Introduction
The contamination of the environment—land, water, and air—by waste, smoke, chemicals, and other harmful substances is called pollution. The most serious pollution occurs in areas with large cities and many factories.
Pollution is not a new problem. Cities of ancient times were often fouled by human wastes and debris. In the Middle Ages unsanitary conditions encouraged the spread of diseases such as the plague. Much has been done to improve sanitation and public health over the centuries. But since the Industrial Revolution, the problems of waste disposal have become more complicated. The growth of industry, the introduction of new technologies such as motor vehicles, and rapid increases in human populations have combined to create pollution problems on a level never before seen.
Air pollution
Clean air is essential to a healthy environment. Air is considered to be polluted when it contains certain substances in amounts high enough and for periods long enough to cause harm. Air can be polluted through such natural causes as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, which send smoke, ash, and gases into the atmosphere. These types of pollution may have not only local and regional effects but also long-lasting global ones. Nevertheless, only pollution caused by human activities, such as industry and transportation, can be controlled.
The Essay on Typical human resource problem
This article presents a typical human resource problem concerning some dispute between the head of a research department and one of his subordinate leaders on dealing and handling a product safety problem. It was during R&D Budget planning meeting in WYZ Company when the head of Electrical Engineering Research, Bob Bateman along with others group leader do the 1998 budget deliberation; and ...
Most air pollution comes from the burning of substances called fossil fuels, such as coal and gasoline. Factories and automobiles burn these fuels for power, but they do not burn them completely. The unburned particles from the fuels include solids such as soot and ash as well as gases such as carbon monoxide and ozone. In many places smoke from factories and cars combines with naturally occurring fog to form smog. London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Mexico City are among the cities that have faced serious smog problems over the years.
Air pollution may affect humans directly, causing diseases such as cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. More indirectly, the effects of air pollution are experienced through gradual change to climates all over the world. For example, the growing use of fossil fuels has led to a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This gas traps heat from the sun at the Earth’s surface, causing global temperatures to rise. If allowed to continue, this could eventually cause melting of the polar ice caps, raising of the sea level, and flooding of coastal areas around the world. (See also global warming.)
Another serious climatic effect of pollution is acid rain. This occurs when certain gases created by burning fossil fuels combine with particles of water in the atmosphere. When these particles fall to the ground as rain or snow, they damage forests, soils, bodies of water, and buildings. (See also acid rain.)
Scientists also have warned about the damage that pollution is doing to the ozone layer of the atmosphere. This layer protects the Earth from harmful radiation from the sun. If the ozone layer becomes too thin or disappears, this radiation could reach the Earth. It could cause crop failures, the spread of diseases such as skin cancer, and other disasters. (See also ozone.)
Water pollution
The world’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams have long been used to get rid of waste. People dump tons of garbage of all kinds into bodies of water every year. Bacteria and other organisms in water are able to absorb or break down many materials, especially organic matter (the matter of living or dead bodies of plants and animals).
The Essay on Water Pollution 16
Water Pollution People keep on throwing trash and industrial wastes into our clean water. If this continues, the quality of our water will deteriorate, and without it everything dies, including us. Water pollution is destroying our world, but fortunately we can count on special treatments for this kind of problem. What is water pollution? "It is the contamination of water by foreign matter such as ...
Nevertheless, materials sometimes build up in quantities great enough to affect plant and animal life in the water. This is water pollution.
Some sources of water pollution are easy to see. Factories sometimes turn waterways into open sewers by dumping oils, poisonous chemicals, and other harmful industrial wastes into them. Some cities and towns foul streams by pouring sewage, or waste-carrying water, into them.
Other causes of water pollution are not so direct. The use of chemical fertilizers in farming is one example. A fertilizer is a substance added to soil to help crops grow. When chemical fertilizers seep into the ground, they can make the groundwater unfit to drink. And when they drain into a body of water, they create another kind of pollution by causing a buildup of nutrients that plants use to grow. These nutrients cause rapid growth of algae in the water. When the algae die, oxygen is needed to break them down. This creates a shortage of oxygen in the water, which causes the death of fish and other forms of life.
Sedimentation also pollutes water. Sediment is a material made up of particles of rock and soil. As it collects in the water, it fills water-supply reservoirs and reduces the amount of sunlight that can penetrate the water. Without sufficient sunlight, the plants that normally provide the water with oxygen fail to grow.
