HW3-2391

From Environmental Technology

1. The currents at a beach continually remove and bring sand in so that, over an extended period, the beach does not appear to change. How is this an example of a dynamic equilibrium? Is it an example of a negative feedback mechanism? Why or why not?

• The currents remove sand and bring sand in, which are the rate of change in one direction is the same as the rate of change in the opposite dirrection.
• This is an example of negative feedback mechanism because it triggers a respoce that counter reacts or reverses the changed condition. In other words the sand does not appear to change but the sand that is removed is not necessarily the same sand that returns to the beach.

2. Why might industrial polluters think the Gaia theory gives them permission to pollute the air, water, and soil indefinitely?

• The indistries think that the environment modifies organisms, and organisms modifies the environment. So when they pollute they think that the environment has a way of self-fixing itself, as well as the Earth basically readapts the organisms to fix problems that the industry creates. So in turn they think no matter how much they pollute or what they pollute that the Earth has a self fixing program.

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