Archive for the 'Pollution' Category

When sulfur and nitrogen dioxides (both common by-products of coal and other fossil fuels) are emitted into the atmosphere, they often fall back to Earth as acid rain. While normal rainfall has a very slightly acid pH of about 5.6, acid rain can be so highly acidic that it is capable of literally melting rocks. In parts of the world with a great deal of atmospheric pollution, rain, snow and fog with a pH lower than that of vinegar has been reported.

This is a problem for urban Europe for many reasons, but perhaps most notably because the statues and buildings that have stood for thousands of years are now, suddenly, disintegrating due to the very crush of people who want to see them. Calcium containing stones such as marble, granite and limestone are particularly vulnerable, now noted in many historical districts as causing statues and buildings to quite literally flake away as bits of gypsum.
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Since the days of cavemen building fires in poor ventilated caves, the effects of air pollution have been a fact of life. Unfortunately, that fact of life has become a major pollution issue that needs to be dealt with. Increased industrialization, building, and population have caused the levels of air pollution to go soaring. The effects of air pollution are not good and have harmed many species and continue to be the main reason for many diseases and even death.

Reasons for Pollution

Air pollutants stem from many sources and are made up of many types of molecules. A few contributing components include:

• Carbon Dioxide – Burning fossil fuels, such as gasoline
• Nitrogen Dioxide – Burning biomasses and fossil fuels
• Nitrous Oxide – From nitrogen based fertilizers
• Sulfur Dioxide – Combustion of sulfur-based fuels, such as oil
• Chlorofluorocarbons – Or Freon come from refrigerants, aerosol cans, and the burning of plastics
• Smog – A combination of gases that are released with the burning of fuels from industries, transportation devices, and fires

Indoors And Out

There is no escaping the effects air pollution and they are all negative. It is true that those who live in and around cities are increasingly exposed, due to the amount of industry, autos on the roadways, and population. However, those who live on farms are subjected to exhaust from farm equipment, fertilizers, and animal waste that contain chemicals. Some may think that they are safe if they are in the confines of their own home but that is not true. There are air pollutants inside that are just as dangerous. Poor ventilation of heating and cooling systems, household chemicals, fibers, and more contribute to air pollutants.

What Happens As The Result

The damage done by air pollution touches many organisms and many are not directly exposed. The effects of air pollution can travel in the atmosphere for days, therefore spreading across the miles from its original source. The results can vary, but some examples include:

• Plant life – Plants clean the air of carbon dioxide, but with deforestation comes fewer plants to do so. Plants will also absorb the toxic levels of carbon dioxide, which will lessen their protective waxy coating. This coating is vital for water and food storage, so without this then disease and pests are more likely to attack and the plant will die.
• Health – The lungs need oxygen to survive and that oxygen is carried through the blood stream to the heart and then pumped to the other organs throughout the body. Many illness are linked to air pollution, such as: common cold, croup, asthma, bronchitis, COPD, lung cancer, heart failure, coronary disease, and much more.

The effects of air pollution are not a new problem, but it seems to get worse and not better. The governments have gotten better regulating and fining the big industries, but it is hard to regulate air pollution on the personal level. It is our responsibility to regulate and decrease our use of air pollutants or else we will not live in our world as we have grown accustomed to.

Corals are an entire class of animals that are among the most threatened creatures on Earth. While you may think an organism that more closely resembles rock would be immune from pollution, these creatures are not only immobile but reside in some of the most commonly polluted areas: warm, shallow seas.

Growing very slowly, corals were once primarily threatened by collection and the occasional nuclear test. One of the most ancient forms of true animal life, corals have existed for over half a billion years though numerous climatological shifts. However, the effects of various types of pollution will likely destroy half the coral reefs on Earth by 2030. Most “modern” corals rely upon constant temperatures, salinity and pH. When these requirements are not met, or they’re stressed, the symbiotic algaes that help them digest food leave. The corals starve and only their “bones” are left behind in what is known as “coral bleaching.”
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Most people are aware of the damage to cognitive development that arises as a result of lead poisoning. In fact, even thought it used as a sweetener for wine during the Roman Imperial Era, even Roman contemporaries knew it was a neurotoxin. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children, causing blood and brain disorders, accumulating in the tissues and shaving IQ points off entire neighborhoods.

