Environmental Encyclopedia

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Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky

Vladímir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1862 –

1945)

Russian mineralogist, geochemist, and biochemist

Vernadsky was born on March 12, 1863, in St. Petersburg,

Russia. His father, Ivan, was a professor of political economy

and edited a liberal journal that barely escaped the Tsarist

regime’s censorship. Vernadsky’s mother, Anna Petrovna

Konstantinovich, was a teacher of singing who was neither

as intellectual nor as politically inclined as her husband.

When Vernadsky was five, the family moved to the more

provincial town of Kharkov, where he received an introduc-

tion to

nature

and astronomy from his uncle. At the age of

13, Vernadsky moved with his family back to St. Petersburg,

where he attended a classical gymnasium. Because a classical

Russian education in this era did not include the sciences,

Vernadsky and his friends were forced to form a study group

of their own.

In 1881 Vernadsky entered the physics and math de-

partments at St. Petersburg University. Although it was the

custom for men of his class to study abroad, Vernadsky

remained close to home to help care for his father, who had

suffered a stroke the previous spring. At St. Petersburg,

Vernadsky studied with Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, who

derived the periodic table of the elements, chemist Aleksandr

Butlerov, and mineralogist V. V. Dokuchaev. He published

two scientific articles during his undergraduate years, one

on mineral analysis and the other on the

prairie

rodent.

Vernadsky’s undergraduate thesis on isomorphism so im-

pressed his professors that they urged him to pursue an

academic career. That same year he joined an underground

committee on literacy, which wrote and distributed reading

materials for the common people. Through the committee,

Vernadsky met Natalia Egorovna Staritskaya. The two began

dating, and when Vernadsky was appointed curator of the

university’s mineralogical collection in 1886, they were

married.

Vernadsky was not to enjoy the peaceful existence of

the newlywed for long. Russia in the late 1880s was in

turmoil and few places were more tumultuous than the uni-

versity campuses. After a group of students there were found

guilty of a plot to kill Alexander III, the Tsarist government

considered St. Petersburg University a hotbed of radicalism.

Administrators at the state-run university targeted students

and faculty suspected of rebellious feelings towards the au-

tocracy. The 25-year-old Vernadsky was among the suspects,

not because of any radical activities but because of his deci-

sion not to study abroad, a decision which, according to

administrators, branded him an avowed rabble-rouser. Ver-

nadsky’s father-in-law, a well-respected government official,

appealed his ouster and the government decided to allow

Vernadsky to continue his association with the university as

1457

long as he now sought that international education. As soon

as his first child, George was born, Vernadsky began studying

at the University of Naples.

Soon after his arrival in Italy, Vernadsky realized that

the Naples department no longer led the field, so he trans-

ferred to Munich to study with the German crystallographer

Paul Groth. In 1889 Vernadsky transferred to Paris’s Mining

Academy, where, under the guidance of Henri Le Cha

elier,

he chose polymorphism—the ability of some chemical com-

pounds to assume different forms—as the topic for his mas-

ter’s thesis. Whereas it was previously believed that the alu-

minosilicate minerals which make up most of the earth’s

crust were silicic

acid

salts, Vernadsky showed them to

have a different structure, with

aluminum

that is chemically

analogous to silicon. He proposed the theory of the kaolin

nucleus, a structure which is made up of two aluminum,

two silicon, and seven oxygen atoms, and which forms the

basis of many minerals. The theory has since been confirmed,

and is considered essential to an understanding of minerals.

Vernadsky started lecturing at Moscow University in

1891, the year he received his master’s degree. Like many

intellectuals of his time and place, he found himself balancing

academic interests with political ones. In 1897, Vernadsky

earned a doctoral degree with his dissertation on crystalline

matter, qualifying him for a full professorship. The following

year his daughter Nina was born.

The first decade of the twentieth century proved a

productive one for Vernadsky. His new approach of combin-

ing geologic interests with other scientific fields, such as

chemistry and biology, attracted supporters. By 1901, when

he created the Mineralogical Circle at Moscow University,

he had a devoted cadre of students and colleagues who

formed a scientific school that was heavily influenced by the

latest theories in chemistry and evolutionary biology. He

also maintained an interest in politics, helping to found the

Union of Liberation, a group that sought to end the Russian

autocracy peacefully. In 1902 he published a summary of

his political views, disguised as science, in On a Scientific

World View. The next year, he published his first scientific

book, Fundamentals of Crystallography.

When the universities again erupted in turmoil in

1905, Vernadsky operated a lab until the university closed.

Caught up in the fervor of the times, he helped organize

the Constitutional Democratic party, the largest opposition

party to pose candidates for the nation’s newly created Duma.

