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Effects of pollution essay
Harmful effects of pollution
Effects of pollution essay
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Pollution
Pollution is the contamination of the environment which is a serious problem that causes instability, disorder, harm and discomfort to the ecosystem and those who live in it. There are many types of pollution such as water pollution, air pollution, sound pollution, soil pollution etc. Pollution happens every single day and it has now become the way of living.
Among the many types of water pollutants such as chemical, microbiological, ground, and surface water pollutants; Oil spills are the most harmful and pollutant type. In most situations oil spills occur from people making mistakes or being careless to natural disasters such as hurricanes. Oil floats on waters such as the ocean, rivers and lakes and spreads fast across large bodies on top of the surface as a thin layer called oil slick. While it continues to spread it gets thinner, finally becoming sheen, which appears to look like a rainbow sitting on water, this can also be seen on roads and vehicles. This can be very dangerous to the animals that live in the environment, as well as people because it contaminates foods. Some species that oil spills can be very harmful to are marine birds, mammals and also can harm fish and shellfish. You possibly have seen pictures of oiled birds and sea otters that have been affected by oil spills, covered in thick coats. Oil destroys the ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water-repelling abilities of a bird's feathers; this can result in a deadly consequence.
Many birds and animals also ingest oil when they try to clean themselves, or when drinking water, which can poison them. This ultimately takes a toll on rescue workers because they have to put funds into cleaning the environment, and clean the ...
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• Purchase organic food that is produced without chemical pesticides being used.
•Dispose of hazardous materials, such as paint, motor oil, antifreeze and lawn fertilizers responsibly, never down household drains or in the gutter
Needless to say there are many things that are causing pollution, and although pollution will never cease there are many ways we can take a stand and help pollution decrease. After all this is out home and we do not want continue to shorten the years we have for healthy living. Some ways we can begin to stop pollution is beginning in our house hold, for example not littering, recycling plastics, using less energy than needed, keeping noise to a minimum, and being aware of how we effect nature. I believe if we all begin to do those small things this earth would be a healthier place to live and allow us to remain on a healthy planet longer.
Wiens, J. A. (1996) Oil, seabirds, and science: the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. BioScience 46 (8) 587-598.
Oil provides us with many necessities in our lives. Cosmetics, medicines, cleaning products, asphalt, food, plastic, and most importantly, petroleum. But of course, nothing comes without a price. The oil that makes our lives so much more convenient, is also ironically gradually killing the environment, this very Earth that we live in. One of the biggest environmental concerns come from oil spills. Oil spill is defined as “ the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution.” Let’s look at some examples of these oil spills.
In 2010, there was a huge oil spill near the Gulf of Mexico that we now know as the BP Oil Spill today. The Spill sent about 170 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill killed 11 men aboard the deep-water Horizon. The BP Oil Spill impacted the environment very negatively. There were different types of environmental impact as a result of the Oil Spill, but the two that grabbed my attention the most are the Polluted Air and the Contaminated Food Chain. The first impact that grabbed my attention was the Polluted Air. Because of the Oil Spill, the air around the surroundings neighborhoods was polluted. All the lightest chemicals in the oil that had spill evaporated within hours of the incidence forming air pollution particles. These particles that are in the air poses significant threats to the human health from being inhaled. The chemical found in the particles that was formed is known as Volatile, which has been known to cause respiratory irritation and central nervous system depression (Solomon & Janssen, 2010). The second impact that grabbed my attention was the contamination of the food chain, specifically the food chain of sea animals that lives near the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists found traces of oil in zooplanktons; this could only mean that the sea creature has had contact with the spilled oil. According to the Staff at Houston Business Journal (2012), “Baby fish and shrimp feed on the tiny, drifting zooplankton, and then introduce contamination and pollution to the larger sea creatures in the food web.” With these findings, it isn’t going to take long before the baby fishes become grown and caught by fishermen and before we know it, it’s on our dinner plate. And here we are eating fishes w...
