of plastic are used to bottle water every year. (2) **
====** * Overall Australians threw away $2.9 billion of fresh food, $630 million of uneaten take-away food, $876 million of leftovers, $596 million of unfinished drinks and $241 million of frozen food, a total of $5.3 billion on all forms of food in 2004. This represents more than 13 times the $386 million donated by Australian households to overseas aid agencies in 2003. (3) **====

* This is a simple one - put a “No Junk Mail” sticker on your letterbox and you’ll reduce the amount of paper that goes to waste each year. Easy.
===** * ** Producing and delivering a litre of bottled water can emit hundreds of times more greenhouse gases than a litre of tap water. Solution? Stop buying plastic water bottles. Take your own refillable plastic bottle and go back to the tap. === === * Don’t bring anymore plastic #3, vinyl or PVC into to your life. PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, creates dioxins during manufacturing, use and disposal. Dioxins are known carcinogens that can also disrupt hormonal systems and may cause reproductive and immune system damage. Oooh, yuck. === === * Refuse plastic bags. Each plastic bag can take hundreds of years to break down, and they usually end up in landfill or our oceans, contributing to the deaths of marine creatures. If you leave a calico bag in your car or backpack, the next time you have to pick up bread and milk you won’t need a plastic bag. The turtles will love you for it! === Reduce === * Avoid waste as much as possible, starting by using everything you own until is completely unusable, finished or broken. Then when going to replace it, ask yourself; “Do I Really Need It?” If yes, is there an environmentally friendly alternative? Or can you buy it second-hand or can you borrow it from someone who already has one? The best solution to waste is to avoid it in the first place. ===

theatre nights, conferences, work etc.). * Repair clothing, appliances and toys, rather than buy new ones.
For more information on how you can help our environment, or to make some suggestions of your own, please go to www.coolaustralia.org Waste Fact Sheet

Reuse
* Reuse small plastic bags for small purchases. * Keep a few used plastic shopping bags or cardboard boxes in the car for shopping on the way home from work or an outing. Keep a spare plastic shopping bag (rolled up and secured with a rubber band) in your handbag or wallet – for those times when you thought you wouldn’t need a bag, but did. * Have a garage sale instead of dumping items at the tip. * Use your green waste. On average 50% of rubbish sent to landfill is food and garden waste. Invest in a worm farm or a compost bin and turn your food and green waste into something glorious. Well, perhaps ‘glorious’ is taking it a bit too far the mulch you create will have a glorious effect on your garden. * Recycle empty glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, aluminium cans, and steel cans. * If you are on an outing or a holiday where there is no recycling bin, take your bottles and cans home for recycling. * Give old clothes, toys, furniture and appliances to charity. * Save your corks from wine and champagne bottles. Girl Guides National Cork Recycling Program - a range of businesses collect corks on behalf of the Guides (www.guidesaus.org.au ) including The Body Shop stores. * Mobile Phones: Take them to any major mobile phone retailer (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman, Virgin Mobile etc). * Printer cartridges: Look for the “Cartridges 4 Planet Ark” boxes at your local Australia Post, Harvey Norman store, Officeworks, Dick Smith or Tandy or visit Planet Ark * Computers and printers: There are numerous companies and charities that resell or recycle computers. * If you are renovating, ask your trades person to resell or reuse items.
 * Recycle **

== = = = ** __Why are we doing this?__ ** = ==== **People are doing this because we need houses and cities to live and work in, but sometimes they are going too far. Once all the room is filled up for building houses they move onto the grasslands. Us humans don't realise what we are doing until it is all gone. That is why we need to react fast.** ==== = = = __‍‍Ways you could help ‍‍__ = === You can help by spreading the message ( Reduce the amount of nature that we are destroying and save forests parks and grasslands!). You can also replant trees and plants in your garden so then we can get a little more oxygen. Planting trees is a great way to tackle climate change too. Trees produce oxygen and at the same time, the shade they provide can keep buildings cool and reduce the need for airconditioning. Trees also provide habbitat for wildlife and they look good! ===

__ What is Urban Sprawl? __
=== Many big cities have urban sprawl. This is when the suburbs of a city spread far away from the centre of the city, sometimes over 50 kilometres away. The cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and London all have large areas of urban sprawl. ===

**Builders cut down trees and destroy plant life to make...................................** **Big buildings and cities for people to live and work.**

=Questions:=

= Q.How much of Australia's population lives in cities? = =A. 80 Percent.= = Q.Why do people migrate from rural areas to urban areas? = =A. For employment.= = Q.What are megacities? = =A. Cities with more than eight million people living in them = = =

** Urban Development is a threat to the environment. The waste we create by it needs to stop urgently. **  ** By Jasmine **

**Thank you for coming on our wiki and we hope you have learnt alot about urban development!. Remember that we need to stop urban development because it is threatning our environment :)**
= Year 6 content: =

Many people may move to our countries because of better schools, hospitals,shops or restaurants which makes problems such as lack of housing
URBAN SPRAWL  Urban sprawl is when the city spreads far away from the city centre to make houses, factories, offices and much more. This can cause trouble for the people because more land has to be cleared for housing development. Cars become more essential for transport which results in morefossil fuels going into our atmosphere and more noise and air polution. Also many recources are needed to makeroads,transport,buildings and much more. By Jack and Justin Year 6