His political work did not deter him from amassing scientific

honors, however. In 1906 Vernadsky was elected as an ad-

junct member of the Academy of Sciences and appointed

director of St. Petersburg’s Mineralogical Museum; two years

later he melded his interests with his appointment to the

Agrarian Commission of the State Council.

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Victims’ compensation

After the university riots of 1905, the campus situation

calmed down somewhat, allowing the faculty to return to

teaching and research. For Vernadsky, that meant expanding

the field of mineralogy to include evolutionary concerns. As

he explained in volume 2 of Izbrannye sochinenia, his version

of mineralogy held that “mineralogy, like chemistry, must

study not only the products of chemical reactions but also

the very processes of reaction.” He was particularly interested

in paragenesis, or the way in which essential minerals formed.

By studying the many layers of the earth’s crust in this

manner, Vernadsky hoped to be able to piece together some

of the planet’s evolutionary history. In 1911 strikes inter-

rupted his work once more. In retaliation for the liberal

faculty’s support of miscreant students, the government fired

three professors. Twenty-eight percent of the faculty—in-

cluding Vernadsky—resigned in protest. Soon after re-

signing, Vernadsky was expelled from the state council.

Loss of both these positions meant free time for Ver-

nadsky to pursue his scientific interests. He moved to St.

Petersburg, where he took a job as a scientific administrator

and continued research on the distribution of rare elements

such as cesium, rubidium, scandium, and indium. He made

one expedition per year to remote areas in the Russian empire

to catalog the nation’s resources. During World War I,

Vernadsky spearheaded a movement to conserve Russian

natural resources

, culminating in the formation of the

Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces

of Russia in 1915. When the Tsarist regime collapsed in

1917, Vernadsky became involved in politics again, joining

a campaign to persuade Russians to take pride in and preserve

their culture. Vernadsky served briefly as the government’s

assistant minister in charge of universities and institutions,

until the October revolution, which ushered in a government

whose politics did not mesh with Vernadsky’s. In 1919, he

moved to Kiev to found and become president of the Ukrai-

nian Academy of Sciences. When the Red Terror of 1919

drove him into hiding, Vernadsky spent his time in isolation,

developing the blueprints for a new field he called

bio-

geochemistry

. As he saw it, this new discipline studied the

nexus between geology, chemistry, and biology, determining

how prevalent life was, the rates at which different forms

of life multiply, and the processes and speed of

adaptation

Vernadsky left Russia in 1921 for France, where he

worked with Marie Curie. During this period, he coalesced

his thoughts on the interconnection of all living and nonliv-

ing beings on Earth into a book entitled The Biosphere. After

four years in the West, Vernadsky’s wife lobbied to move

there permanently, rather than returning to Soviet Russia.

But the government was eager to attract prominent scholars

such as Vernadsky and offered him a chair in the academy

with the promise of time and funding for his own work, an

offer that no Western institution matched. In 1926 he

1458

founded and headed the Commission on the History of

Knowledge of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and

lay the basis for the organization that later became the Ver-

nadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry.

During the Stalin years, Vernadsky continued work-

ing, relatively uninterrupted. His earlier years of protest

against the Tsar, combined with his image as an elder states-

man of science, protected him from the government persecu-

tion that many of his colleagues experienced. In 1935 he

began writing philosophical essays on the nature of the

world. In 1940 his years of interest in

radioactivity

culmi-

nated in the creation of the

Uranium

Institute. During

World War II, he argued for Russia to develop its atomic

energy program. His wife died in 1943 while the couple was

evacuated from their home. Vernadsky passed away two

years later on January 6, 1945, a few months after suffering

a cerebral hemorrhage.

ESOURCES

OOKS

Balandin, R. K. Outstanding Soviet Scientists: Vladímir Vernadsky. Translated

by Alexander Repyev. Moscow: Mir Publishers, 1982.

Bailes, Kendall. Science and Russian Culture in an Age of Revolutions: V. I.

Vernadsky and His Scientific School, 1863–1945. Indiana University Press,

1990.

Izbrannye sochinenia (Selected works). Six volumes. Moscow, 1954–1960.

Notable Scientists: From 1900 to the Present. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale

Group, 2002.

Vernadsky, Vladímir. Biosfera (The biosphere). Leningrad, 1926.

Victims’ compensation

Traditionally, legal remedies for environmental problems

have been provided by common law (judge-created law de-

veloped through private lawsuits). Common law provides

remedies including compensation to victims injured by an-

other’s negligence. For example, if appropriate care is not

taken in the disposal of a

toxic substance

and this substance

enters a farm pond, killing or injuring the farmer’s livestock,

the farmer can sue the polluter for damages.