Besides the accidental spillage affecting severe damage to the environment and then causing harm to humans, there are direct impacts on human health from oil. Problems suc...
When we think of air pollution we think of the refineries in our cities and the exhaust coming from our cars mostly. In reality there are many more pollutants that we don't think about every day. The six most common air pollutants are; “Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxides, Sulphur oxides, Particulate matter, Volatile organic compounds, and Ground-level ozone (nitrogen oxide and Volatile organic compounds reaction)”(David Suzuki Foundation). The fact is people are dying from air pollution and we are doing nothing to make it better, in fact air pollution is getting worse.
Have you ever stopped to take a look at your surrounding environment and see lots of grass and open space? Or maybe you live in an industrial city and see smog and lots of factories and buildings being built. Do you ever stop and consider the pollution in your environment and how you could be contributing to it. Today people seem to be much more concerned about their natural environment and have taken various steps to try and reduce their carbon footprints. Examples of this are that many of us choose to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle to drive back and forth to work every day or that more people today take the time to separate recyclables from actual trash. Even the government who usually only seems to want our money has
There are many causes to petroleum in b the oceanic environment. Oil naturally seeps into the ocean but the natural concentrations have been greatly exceeded. Shipping oil from one place to another contributes the most to oil in the ocean. The crude oil from transportation b is discarded into the ocean while cleaning bilges, which are the lowest compartment in ships, and transferring oil from tank to tank at sea. “Disasters like shipwrecks, oil tanker accidents, and offshore oil rigs fires continue to this problem, as does the disposal of urban garbage into oceans, dumping of waste oil by passing ships, commercial coastal and off-shore entertainment, and deep-sea industrial and nuclear waste dumps”(“Marine Water Quality”). Another large polluter is the oil industry. Tanker ports and refineries are located by the coast for shipping purposes. The coastal areas receive considerable damage from the spills. “Large numbers of seabirds are killed annually, their oil-matted plumage making flight impossible and exposing them to hypothermia. Oil-soaked fur of marine mammals loses its water repellency, also leading to death by hypothermia. Ingestion of oil by fishes, birds, and mammals may also result in death”(“Marine Pollution”). Another source of petroleum pollution is from the city streets. Oil runoff from urban streets and sewers enter waterways and the ocean. Oil has a very long term ecological impact on the ocean and the marine ecosystems. “The presence of oil in marine waters severely degrades water quality by clogging an animal’s feeding - structure, killing larvae, and blocking available sunlight for photosynthesis”(“Marine Water Quality”). Petroleum pollution has been a large problem for a very long period of time. “As early as 197p, oceanographic ecologists noted that they could rarely pull a net through the surface of the ocean without collecting some form of tar or
Oil spills, no matter large or small, have long been of concern to pollution control authorities in this country. Due to its destructive nature, once an area has been contaminated by oil, the whole character of the environment is changed. When it has encountered something solid to cling to, whether it be a beach, a rock, the feathers of a duck or gull, or a bather’s hair, it does not readily let go (Stanley, 1969). By its nature o...
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has had an extremely negative effect on the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem. The oil spread across the gulf contaminating any living organism that came into direct or indirect contact with it. The oil cuts off the ability of oxygen from the air to move into the water which directly harms fish and other marine wildlife that require that oxygen. The dispersant that the BP is using to try and break up the oil moves the slick into the entire water column which contaminates the ocean floor which would most likely not have seen any damage if it wasn’t for the use of these dispersants. More than 400 species that live in the Gulf Islands and marshlands are at risk and as of November 2 s...