Land pollution
A person who tosses a can or a napkin on the ground is contributing to land pollution. This type of pollution mainly involves the depositing on land of solid wastes that cannot be broken down quickly or, in some cases, at all. Heaps of trash are not only unpleasant to look at—they can also interfere with the lives of plants and animals.
Land pollution also includes the buildup of poisonous chemicals on land. The use of pesticides in farming is a major source of this type of pollution. These chemicals are spread over fields to kill insects, weeds, fungi, or rodents that are a threat to crops. But pesticides harm or kill other living things too. When they drift with the wind or become absorbed into fruits and vegetables, they can become a source of health problems such as cancer and birth defects.
Radioactive pollution
Radioactivity is the process through which certain kinds of matter give off particles and energy. Some radioactive substances occur in nature, but others are made artificially. People have found a number of uses for radioactivity. Doctors, for example, use radioactive substances in treating cancers and other diseases. Radioactivity is also the force behind nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.
The Essay on Feed Water Nuclear Plant Valve
The Three Mile Island Disaster - An Organizational Communication Study The accident at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear power plant near Middleton, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1979, was the most serious in U. S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. Even though it led to no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the near by community, it did bring about sweeping changes ...
Since the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, people have been increasingly aware of the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the radioactive particles they release. Exposure to radioactivity can lead to serious injury, disease, or death. Because of these concerns, many countries have agreed not to test nuclear weapons above ground or underwater. If nuclear weapons are ever used on a large scale, all of humanity could be endangered.
Accidents at nuclear power plants are another concern. The worst nuclear disaster to date occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. Explosions and a fire in the plant released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. The towns and farmlands around the power plant became unsafe for human occupancy. The wind carried the radioactive pollution over much of northern and eastern Europe.
Disposing of the waste created in the production of nuclear energy is a problem as well. Some radioactive wastes continue to give off harmful energy for many thousands of years before fully decaying. Scientists have not yet found a safe method to dispose of them permanently.
Noise pollution
Noise pollution is especially common in cities. The intensity of sound is measured in units called decibels. Steady exposure to noise louder than 90 decibels can cause permanent loss of hearing. This level is often exceeded by many common city sounds, including jackhammers and jet planes. Supersonic jet airplanes, which travel faster than the speed of sound, create sound waves that are equivalent to those of major explosions and capable of damaging buildings. In addition to causing hearing loss, there is some evidence that noise can produce other harmful effects on human health and on work performance.
The Essay on The migration of people to cities is one the biggest problems facing the world’s cities today
The migration of people to cities is one the biggest problems facing the world’s cities today. Discuss the main causes. What solutions could be used to tackle the situation? Nowadays, the issue of urbanization is more frequently discussed than ever before due to its increasing impacts on lives and on the environment. Most people will not argue the fact that living in a city is easier overall than ...
Creating solutions
Cleaning up and controlling pollution is a huge and difficult task. The world’s ever-growing population is creating more and more waste every year. Governments and big companies are often slow to act because measures to reduce pollution are often unpopular or expensive. Many people like the idea of reducing pollution, but not when it affects the way they live.
But it is not necessary to abandon such activities as manufacturing, farming, and driving altogether in order to control pollution. What is necessary is a new way of thinking about such activities to make sure that their side effects do not outweigh their advantages. An important part of this process is making an effort to reduce the release into the environment of substances that are harmful to life. One way to do this is through the use of fuels that produce less pollution. These include forms of oil that are low in the element sulfur. Another method is shifting to less polluting forms of power, such as solar energy in place of fossil fuels. Farmers can help reduce pollution by using pest-control techniques that do not require poisonous chemicals. And drivers can do their part by choosing to buy vehicles that use less gasoline.
Pollution control also requires the decision to recycle. Recycling is the process by which some waste materials are made usable again. Both industries and individuals can take part in recycling. Some towns have passed laws that encourage or require residents to separate paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum products from other garbage so that these substances can be processed and reused. (See also recycling.)
Growing concern over the effects of pollution led to action on the part of governments and other organizations in the last decades of the 20th century. In the United States a governmental body called the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970 to oversee national pollution-control standards. It enforces laws designed to control ocean dumping, the release of harmful gases by industries and motor vehicles, and safe drinking water, among other things. At the international level, representatives from 160 nations reached a landmark environmental agreement called the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The treaty would require industrialized countries to decrease their production of the gases that lead to global warming. Some countries were slow to approve the agreement, however. Organizations such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club work to make sure that governments and industries live up to their responsibilities to protect the environment.