United States proposals for reforming victims’ com-

pensation fall into two general categories: 1) an approach

that combines administrative relief with common law tort

(a tort is a wrong actionable in civil court) reform; and 2)

proposals that provide administrative relief, but eliminate

tort remedies. The first approach was developed by a study

group consisting of 12 attorneys designated by the American

Bar Association, American Trial Lawyer’s Association, the

Association of State Attorneys General, and the American

Law Institute. In 1980, Congress asked this study group to

consider the hazardous substance personal injury problem

in conjunction with the Comprehensive Environmental Re-

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Virus

sponse, Compensation and Monitoring Act (Superfund).

The study group recommended a “two-tier” approach. The

first tier, which would be the primary remedy for injured

persons, would consist of administrative relief. This part of

the system would operate in a manner similar to workmen’s

compensation. Within three years after the discovery of an

injury or disease, an applicant would make a claim based on

proof of exposure, existence of the disease or injury, and

compensable damages. The applicant, without having to

show fault, would receive medical costs and two-thirds of

earnings minus the amounts that could be obtained from

other government programs. The money for this victims’

compensation fund would come from industry sources

through a tax on hazardous activities or some other means

of eliciting contributions.

Most claims would be dealt with through the adminis-

trative system without resort to the courts. However, the

second tier in the program would preserve existing tort law.

Plaintiffs who chose this option would have to submit to

the costs and delays of legal proceedings. However, a plaintiff

able to win in the courts would have the right to collect

unlimited damages, including full loss of earnings and com-

pensation for pain and suffering.

A second proposal that combines administrative relief

with traditional tort remedies originated at the

Environmen-

tal Law Institute

. Its director, Jeffrey Trauberman, pub-

lished an extensive article that appeared in the Harvard

Environmental Law Review in 1983 proposing a “Model

Statute.” The approach was different from the Attorneys’

Study Group because it emphasized common law tort reform

as the primary remedy, with the victims’ compensation fund

serving as “a residual or secondary source of compensation”

in instances when the responsible party could not be identi-

fied, had become insolvent, or had gone out of business.

The major common law problem that Trauberman

addressed was that of causation. Traditionally, the courts

have been reluctant to accept probabilistic evidence as proof

of causation. Trauberman, however, argued that evidence

from

epidemiology

, animal and human toxicology, and

other sources on the “frontiers of scientific knowledge”

should be admitted. When a plaintiff was unable to demon-

strate a “substantial” case of harm, Trauberman would permit

“fractional recovery.” By “fractional recovery” he meant that

if a

hazardous waste

dump increased the total number of

cancers in an area from 8–10%, then the increased incidence

cancer

brought on by the dump was 25% in these cases,

victims should be able to recover 25% of their costs. Recovery

for pain and suffering, which was not available to fund

claimants, would be available through litigation. These bal-

anced proposals are to be distinguished from bills introduced

in the U.S. Congress that would create an administrative

compensation system but preclude tort remedies.

1459

In contrast to the U.S., Japan has adopted an approach

that combines administrative relief with tort justice. The

1973 Law for the Compensation of Pollution-Related

Health Injury, which replaced a simpler 1969 law, estab-

lished an administrative system to oversee compensation

payments. Upon certification by a council of medical, legal,

and other experts, victims of designated diseases are eligible

for medical expenses, lost earnings, and other expenses, but

they receive no allowance for non-economic losses such as

pain and suffering. Companies pay the entire cost of this

compensation. There has been an administrative review sys-

tem, but in no case does this system prohibit recourse to

the courts. In the United States, the institutions responsible

for developing victims’ compensation policy have not, as yet,

forged such a comprehensive policy. See also Ashio, Japan;

Itai-Itai disease; Minamata disease; Yokkaichi asthma

[Alfred A. Marcus]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Marcus, A. A. Business and Society. Homewood, IL: Irwin Press, 1992.

Video display terminal (VDT)

see

Electromagnetic field

Vinyl chloride

A colorless, flammable, and toxic liquid when under pressure,

but a gas under ordinary conditions. Polymerized vinyl chlo-

ride, called

polyvinyl chloride

, is a ubiquitous plastic pro-

duced in enormous quantities. While vinyl chloride has been

detected at some waste sites, exposure has been much greater

in the factories that produced it. However, significant efforts

were exerted by industry to reduce occupational exposure.

Chronic exposure resulted in “vinyl chloride disease” with

liver, nerve, and circulatory damage. Epidemiological studies

associated

cancer

of the liver (particularly angiosarcoma)

and possibly the brain with occupational exposure, and thus

vinyl chloride is considered to be a human

carcinogen

Virus

A virus is a submicroscopic particle that contains either RNA

(

ribonucleic acid

) or DNA (deoxyribonucleic

acid

). Viruses

are not capable of performing metabolic functions outside

of a host cell upon which the virus depends for replication.

Viruses are found in the

environment

in a wide range of

sizes, chemical composition, shape, and host cell specificity.

