I hope that in the near future, examples of pollution such as these, we will see only at photographs…
There are types of Pollution
Air Pollution
Air Pollution
Air pollution is indication of disturbances to the composition of compounds in the atmosphere, as it may be summarized as shown:
excess emission of gases/vapors into atmosphere
saturation of chemical compounds/particulates
rate of dissipation < (smaller than) rate of absorption through various cycles (i.e. carbon and nitrogen cycle)
rate of dissipation < (smaller than) rate of absorption through various cycles (i.e. carbon and nitrogen cycle)
emergence of new chemical reactions of reactive and non-biodegradable compounds.
Global warming, acid rain, smog, ozone depletion are some effects of air pollution.
In relation to this, we may observe the cycle which involves in our daily lives: carbon and nitrogen cycle.These 2 cycles are the most important of all, regulating the composition of carbon and nitrogen of Earth. Imagine the reverse is to happen....
Sources and Methods
We can classify major sources that lead to air pollution to the following categories:
motor vehicle exhaust
heat and power generation facilities
industrial processes
auto manufacturing
fertilizers plants
building demolition
solid waste disposal
solvent evaporation
volcanic eruption
fuel production
roadway construction
electrical components manufacturing
extraction of metals
forest fires
agriculture
Water Pollution
Water pollution is contamination of water by foreign matter that deteriorates the quality of the water. Water pollution covers pollutions in liquid forms like ocean pollution and river pollution. As the term applies, liquid pollution occurs in the oceans, lakes, streams, rivers, underground water and bays, in short liquid-containing areas. It involves the release of toxic substances, pathogenic germs, substances that require much oxygen to decompose, easy-soluble substances, radioactivity, etc. that become deposited upon the bottom and their accumulations will interfere with the condition of aquatic ecosystems. For example, the eutrophication: lack of oxygen in a water body caused by excessive algae growths because of enrichment of pollutants.
Water Cycle and Pollution
Water cycle is, simply saying, the circulation of water in earth. In fact, the water in the earth's biosphere is used and reused again and again. This is called water cycle or continuous movement of water between the earth and the atmosphere. It involves the following mechanisms:
Evaporation: changing of water from liquid to gas
Transpiration: Release of water vapor from plant leaves
Condensation: changing of vapor to liquid (cooled down)
Precipitation: Water that returns to the earth (water droplets in clouds become large enough and there comes the rain).
What's the relation of water cycle and pollution?
According to the water cycle, naturally, water around us will be absorbed to the land (soil) and rivers will stream from the upstream to the downstream and released to the sea. In normal situation organic pollutants are biodegraded by microbes and converted to a form that brings benefits to the aquatic life. And for the inorganic pollutants, in the same situation, don't bring to much hazards because they are widely dispersed and have almost no effect to the environment which they are released to.
In a small scale, both inorganic and organic pollutants safely decompose throughout the stream, their concentration decrease in the sea, and they don't harm the sea ecosystem and its distribution. But in an excessive scale, communities in beach and estuary will be affected by the pollutants, and can heavily harm them.
Sources and Methods
We can classify major sources that lead to water pollution to the following categories:
- petroleum products
- synthetic agricultural chemicals
- heavy metals
- hazardous wastes
- excess organic matter
- sediment
- infectious organisms
- air pollution
- thermal pollution
- soil pollution
Revered to as soil pollution, land pollution involves the following mechanism:
Deposition of solid waste
Accumulation of non-biodegradable materials
Toxification of chemicals into poisons
Alteration of soil chemical composition (imbalance of chemical equilibrium to soil medium)
By as much, land pollution of this has amass globally, everyday threatening the very foundation and mechanical support of every matter on earth. Statistically, it has been shown that:
loss of 6 million hectares of land per year
loss of 24 billion tons of topsoil per year
loss of minimum 15 million acres prime agricultural land to overuse and mismanagement
desertification of land results in the lost of 16 million per square miles of world's land surface
The causes for such devastation are generally due to 2 (two) forms of malpractices:
Unhealthy soil management methods;
improper tillage of soil in which excessive tillage result in the deterioration of soil structure
non-maintenance of a proper supply of organic matter in the soil from the imbalance composition of the reserves of organic matter especially nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur unplenished supply after cultivation of vegetation, living the soil prone to soil infertility, unable to stabilize the soil physicality which ultimately let to desertification
irregular maintenance of a proper nutrient supply of trace elements gives rise to theuse of excessive synthetic fertilizers, which are non biodegradable and accumulate in the soil system which eventually destroys useful organisms such as bacteria, fungi and other organisms
improper maintenance of the correct soil acidity which ultimately disrupt theadaptation of various crops and native vegetation of different soils as the solubility of minerals present will be affected. In a more acidic soil, minerals tend to be more soluble and washed away during rainfall while alkaline soil, minerals are more insoluble which form complex minerals unable to be absorbed into the flora system physiological usage.