Until the 1970s, lead paint and leaded gasoline were common in North America. Unlike many of the other neurotoxic metals, it also happens to be rather common, naturally. It is still used extensively in car batteries, though most of these are caught in the hazardous waste recycling stream as per federal, state and provincial law. It’s use in paint has proven particularly difficult to remediate given how long these substances are capable of persisting in soils, particularly in urban areas. The long time use of lead in gasoline has resulted in a very widespread soil contamination.
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There are more than 80,000 man-made chemicals on the market, approved for use in North America. Several thousand more are submitted for approval each year. In nearly every case, regulatory organizations are responsible for testing each of these chemicals, individually, for human toxicity.

Not all chemicals that are approved will even go through this process. However, the truly frightening thing about this process is that not one of these chemicals will be tested for how they react with the other 80,000 existing chemicals. Even when they are designed to be combined with other chemicals, are they tested together.

It is well known that chemistry does not take place in a vacuum. The human body itself has become a hodge-podge of these chemicals, often stored in body tissues and fats because the liver simply doesn’t know how to deal with and eliminate these substances. When each new one is added, this unregulated chemistry experiment begins anew, with consequences that people can only imagine.
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The city lights have been a subject of excitement and awe for many. There have been songs written about it and descriptions that describe excitement of the city lights has engaged many people. However, not all is positive with the big city lights. It has been labeled as a form of pollution – light pollution.

Where Does Light Pollution Come From?

Light pollution is not a new form of pollution, but merely a newer recognition. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution we have been striving to work longer hours to produce as much as possible. We have been exposed to nighttime activities that require the need of lights, like going out to dinner, seeing a show, strolling the storefronts, and more. Light pollution is described as intrusive light at night.

There are two forms of light pollution. The first is considered to be an annoying light that intrudes on natural or a low light setting. The second is excessive light that is usually used indoors that affects those exposed. Of course the larger cities with dense population have larger amounts of light pollution, but smaller areas and office buildings are sites of such pollution too. A few sources of interior and exterior light pollutants include:

• Building exterior and interior lighting
• Commercial properties
• Advertising
• Offices
• Factories
• Street lighting
• Sporting Venues

Who Could Be Affected?

It seems that some city lights could not do much harm, but perhaps to those who want to stargaze but cannot because the artificial light floods out the natural light of the stars. However, there are many other living beings that are adversely affected by light pollution. Here are some examples:

• Energy Waste – We are always hearing how we should conserve energy, but keep in mind that city lighting is responsible for over ¼ the use of energy and many of it is wasted upward lighting.
• Human Health – Over-exposure to artificial light can cause headaches, fatigue, stress, eyestrain, elevated blood pressure, and even cancer. Artificial light interrupts the natural sleep patterns and release of melatonin, this decrease in melatonin has been directly linked to breast cancer.
• Animals – All life resolves around natural light. Certain organisms have daytime activity and others night. Artificial light can interfere with these natural patterns. Certain algae eaters do not come to the surface to feed on nighttime algae, flight patterns of birds, night blooming flowers that provide food for certain moths, and much more can be affected by the presence of artificial light.
• Improper Placement – Improper lighting can cause unnecessary glare and shadows that may impede drivers and pedestrians.

Light pollution does affect us everyday and it is only until recent studies that we can see what is truly does. It is important for us to realize what the cost of industrialization is doing to our health and for those who are sharing our planet.

Water pollution is more then witnessing the occasional carelessness of a human who may have dropped an item into the water. There are many factors that encompass this type of pollution. We are all affected by it and need to take warning of what has happened and what will continue to happen if it is not stopped.

Who Is To Blame For Water Pollution?

We are conditioned to blame another source for any mishaps, especially one that is as large as water pollution. There are major contributing factors that stem from big industry and governmental oversight, but there is another player in this nightmare; man. It did not just take one man and one day to create this fiasco, but many humans and many centuries. There have been major steps towards monitoring and fining big businesses that pollute our waterways, but there does not seem to be a way to do so for each individual on this great Earth. This type of source is now called nonpoint pollution.

How Does Water Pollution Happen?

There are many reasons that water pollution occurs and many happen without our intentions. Some of the contributing factors include:

• Runoff – Oil, toxic chemicals, and grease from urban runoff or energy production
• Sediments – Construction sites that are poorly managed, crop and forest lands, and eroding stream banks
• Salt – On roadways, irrigation, acid drainage from abandoned mines
• Bacteria – Nutrients from livestock, pet wastes, and improper septic systems leek into the groundwater

Who Is Bothered?