Viruses can cause disease or genetic damage to host cells

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Visibility

and can infect many living things, including plants, animals,

bacteria, and

fungi

Bacteriophages are viruses which use bacteria as hosts.

Of particular interest in the aquatic environment are coli-

phages, viruses that infect

Escherichia coli

, a bacteria that

commonly grows in the colons of mammals. E. coli is an

important bacterial indicator of fecal pollution of water.

However, coliphages tend to survive much longer in the

environment than E. coli, and their detection in water in the

absence of E. coli tends to be a more sensitive indicator of

former fecal contamination than coliform bacteria.

Human intestinal viruses are the most commonly en-

countered viruses in

wastewater

and water supplies since

they are shed in large numbers by humans (10

viruses per

gram of feces from infected individuals) and are largely unaf-

fected by wastewater treatment before

discharge

to the

environment. Viruses cannot replicate in the environment,

but can survive for long periods of time in surface water

and

groundwater

. Viruses are difficult to isolate from the

environment and, once collected, are difficult to culture and

identify because of their small size, numerous types, low

concentrations in water, association with suspended parti-

cles, and the limitations in viral identification methods.

There are more than 100 types of known enteric viruses,

and there are many others yet to be found. Enteric viruses

include polio viruses, coxackieviruses A and B, echoviruses,

and probably hepatitis A virus. Waterborne transmission of

the polio virus in developed countries is rare. Of more conse-

quence are thecoxackieviruses and hepatitis A virus, with hep-

atitis A virus being a leading etiological agent in waterborne

disease. Other viruses of concern include the gastroenteritis

virus group, a poorly understood family of viruses which are

probably a subset of the enteric viruses. The important mem-

bers of this group include the Norwalk agent, rotaviruses, co-

ronaviruses, caliciviruses, the W agent, and the cockle virus.

Preventing the transmission of viruses through water

supplies depends upon adequate chemical disinfection of the

water.

Resistance

of viruses to disinfectants is due largely

to their biological simplicity, their tendency to clump to-

gether or aggregate, and protection afforded by association

with other forms or organic material present. Proper

chlori-

nation

of water is usually sufficient for inactivation of vi-

ruses.

Ozone

has been used for inactivation of viruses in

drinking water because of its superior virucidal properties.

France has been a leader in the use of ozone for inactivation

of waterborne viruses.

[Gordon R. Finch]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Feachem, R. G., et al. Sanitation and Disease. Health Aspects of Excreta and

Wastewater Management. New York: Wiley, 1983.

1460

Greenberg, A. E., L. S. Clesceri, and A. D. Eaton, eds. Standard Methods

for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. 18th ed. Washington, DC:

American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association,

Water Environment Federation, 1982.

ERIODICALS

Foliguet, J. M., P. Hartemann, and J. Vial. “Microbial Pathogens Transmit-

ted by Water.” Journal of Environmental Pathology, Toxicology, and Oncology

7 (1987): 39–114.

Visibility

Visibility generally refers to the quality of vision through

the

atmosphere

. Technically, this term denotes the greatest

distance in a given direction that an observer can just see a

prominent dark object against the sky at the

horizon

with

the naked eye. Visibility is a measure commonly used in the

observance of weather in the United States. In this context,

surface visibility refers to visibility determined from a point

on the ground, control tower visibility refers to visibility

observed from an airport control tower, and vertical visibility

refers to the distance that can be seen vertically into a ground-

obscuring medium such as fog or snow.

Visibility is affected by the presence of aerosols or

haze

in the atmosphere. In the ideal case of a black target

on a white background, the target can be seen at close range

because it reflects no light to the eye, while the background

reflects a great deal of light to the eye. As the distance

between the observer and the target object increases, the light

from the white background is scattered by the intervening

particles, blurring to some degree the edge between the

target and the surroundings, since light from the background

is now scattered into the line of sight to the black target.

In addition, the whiteness of the background is decreased

by the scattering of light out of the direct line from the

background to the eye, and by the

absorption

of some of

the light by dark particles, principally

carbon

(soot). Finally,

particles in the line between the target and the eye scatter

light to the eye, decreasing the blackness of the target as

seen from the distance. At any distance greater than the

visibility, then, all these actions degrade the contrast between

the object and its background so that the eye can no longer

pick out the object.

Some light is scattered even by air molecules, so visibil-

ity through the atmosphere is never infinite. It can be great

enough to require correction for the curvature of the earth,

and the consequent fact that atmospheric density is less

(fewer scattering molecules per unit of distance) at the end

of the sight path than at the location of the observer.

Air pollutants now produce a haze that circles the

globe, significantly reducing visibility even in places as re-

mote as the Arctic. In areas of industrial concentration, haze

may consistently reduce visibility by as much as 40%. In

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Volatile organic compound

addition, gaseous molecules scatter light; and some gases,

most notably

nitrogen

dioxide, absorb light in the visible

range, thus changing the apparent color of the background.