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The Present and Future The growth of the world s population is a problem that many people see as being addressed at some point in the future. While we live in a country that is reaping the benefits of a superpower, most of the United States is disconnected from the problems of population growth. In this paper, I intend to address three major issues. How long will we be able to support our planets ...
Ecology and Environmental Deterioration
The branch of science that deals with how living things, including humans, are related to their surroundings is called ecology (see Ecology).
The Earth supports some 5 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms. These interact and influence their surroundings, forming a vast network of interrelated environmental systems called ecosystems. The arctic tundra is an ecosystem and so is a Brazilian rain forest. The islands of Hawaii are a relatively isolated ecosystem. If left undisturbed, natural environmental systems tend to achieve balance or stability among the various species of plants and animals. Complex ecosystems are able to compensate for changes caused by weather or intrusions from migrating animals and are therefore usually said to be more stable than simple ecosystems. A field of corn has only one dominant species, the corn plant, and is a very simple ecosystem. It is easily destroyed by drought, insects, disease, or overuse. A forest may remain relatively unchanged by weather that would destroy a nearby field of corn, because the forest is characterized by greater diversity of plants and animals. Its complexity gives it stability.
Every environmental system has a carrying capacity for an optimum, or most desirable, population of any particular species within it. Sudden changes in the relative population of a particular species can begin a kind of chain reaction among other elements of the ecosystem. For example, eliminating a species of insect by using massive quantities of a chemical pesticide also may eliminate a bird species that depends upon the insect as a source of food.
Such human activities have caused the extinction of a number of plant and animal species. For example, overhunting caused the extinction of the passenger pigeon (see Endangered Species; Pigeon and Dove).
The last known survivor of the species died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Less than a century earlier, the passenger pigeon population had totaled at least 3 billion. Excessive hunting or infringement upon natural habitats is endangering many other species. The great whales and the California condor are among the endangered. (See also Conservation, “Wildlife Conservation.”)
The Essay on The Effects Of Foreign Species Introduction On An Ecosystem
The Effects of Foreign Species Introduction On An Ecosystem The effects of foreign species introduction into an ecosystem are very profound. From small microorganisms to species of large mammals, many foreign species introduction s occur every day. New implications of their introduction are found just as often. When a foreign species is introduced into an ecosystem, often the ecosystem contains no ...
Population Growth and Environmental Abuse
The reduction of the Earth’s resources has been closely linked to the rise in human population. For many thousands of years people lived in relative harmony with their surroundings. Population sizes were small, and life-supporting tools were simple. Most of the energy needed for work was provided by the worker and animals. Since about 1650, however, the human population has increased dramatically. The problems of overcrowding multiply as an ever-increasing number of people are added to the world’s population each year.
The rate of growth of the world’s population has finally begun to slow, after reaching an all-time high of about 2 percent in 1970. In 1987 there were 5 billion people on the planet. The United Nations predicts the population growth rate will decline to 1.5 percent by the year 2000. Even so, there will be 6.1 billion people living on Earth at the beginning of the 21st century—twice the number of people living on Earth in 1960. (See also Population.)
The booming human population is concentrated more and more in large urban areas. Many cities now have millions of inhabitants. In less developed countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, many of these cities are overpopulated because of an influx of people who have left rural homes in search of food, shelter, and employment. Some farmers have been forced off their land by drought and famine.
Environmental pollution has existed since people began to congregate in towns and cities. Ancient Athenians removed their refuse to dumps outside the main part of the city. The Romans dug trenches outside the city to hold garbage and wastes (including human corpses), a practice which may have contributed to outbreaks of viral diseases.
The ancient Romans may have been among the first people to experience the effects of toxic pollution in the form of lead poisoning. Like many other minerals and metals, lead can enter the body with food or drink or may be inhaled with particles of dust. The accumulation of lead in the blood and other tissues can cause severe illness or, in large quantities, death. The Romans used lead to line the inside of bowls and pitchers. It was also used for plates, cups, and spoons. In some areas, it was used in plumbing systems. Some historians believe that the long-term exposure to lead was a major health risk for the Romans.
The adverse effects of pollution became more noticeable as cities grew during the Middle Ages. In Europe, medieval cities passed ordinances against throwing garbage into the streets and canals, but those laws were largely ignored. In 16th-century England, efforts were made to curb the use of coal in order to reduce the amount of smoke in the air—again with little effect.
In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution placed greater pressures on the environment, and pollution changed and increased dramatically. Although industrial development improved the standard of living, there was a great environmental cost.