Whether it's an oil spilling into the ocean or on land the impact still affects animals and the way they live. Oil spills can cause temporary loss of habitat and can affect organisms most basic functions like respiration, feeding and temperature
When large oil companies drill for new oil on land, this create numerous amounts of problems for animals living in that area. These oil companies cut down thousands of trees, destroying animal's habitats and forcing them to leave. Because the land is getting destroyed, these animals have no safe place to live and no food to eat. If they try to adapt in a new in environment this could destroy the delicately balanced structure of the ecosystem (http://wilderness.org/seven-ways-oil-and-gas-drilling-bad-news-environment). Also, much noise is created by trucks, heavy machinery, and the workers. This causes noise pollution and disrupts migration routes for many birds and mammals. Toxic chemicals can also be released in to the Earth's atmosphere causing acid rain. Many fish in streams, lakes, and ponds can die from the surface runoff of these toxic chemicals(http://wilderness.org/seven-ways-oil-and-gas-drilling-bad-news-environment). Clearly, animals and their habitats suffer daily from these large oil
Our planet is suffering from severe pollution, which ranges from contaminated air, water and soil as well. Humans are doing nothing to reduce the amount of pollution that is harming our earth. To understand how pollution works first you must understand that there are different types of pollution. The most common types of pollution and the ones that I will be focusing on which are the ones doing the most harm to our planet are air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination and littering. In order to help out and reduce pollution in our planet people need to be more aware of what these problems are and about the severe damages that they are causing our planet. Before industrialization really jumped into place and had an effect on large cities, nature had its own way of cleaning up its own air and itself. Wind scattered gases, rain washed many substances and the rest dissolved into the ground; while plants absorbed carbon dioxide and made it into oxygen. With big cities growing more every time and with more towns that were becoming more industrialized a lot of more waste began to be released into the environment and the atmosphere and soon this was more than enough for nature to handle. In order to stop and reduce pollution people need to understand the damage that it is causing our environment and our planet as well. People need to be more aware of how they can help out and do their part in reducing these problems that are causing our planet to die slowly with people not even noticing it.
Transportation is a big issue with pollution. Vehicles create smog, catalysts for ozone, and components for acid rain. Smog contains a chemical called ozone. Ozone can seriously affect a human’s health. It reacts with the molecules in the lining of our airways. This then causes inflammation. Acid rain has many ecological effects, but none is as bad as its impact on lakes, streams, wetlands and other bodies of water. Acid rain makes waters acidic, which causes them to absorb the aluminium that goes from soil into water. When bodies of water become more acidic, the numbers and species of fish and other organisms living in the water begin to decrease. There are many examples of water pollution. Raw sewage running into water, industrial waste spills, and exhaust fumes from vehicles. A big problem with raw sewage is that Bacteria use up oxygen in the water, as they decompose the organic material in the water. The lack of oxygen kills animals and other organisms that live in the water. Many harmful chemicals are in industrial waste. These can become drinking water pollutants if not well managed. Car exhaust creates a wide range of gases and solid matter. This causes global warming, acid rain, and it harms the environment and human health. Engine noise and oil spills also cause pollution. Since most oils float, the marine creatures most affected by oil spills are animals like sea otters, and seabirds that are found on the shore or in
The environment and health are very closely linked. The environment in which we inhabit and go about our daily lives, directly impacts on our physical, mental and social well-being. There are biological, chemical and physical factors that can affect human health in a physical and mental way. The World Health Organisation states that "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO 1948), meaning that although many factors relating to health are associated with environmental pollution, they can also be caused by the environment in which we work and live in. The relationship between the environment and health, can however be quite complex. Human health is not only as a result of air, water and ground pollution, but also things such as food, genetics, life style and quality, which directly affect human susceptibility to illness, disease and possibly death. Disruptions to the environment, such as substance dispersal, climate change, acidification, ground pollution, photochemical air pollution and over fertilisation can also impact on human health. Therefore, there are direct and indirect links to the environment and health issues.
The Causes of Water Pollution Water pollution is very harmful to the environment and living things. Water pollution can come from many different sources. If the pollution comes from only one source, such as an oil spill, it is called point-source pollution. If it comes from many different sources, it is called nonpoint-source pollution. Most water pollution affects the immediate area surrounding the source, but there are some types of pollution, such as hazardous, that can affect areas miles away from the source.