The effects of

air pollution

on visibility are quite well under-

stood, unlike some other effects of this

pollution

on human

health and the

environment

. See also Arctic haze; Photo-

chemical smog; Smog

[James P. Lodge Jr.]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Middleton, W. E. K. Vision Through the Atmosphere. Toronto: University

of Toronto Press, 1952.

ERIODICALS

Lodge Jr., J. P., et al. “Non-Health Effects of Airborne Particulate Matter.”

Atmospheric Environment 15 (1981): 449–458.

William Vogt (1902 – 1968)

American ecologist and ornithologist

An ecologist and ornithologist whose work has influenced

many disciplines, William Vogt was born in 1902 in Mine-

ola, New York. Convalescing from a childhood illness, Vogt

became a voracious reader, consuming the works of poets,

playwrights, and naturalists. One naturalist in particular,

Ernest Thompson Seton, greatly influenced him, cultivating

his interest in ornithology. Vogt graduated with honors in

1925 from St. Stephens (now Bard) College in New York,

where he had studied romance languages, edited the school

literary magazine, and won prizes for his poetry.

After receiving his degree, Vogt worked for two years

as assistant editor at the New York Academy of Sciences,

and he went on to act as curator of the Jones Beach State

Bird Sanctuary from 1933 to 1935. As field naturalist and

lecturer at the National Association of Audubon Societies

from 1935 to 1939, he edited Bird Lore magazine and con-

tributed articles to other related professional periodicals. Per-

haps his most important efforts while with the association

were his compilation of Thirst for Land, which discussed the

urgent need for

water conservation

, and his editing of the

classic Birds of America.

Vogt’s chief accomplishment, however, was to make

the world more fully aware of the imbalanced relationship

between the rapidly growing world population and the food

supply. He developed a strong interest in Latin America in

the late 1930s. During World War II he acted as a consultant

to the United States government on the region, and in 1942

he traveled to Chile to conduct a series of climatological

studies, during which he began to realize the full scope of

the depletion of

natural resources

and its consequences

1461

for world population. As he complied the results of his

studies, Vogt became increasingly interested in the relation-

ship between the

environment

and both human and bird

populations. He was appointed chief of the

conservation

section of the Pan American Union in 1943, and he remained

at this post until 1950, working to disseminate information

on and develop solutions for the problems he had identified.

Vogt’s popularity soared in 1948 when he published

Road to Survival, which closely examined the discrepancy

between the world population and food supplies. A best-

seller, the book was eventually translated into nine languages.

It was also a major influence on Paul R. Ehrlich, author of

The Population Bomb and a key proponent of

zero popula-

tion growth

theories.

Following the publication of Road to Survival, Vogt

won Fulbright and Guggenheim grants to study population

trends and problems in Scandinavia. Soon after returning

to the United States, he was appointed national director of

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an organization

wholly concerned with limiting

population growth

During the last seven years of his life, Vogt again

turned his attentions to conservationism, and he became

secretary of the Conservation Foundation, an organization

created to “initiate and advance research and education in

the entire field of conservation,” which was recently absorbed

by the

World Wildlife Fund

. Vogt died in New York City

on July 11, 1968.

[Kimberley A. Peterson]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Squire, C. B. Heroes of Conservation. New York: Fleet Press, 1974.

Vogt, W. Road to Survival. New York: W. Sloane Associates, 1948.

Volatile organic compound

environmental science

, the term usually refers to the

hydrocarbons

, especially those found in

air pollution

.In

1988, the five most abundant of these hydrocarbons in urban

air were isopentane, n-butane,

toluene

, propane, and eth-

ane; each of these compounds has unburned

gasoline

as its

primary source. In the presence of sunlight, hydrocarbons

react with

ozone

nitrogen oxides

, and other components

of polluted air to form compounds that are hazardous to

plants, animals, and humans. In 1995, volatile organic com-

pounds ranked third behind

carbon monoxide

and

partic-

ulate

matter (which includes dust,

smoke

, soot, and chemi-

cal liquid droplets from various sources) and just above sulfur

and

nitrogen

oxides in annual pollutant emissions in the

United States. See also Air pollution control; Air quality

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Volcano

Volcanoes have been called the thermostat of the planet.

They wreak havoc, but also spawn far-ranging benefits for

soil

and air. Some earth scientists now say that the vast

swath of destruction from a volcanic eruption can be a source

of creation.

Most land volcanoes erupt along plate edges where

ocean floors plunge deep under continents and melting rock

rises to the surface as magma. The earth’s fragmented crust

pulls apart and the edges grind past or slide beneath each

other at a speed of up to 8 in (20 cm) per year. But just as

our blood carries nutrients that feed our body parts, volcanoes

do the same for the skin of the earth.

