Guru
Introduction
Pollution is a global problem that poses a significant threat to our environment and human health. It results from the release of pollutants into the air, water, soil, and ecosystems, disrupting the natural balance and causing a range of detrimental effects. In this blog post, we will explore what pollution is, the various types of pollutants, their sources, and the far-reaching consequences they have on our planet.
What is the pollution and pollutants?
Pollution is the introduction of harmful or undesirable substances into the environment, often in greater quantities than the environment can naturally accommodate or safely assimilate. Pollution can take various forms, including chemical, biological, and physical, and it affects air, water, soil, and living organisms. It is a direct consequence of human activities, industrialization, and urbanization.
Pure air is colourless and odourless, while pure water is colourless, tasteless, and odourless. However, these properties can be altered by external substances from natural or artificial sources.
Pollution occurs when external substances, known as pollutants, contaminate the environment. Vehicles release carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, which pollute the air. Likewise, domestic and industrial sewage discharge waste into water bodies, leading to water pollution.
Pollutants come from both natural and artificial sources. Natural sources of air pollution include volcanic activity, decaying vegetation, forest fires that emit carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, and particles of solids or liquids carried from the sea and land by wind.
Artificial sources of air pollution include gases, mists, particles, and aerosols emitted by industries and other chemical or biological processes used by humans.
Natural sources of water pollution include soil erosion, atmospheric particles, and decaying vegetation. Artificial sources of water pollution include domestic and industrial sewage, agricultural runoff, radioactive waste, thermal discharges from power plants, oil spills, and pesticide contamination.
Types of Pollutants
- Gaseous pollutants: Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) ozone (O3).
- Particulate matter: Fine and coarse particles (PM2.5 and PM10 ground).
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
- Chemical pollutants: Lead, mercury pesticides,pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals.
- Biological pollutants: Bacteria, viruses, harmful algal blooms.
- Nutrient pollutants: Fertilizers and wastewater represent nitrogen and phosphorus.
- Heavy metals: Lead, cadmium, arsenic.
- Organic pollutants: Pesticides, herbicides, and industrial chemicals.
- Soil erosion and sedimentation.
- Noise pollution: Noise pollution due to too much traffic, industrial activity and city-building.
- Light pollution: Light pollution from too much artificial light wrecks natural rhythms of light and dark.
Sources of Pollution
The sources of pollution are diverse and can be attributed to various human activities and natural processes:
1. Industrial Activities: Air and water pollutants are a result of the operations yields of factories, power plants and manufacturing plants.
2. Transportation: Other sources of the pollutants include cars, vans, trucks and others kinds of vehicles such as ships and aeroplanes which release gases like CO2, NOx and particulates.
3. Agricultural Practices: Pesticide, fertilizer, and animal waste production or release creates water and soil pollution.
4. Waste Disposal: Improper processing of solid waste such as landfilling and burning generates volatile chemicals that negatively impact the environment.
5. Construction and Urbanization: The soil and water pollution associated with construction activities can emerge in the run off of sediment or chemicals.
6. Deforestation and Land-Use Changes: Land use and deforestation affects the vitality of ecosystems inadvertently causing pollution.
Effects of Pollution on our Environment
1. Air Pollution: Air pollution has some of the most serious repercussions such as respiratory diseases,cardiovascular problems and climate change.
2. Water Pollution: The provenance of polluted water supply that has the potential to cause health problems, disrupted ecosystems and lessen clean water results in.
3. Soil Pollution: Contamination of soil negatively affects not only plant life but also reduces the productive output, which has implications for food security.
4. Noise and Light Pollution: Such types of pollution can mess up sleep rhythms, influence how wildlife interacts with the environment and cause harm to human welfare.
5. Biodiversity Loss: Pollution also causes the destruction of ecosystems as plants and animals lose their habitats thereby losing species and altering the ecological balance.
Causes of Pollution
1.Man-nature interaction
Man is at the centre of the biosphere in dynamic equilibrium with other segments of the environment—air, water and land. His daily life is heavily dependent on his natural environment—he gets food from soil, fruits and timber from trees, medicines from plants, meat from birds and animals, fish from ponds, rivers and seas, water for daily use from springs, rivers and ground water.
Indian Tradition: India has a rich tradition in environmental ethics. Ancient Indians used to worship Nature—sun, water, air, soil, plants and animals. Ancient philosophers believed that five essential elements—kshiti (earth), op (water), teja (fire or energy), marut (air), and byom (open space)—formed the entire universe, including the Earth, plants, animals, and human beings. These elements created the bodies of all living beings. After death and decay, their bodies disintegrated and returned to these five elements.
The fundamentals of conservation ethics were brilliantly formulated in the IshoUpanishad during the Vedic era. “The whole universe together with all its creatures belong to the Lord (Nature). Let no one species encroach over the rights and privileges of other species. Man can enjoy the bounties of Nature by giving up greed.” In other words, if we over-exploit Nature, we shall lose all the benefits from Nature.
In the Maurya period the emperors emphasised the awareness campaign for conservation of Nature and upholding the spirit of non-violence towards trees and animals.Compassion for animate and inanimate objects is part and parcel of Indian culture.But unfortunately we have forgotten this basic philosophy and turned to Western culture of conflict with Nature.
Scan of Human Civilization: It is worthwhile to scan human civilization since man’s arrival on earth. Early humans lived in mountain caves and viewed the forces of nature with wonder and awe.He was panicky about the sun, lightning, thunder, rains and also wild animals in the forests. He was constantly busy in protecting himself and his family against the hostile elements around him. Gradually he discovered fire and made stone tools for his defense against wild animals. About 10,000 years ago agriculture was discovered and that was the starting point for human civilization.