Improper irrigation practices;
poorly drained soil result in salt deposits leading to high soil salinity that inhibit plant growth and may lead to crop failure
unirrigated land giving rise to stagnation of agriculture waste products whichaccumulates and increases land toxicity and also decreasing
irregular irrigation leads to decreasing moisturization of land for soil medium andreplenishments of solvents for minerals
Noise Pollution
This particular pollution is ever increasing with due to the rise in the utilization of heavy duty machineries of industrial facilities and vehicles, synonymous to the increase in the standard of living in most countries. We make sounds practically every seconds of our day, but to the extend it has reached an unfavorable high intensity which had cause many disturbances and irritation to others emotionally that has adverse effects on our daily activities.
Noise levels can be measured by decibel method:
Decibel - one tenth of a bel where one bel represents a difference in level between two intensities I1, I0 where one is ten times greater than the other. Thus, the intensity level is the comparison of one intensity to another and may be expressed:
Intensity level = 10 log10 (I1/I0) (dB)
For instance, the difference between intensities of 10-8watts/m2 and 10-4 watts/m2, an actual difference of 10,000 units, can be expressed as a difference of 4 bels or 40 decibels.
Sources and Methods
We can classify major sources that lead to noise pollution to the following categories:
- road traffic noise
- air traffic
- rail traffic
- neighborhood and domestic noise
- incompatible land use
- industrial noises
The 40's was the era where the first nuclear bomb is being developed, and that's why it's called the nuclear era. However, nuclear energy has already researched back since 1900. Nuclear era reached its greatest peak in the world war, by showing its massive ability of destroying things.
Nuclear energy is a form of energy that’s released by the splitting of atoms. Since scientists have found a way to make use of the energy, it has also been used to generate electricity.
Nuclear energy has been recognized as a clean energy because it doesn’t release pollutants such as CO2 to the atmosphere after its reaction that could damage our environment. It's also known that nuclear energy has reduced the amount of greenhouse gas emission, reducing emissions of CO2 for about 500 million metric tons of carbon.
Despite the advantage of nuclear as a clean energy, the big concern is the waste resulted from nuclear reaction, which is a form of pollution, called radioactivity. Radioactivity is a form of radiation (a form of energy that travels through space). Some elements in this world are naturally radioactive while some others are made to be. Radioactivity is emitted when a radioactive element become unstable and begin to decay in the attempt to regain their molecular stability. When an element decays, it emits energy and small particles. If it’s still radioactive, it will repeat the process, until it finally regains its molecular stability and stop decaying. The time that it takes for half way of decaying process is called half-life, and this differs for each radioactive element. It possibly takes up to 4.5 billion years (Uranium 238) and as short as 8 days (Iodine 131). This process constantly remains, not considering external factors such as pressure or temperature. This process is expressed in units called becquerels. One becquerel is equal to one disintegration of nuclei per second.
There are commonly three types of radiation, namely:
Alpha particles, can be blocked by a piece of paper and human skin.
Beta particles can penetrate through skin, while can be blocked by some pieces of glass and metal.
Gamma rays can penetrate easily to human skin and damage cells on its way through, reaching far, and can only be blocked by a very thick, strong, massive piece of concrete.
Sources and Methods
We can classify major sources that lead to radioactive pollution to the following categories:
- nuclear power plants
- nuclear weapon
- transportation
- disposal of nuclear waste
- uranium mining
This has become an increasing and the most current pollution, owing to the increasing call of globalization everywhere. Heat produced from industries is a major contribution to the pollution, much to the operation of the heavy industries which produces high amount of heat energy. As we will show a summary to the event of this pollution happening:
Raw materials for productivity (organic and inorganic products)
Undergo different chemical reactions with several process
Excess heat energy is produced as a waste product
Heat is released through into atmosphere (vapor) and riverine system (liquid).
Increase of temperature of environmental system
n view of the pollution, global temperature had increased significantly.
Measurements of atmospheric temperature are done by meteorological center of the weather forecast annually, and the graph to detect the temperature trend from a period of 10 years will be compared with the previous batch of period. Thus we may be able to know the rate of temperature increase overall and make reference to the standard level of heat that should be maintain in the atmosphere to avoid large deviation of heat in the system.
Sources and Methods
We can classify major sources that lead to thermal pollution to the following categories:
power plants creating electricity from fossil fuel
water as a cooling agent in industrial facilities
deforestation of the shoreline
soil erosion
Pollutants
Pollutants are any substances that under excessive quantity in a wrong place and a wrong time will cause impurity to the living environment. Simply put, they're the things that cause pollution. Pollutants can be chemicals, ashes, sediment, organisms, heat, radiation, etc. which if exposed to the living environment will cause bad effects.
In this section we will discuss some of common pollutants exist today: the characteristics, uses and effects.
Heavy metal
Radioactive material
Biological pollutant
Machineries
Transportation
Synthetic chemicals
There is still hope its not yet too late we can still save our home, our planet. Conserve Water, Electricity, Fuel, recycle more often, respect nature just like how we respect our neighbors.