Magma contains elements required for plant growth,

such as

phosphorus

, potassium, magnesium and sulfur.

When this volcanic material is blasted out as ash, the fertil-

ization process that moves the nutrients into the soil can

occur within months. Java, one of the most volcano-rich

spots on the earth, is one of the world’s most fertile areas.

Magma also yields energy: it heats the underground

water that is tapped by

wells

to warm most of the homes

in Iceland. Natural steam drives turbines that provide 7%

of New Zealand’s electric power, and it accounts for 1% of

the United States’ energy needs.

Atmospheric after-effects of a volcanic eruption can

last for years, as the eruption of

Mount Pinatubo

in the

Philippines on June 15, 1991, has shown. While water vapor

is the main gas in magma, there are smaller amounts of

hydrogen

chloride,

sulfur dioxide

, and

carbon dioxide

Sulfur dioxide blasted 25 mi (40 km) into the

stratosphere

after Mount Pinatubo erupted, combined with moisture to

create a thin

aerosol

cloud that girdled the globe in 21

days. Scientists calculated that 2% of the earth’s incoming

sunlight was deflected, leading to slightly lower temperatures

on worldwide average. These light sulfur dioxides can circle

the globe for years and possibly damage the

ozone

layer.

Recently, scientists mapping the sea floor in the South

Pacific have found what they call the greatest concentration

of active volcanoes on earth. More than 1,000 seamounts

and volcanic cones, some as high as 7,000 ft (2,135 m) with

peaks 5,000 ft (1,525 m) beneath the ocean surface, are

located in an area the size of New York state. One potential

benefit of eruptions is that they generate new mineral depos-

its, including

copper

, iron, sulfur, and gold. The discovery

is likely to intensify debate over whether volcanic activity

could change water temperatures enough to affect weather

patterns in the Pacific. Scientists speculate that periods of

extreme volcanic activity underwater could trigger

El Nin

a weather system that alters weather patterns around the

1462

world. See also Geothermal energy; Ozone layer depletion;

Plate tectonics

[Linda Rehkopf]

ESOURCES

ERIODICALS

Findley, R. “Mount St. Helens Aftermath: The Mountain That Was and

Will Be.” National Geographic 180 (December 1991): 713.

Grove, N. “Volcanoes: Crucibles of Creation.” National Geographic 182

(December 1992): 5–41.

Powell, C. S. “Greenhouse Gusher.” Scientific American 265 (October

1991): 20.

“Volcano Could Cool Climate, Reduce Ozone.” Science News 140 (July 6,

1991): 7.

Dr. Richard Albert Vollenweider

(1922 – )

Swiss limnologist

Vollenweider is one of the world’s most renowned authorities

on eutrophication, the process by which lakes mature and are

gradually converted into swamps, bogs, and finally meadows.

Eutrophication is a natural process that normally takes place

over hundreds or even thousands of years, but human activi-

ties can accelerate the rate at which it occurs. The study of

these human effects has been an important topic of environ-

mental research since the 1960s. Richard A. Vollenweider

was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 27, 1922. He

received his diploma in biology from the University of Zurich

in 1946 and his Ph.D. in biology from the same institution

in 1951. After teaching at various schools in Lucerne for

five years, in 1954 he was appointed a fellow in

limnology

(the study of lakes) at the Italian Hydrobiological Institute

in Palanza, Italy. A year later, he accepted a similar appoint-

ment at the Swiss-Swedish Research Council in Uppsala.

Vollenweider has also worked for two international scientific

organizations, the United Nations Economic, Scientific, and

Cultural Organization (

UNESCO

), and the Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). From

1957 to 1959, he was stationed in Egypt for UNESCO,

working on problems of lakes and fisheries. Between 1966

and 1968, he was a consultant on

water pollution

for

OECD in Paris.

In 1968, Vollenweider moved to Canada to take a

position as chief limnologist and head of the fisheries re-

search board of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters

(CCIW). In 1970 he was promoted to chief of the Lakes

Research Division and in 1973 to the position of senior

scientist at CCIW.

Perhaps the peak of Vollenweider’s career came in

1978 when he was awarded the Premio Internazionale Cervia

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Dr. Richard Albert Vollenweider

Ambiente by Italian environmentalists for his contributions

to research on the

environment

. The award was based

largely on Vollenweider’s work on eutrophication of lakes

and waterways in the Po River region of Italy. Although

the area was one of the few in Italy with sophisticated water

and

sewage treatment

plants, there was abundant evidence

of advanced eutrophication.

Vollenweider found a number of factors contributing

to eutrophication in the area. Most importantly the treat-

ment plants were not removing

phosphorus

, which is a

major contributor to eutrophication. In addition, pig farming

was widely practiced in the area, causing huge quantities of

phosphorus contained in pig wastes to enter the surface

water.