In course of time man devised science and technology step by step and depended on these for improving his living standard. This became prominent after the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) which transformed England from an agricultural country into a predominantly industrial one. The invention of steam engine by James Watt (1785), mechanisation in textile industry, advancement in mining, transport and ship-building industries made Britain the most prosperous country in the world. This was promoted by British colonial exploitation.
With the help of science and technology, man overcame the natural barriers and established his supremacy over Nature. He can travel from one part of the world to the other part, in a matter of a few hours, undertake journey to outer space and planets, dive down to the bottom of seas and explore the wonders there and so on. But at the same time, the environment became more and more degraded and polluted. As a result of human activities such as deforestation, urbanisation, and industrialisation, the quality of the environment has declined, threatening the survival of human beings on Earth.
2.Natural Changes in Environment
The environment is always subject to changes and these changes will continue in future.When life first appeared, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere which was full of carbon dioxide and other gases including water vapour. This early climate changed very slowly; it took over 2 billion years to accumulate enough oxygen in the atmosphere, which supported the evolution of life forms such as aerobic organisms.
Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere today has come from water through the photosynthetic activities of green plants. Such change is natural (non-anthropogenic) but it altered the chemical composition of air which led to other changes in the environment. From oxygen of the atmosphere ozone was formed which slowly passed into the stratosphere where it served as a protective umbrella of ozone layer.The latter protects life on earth by absorbing the harmful ultraviolet radiator from the sun.
Continental drifting is an important part of natural changes. The continents were not stationary but they were slowly drifting apart. The entire outer shell of the earth is made up of huge tectonic plates1 which float on the molten fluid core of the earth. Initially the continents were all joined together forming a single landmass - later on they drifted very slowly.This movement is the phenomenon of continental drift.
The continents have drifted for about 2500 million years and the annual rate of drifting is 20 to 75 mm. Such movement can cause splitting of part of a continent forming oceans such as the Atlantic Ocean, seas such as the Red Sea and lakes such as Lake Baikal. Collision of one tectonic plate with another can cause earthquakes, volcanic explosions and formation of mountains. Collision of Indian plate with Asian plate gave rise to the world’s highest mountain, our Himalayas some 50 million years ago.
The earth’s environment also passed through drastic changes in average temperature of the earth’s surface creating the Ice Ages. During the earth’s history the temperature fluctuated between relatively stable states about 30 times due to earth’s rotation on its axis and changes in the sun’s activity. The last Ice Age was about 18,000 years ago when a vast sheet of ice advanced from the North Pole covering Canada, Greenland and up to U.K. including the North Sea. As the ice moved back, vast quantities of cold water flooded the Atlantic disturbing the ocean currents. The Ice Age was over by 3000 B.C. and normal temperature slowly restored.
3.Natural Disasters
The environment has undergone sweeping changes by natural disasters viz. cyclone,typhoon, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruptions etc. The latter have caused enormous damages on lives and properties.
Cyclones, typhoons, and hurricanes are the same type of intense tropical storm, named differently based on their location. Cyclones occur in the Indian Ocean, typhoons in the Pacific Ocean affecting Southeast Asia, and hurricanes in the North Atlantic impacting regions like the southeastern USA. These storms form over warm tropical seas and are fueled by the heat released when water vapor condenses. They feature spiraling air columns with wind speeds over 250 km/h, capable of uprooting trees, damaging buildings, and causing massive destruction. Accompanied by heavy rains and storm surges that can raise sea levels up to 8 meters, they often lead to devastating coastal flooding.
The earthquakes have a rather high frequency, about 100 earthquakes/hr all over the world. But most of them are of low magnitudes. The earthquake-prone zones in the world encircle the Pacific Ocean (Zone1) and on the other side, stretch from Spain, Turkey,Northern Mediterranean to Japan, Himalayas and Indonesia (Zone 2). These two zones meet near New Guinea (North of Australia). The earth’s outer crust is divided into seven large tectonic plates and in between them there are more than 20 smaller plates. The plates move slowly over a partially molten mass of metals and minerals–they often converge,collide and sometimes one plate slips below another plate releasing tremendous energy in the form of seismic waves that shake the ground violently. This causes earthquake.
The Richter scale measures the intensity of an earthquake, with 1 Richter representing the minimum intensity a seismograph can detect. The 2000 earthquake in Bhuj, Gujarat, registered a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale. It devastated the entire city and claimed a large portion of its population. The earthquake's destructive force equaled the power of more than 100 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.
Volcanoes sometimes erupt with devastating power, throwing molten lava, silicate dust and sulphuric acid into the atmosphere. To begin with, when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991, suddenly, atmospheric dust rose over 50 times the normal. Consequently, sunlight was blocked. As a result, Indonesia and Malaysia missed summer. In fact, global cooling followed. Moreover, climate shifts were noted. Therefore, scientists tracked changes. Interestingly, eruptions affect weather. Meanwhile, monitoring intensified. Subsequently, odd weather emerged. Notably, agriculture suffered. Additionally, flights were delayed. However, useful data was gained. Thus, aerosol studies advanced. On the other hand, locals faced crises. Nevertheless, help arrived. At the same time, global aid surged. Furthermore, awareness grew. Likewise, plans improved. Indeed, it marked a shift. Even so, effects lingered. Eventually, weather normalized. Hence, Mt. Pinatubo became iconic. In conclusion, its impact endures.