Vollenweider recommended a wide range of changes

to reduce eutrophication. These included the addition of

1463

tertiary stages in sewage treatment plants to remove phos-

phorus, special treatment of wastes from pig farms, and

agreements from manufacturers of

detergents

to reduce the

amount of phosphorus contained in their products.

[David E. Newton]

ESOURCES

ERIODICALS

Davey, T. “CCIW Scientist Wins Top Italian Environmental Award.”

Water and Pollution Control (January 1979): 23.

Volume reduction, solid waste

see

Solid waste volume reduction

This Page Intentionally Left Blank

War, environmental effects of

War and similar conflicts have long been an activity of

humans, and is referred to in the earliest historical records.

Wars involving hunter-gatherer and early agricultural cul-

tures included clashes between clans and village groups. This

sometimes led to the deaths of some participants, as has

been observed up to the present century in such places as New

Guinea and Borneo. In marked contrast, modern warfare

involving advanced technological societies can wreak a truly

awesome destruction—about 84 million people have been

killed during the wars of the twentieth century.

The conflict that has been the most destructive to

human life was World War II (1939-1945), during which

about 38 million people were killed. World War I (1914-

1918) resulted in about 20 million deaths, the Korean War

(1950-1953) about 3 million, and the Vietnam War (1961-

1975) about 2.4 million.

In addition to having awful consequences for people

and their civilizations, modern warfare also causes terrible

environmental damages. These include the destruction

caused by conventional weapons, effects of the military use

of poisonous gases and herbicides, and

petroleum

spills. In

addition, the potential consequences of nuclear warfare are

horrific—a nuclear holocaust could kill billions of people

and might also result in

climate

changes that would cause

a collapse of biospheric processes.

Destruction by conventional warfare

Enormous amounts of explosive munitions are used

during modern wars. An estimated 23.1 million tons (21

million metric tons) of explosives were expended during

World War II, 36% of that by United States forces, 42%

by the Germans, and 22% by other combatants. About 3.3

million tons (3 million metric tons) were used during the

Korean War, 90% of that by U.S. and Allied forces. About

15.4 million tons (14 million metric tons) were used during

the Vietnam War, 95% of that by U.S. and South Vietnam-

ese forces. During the Gulf Conflict, several months of

bombardment by U.S.-led coalition forces resulted in 88,000

1465

tons (80,000 metric tons) of explosives being dropped on

Iraq. Although not well-documented, the explosion of such

enormous quantities of munitions during these wars caused

great damages to people, buildings, and ecosystems.

Much of World War I, for example, was waged in an

area of coastal lowland in Belgium and France known as

the Western Front. This was a terrible theater of war, which

involved virtually static confrontations between huge armies

that fought back and forth over a well-defended landscape

webbed with intricate trenchworks. Territorial gains could

only be made by extraordinarily difficult frontal assaults,

which resulted in an enormous waste of men and material.

Battles were preceded by intense artillery bombardments,

which devastated the agricultural lands and woodlands of

the battlefields.

One observer described the ruined terrain of an area

of Belgium known as Flanders in this way: “In this landscape

nothing existed but a measureless bog of military rubble,

shattered houses, and tree stumps. It was pitted with shell

craters containing fetid water. Overhead hung low clouds

smoke

and fog. The very ground was soured by poison

gas.” (cited in Freedman, 1995). Another passage described

the destruction of a forest (or copse) by an artillery bombard-

ment: “When a copse was caught in a fury of shells the trees

flew uprooted through the air like a handful of feathers; in

a flash the area became, as in a magicians trick, as barren

as the expanse around it.” These were common observations,

and they typified the damages caused by explosions, ma-

chines, and the mass movements of men determined to kill

each other.

About half of the munitions used during the Vietnam

War was delivered by aircraft, half by artillery, and less than

1% from offshore ships. United States forces dropped about

20 million aerial bombs of various sizes, fired 230 million

artillery shells, and used more than 100 million grenades

and additional millions of rockets and mortar shells. Of

course, these caused enormous physical destruction to the

built

environment

of cities and towns, and to agricultural

and natural environments. During 1967 and 1968, for exam-

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

War, environmental effects of

ple, about 2.5 million craters were formed by 500- and 750-

lb (227- and 337-kg) bombs dropped in saturation patterns

by high-flying B-52 bombers. Each plane sortie produced

a bombed-out area of about 161 acres (65 ha). Eventually

about 21.6 million acres (8.1 million ha) or 11% of the

landscape of Indochina was affected in this way (this includes

Laos and Vietnam). Craters were about 16 yd (15 m) wide

and 13 yd (12 m) deep, and they usually filled with fresh

water. In addition, the explosions often started forest or

grassland fires, which caused extensive secondary damages.

Some animals have been brought to the brink of

ex-

tinction

through warfare. For instance, the last wild Pere

David’s deer (Elaphurus diavidianus) were killed during the

Boxer War of 1898-1900 in China. The European

bison

(Bison bonasus) was almost rendered extinct by

hunting

dur-

ing World War I to provide meat for troops. More recently,

warfare has led to lawlessness in much of Africa, allowing

well-armed gangs of poachers to cause white rhinos (Cerat-

otherium simum), black rhinos (Diceros bicornis),

elephants

(Loxodontia africana), and other

species

to become critically

endangered over much of their range. These animals are

hunted for their horns, tusks, and other valuable body parts.

Although the effects of war on wild animals have

mostly been damaging, there have been a few exceptions.

Usually this happened because of decreased exploitation—

men were too busy trying to kill each other to bother with

hunting other species. For example, the abundance of game-

birds in Britain increased markedly during both World Wars

because of decreased hunting pressures. So did fish stocks

in the North Atlantic, because fishing boats were subject to

attacks.

The legacy of unexploded munitions

Many aerial bombs and artillery shells do not explode

and cause a lingering hazard on the landscape. These prob-

lems are made much worse by the use of explosive mines in

warfare, because few of these buried devices are recovered

after the hostilities cease, and they continue to be an explosive

hazard for people and domestic and wild animals for decades.

Modern anti-personnel mines are extremely difficult to find,

largely because they can contain as little as one gram of

metal, which makes it hard to detect them magnetically.

Chemical weapons in warfare

Antipersonnel chemical warfare occurred on a large

scale during World War I, when more than 220.5 million

lb (100 million kg) of lethal agents were used. These were

devastating lung poisons such as

chlorine

, phosgene, trichl-

oromethyl chloroformate, and chloropicrin, and the dermal

agent known as mustard gas. These poisons caused about

1.3 million casualties, including 100,000 deaths.

Lethal gases were also used during the Iran-Iraq War

of 1981-1987, mostly by Iraqi forces. The most famous

incident involved the Kurdish town of Halabja in northern

1466

Iraq, which had rebelled against the central government and

was aerially gassed with the nerve agents sabin and tabun,

causing about 5,000 deaths.

The nonlethal “harassing agent” CS (or o-chloroben-

zolmalononitrile) was used by the U.S. military during the

Vietnam War. About 20 million lb (9 million kg) of CS

was sprayed over more than 2.5 million acres (one million

ha) of South Vietnam, rendering treated places uninhabitable

by humans, and likely wild animals, for up to 45 days.

In addition, extensive areas of Vietnam were treated

with herbicides by U.S. forces to deprive their enemy of

forest cover and food production. More than 3.5 million

acres (1.4 million ha) were sprayed at least once, equivalent

to about one-seventh the area of South Vietnam. Most of

the treated area was mangrove or upland forest, with about

247,000 acres (100,000 ha) being cropland. The most com-

monly used

herbicide

was a 50:50 mixture of

2,4,5-T

plus

2,4-D

, known as

Agent Orange

. More than 55 million lb

(25 million kg) of 2,4-D and 47 million lb (21 million kg)

of 2,4,5-T were sprayed in this military program. Because

the intent was to achieve a longer-term

defoliation

, the

application rates were relatively high, equivalent to about 10

times the rate normally used in forestry.

The herbicide spraying caused great ecological dam-

ages, with effects so severe that critics of the practice labeled

it “ecocide,” i.e., the intentional use of anti-environmental

actions over a large area, carried out as a tactical component

of a military strategy. The damages included loss of agricul-

tural lands for many rural people, as well as extensive

defor-

estation

, which caused severe but almost undocumented

effects on the native

biodiversity

of Vietnam.

Because the 2,4,5-T used in the herbicide spraying

was contaminated by a

dioxin

chemical known as TCDD

(2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), there was also a great

deal of controversy about the potential effects on humans.

As much as 357 lb (162 kg) of TCDD was sprayed with

herbicides onto Vietnam. Although there have been claims

of damages caused to exposed populations, including U.S.

military personnel, the scientific studies have not demon-

strated convincing linkages. Although the subject remains

controversial, it seems likely that the specific effects of

TCDD were small in comparison with the overall ecological

effects of the use of herbicides in the Vietnam War.

Effects of nuclear warfare

Nuclear weapons

have an enormous capability for

destruction of humans, their civilization, and natural ecosys-

tems. This was recognized by John F. Kennedy during a

speech to the United Nations in 1961: “Mankind must put

an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.”

The world’s nuclear arsenal peaked during the 1980s,

when the explosive yield of all weapons was about 18,000

megatons (Mt) of TNT-equivalent. This was more than