The out of sight out of mind concept has been the way of thinking for too long. People think that once pollution goes out into the water then the problem ends, but what they forget is the waterways are homes to many species of plant life and animal organisms; many that have become extinct due to water pollution. Here is just a taste of some of the damage that may occur:

• Bacteria – The bacteria that is in the pollution cause many diseases among the fish and other living organisms and may result in death.
• Oxygen – This is vital for the underwater population too. Some toxins that are dumped require oxygen for decomposition, which robs the organisms of their oxygen. There are others that create the overproduction of certain algae that also require too much oxygen.
• Solids – Plastics, metals, and other solids that enter the waterways are accidentally ingested by organisms causing illness or death.
• Toxins – Some of the toxins taken in will make fish or other organisms ill, those fish are caught for market, and the human who eats the fish also become ill.

Water pollution carries a heavy burden for all those who come in contact with the waterways of our earth. The Earth may be covered with a large portion of water but once it is tainted then that is all there is. We cannot just ask for more, so we need to take care of the water and the organisms it houses.

As if the increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were not enough to worry anyone silly, climate models predict that even if another drop of fossil fuels were never burned again, things would continue getting worse for quite awhile before they got better.

This is due to the feedback effect that has already been observed in several places in the world. One prime example are the “drunken forests” of Siberia. Though the permafrost that these spruce trees grow upon is always in a state of flux, the rate of melting has increased dramatically in recent years, causing a great deal of damage in areas where people have built upon the permafrost.

More importantly, there’s a great deal of methane trapped in that permafrost, as it melts, this gas that’s known to be 45 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is released into the atmosphere, making it melt even faster.
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Most of us do it everyday. We get into our automobiles, start it up, and drive away to our daily destination. We may not give it a second thought and if it enters our realm of thinking then we are quick to rationalize the importance of using our cars. The thought of car pollution is one that everyone is aware of but many are not willing to do what it may take to reduce if not deplete it.

Car Pollution - It’s In The Air

Many cars and other forms of transportation require the use of fossil fuels. When burned, these fossil fuels release emissions into the air that are filled with carbon dioxide and other possible toxic particles. An excess of these gases has been recognized as a major contributor to air pollution. Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particles, or biological materials into the atmosphere causing harm to humans and other living organisms or damages the environment. Cities are filled with fossil fuel burning transportation and the effects are damaging those who are driving and those who are simply passing by.

Emissions Effects

It is true that emissions are a cause of ozone depletion and global warming. These have ramifications that are endless; from changing weather patterns, melting ice caps, to air quality. But what does all this mean? How does driving a car affect our everyday living? What are the effects of car pollution? Here is a sampling of the ways:

• Health – Gases like carbon monoxide, lead, benzene, formaldehyde, and others are entered into the body through the blood stream. These cause heart disease, breathing disorders, possible cancers, and contribute to general illness and allergies. Since the amount of cars on the road is rising it is safe to say the amount of traffic has too, this brings more accidents and many of them fatal.
• Economy – Some may argue that cars help the economy through production of jobs and fuel refineries, however with that comes more cars on the road and more emissions into the air from car pollution. The demand for fossil fuels has been on the rise and keeps going up and production can hardly keep up. Since demand has not kept up with the supply then the cost of fuel goes up which is never a good thing for the common man, only for the oil moguls.
• Pollution – Air pollution is only one form that is fueled by cars. There has been an increase of noise pollution due to the amount of cars on the road. Noise pollution causes hearing loss and a vast amount of stress disorders. Sight pollution is not a word someone made up but a reality and cars are a leading factor. Due to the amount of car demands and traveling done by our busy world, bigger roads were needed to support the traffic. Precious land was used to create these asphalt monsters that transport automobiles faster and supposedly more efficiently.

Creative Car Pollution Solutions

There are many things that we all can do to help reduce the amount of pollution our cars are making. Some may include simple changes in the way we live while a few others may include governmental action. A few examples are:

• Psychology – The thought process of why we should drive a car needs to change. Driving a car should be a privilege not a right.
• Reduce – The amount of vehicles on the road needs to be reduced and the amount we drive them should too. Perhaps tax credits for lower mileage…
• Production – Car manufacturers have gotten better at creating more efficient technology, but there is still work to be done. Making the newer technology readily available and more cost efficient would help in this matter.

There are a lot of ideas that could be put into place to help with car pollution. We are all responsible for the world we live in. If every one of us reduced the amount we used our own vehicles then we have made a good start. It is time we got creative and took this matter into our own hands and demanded that the government gets serious too.

Most people are aware of the damage to cognitive development that arises as a result of lead poisoning. In fact, even thought it used as a sweetener for wine during the Roman Imperial Era, even Roman contemporaries knew it was a neurotoxin. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children, causing blood and brain disorders, accumulating in the tissues and shaving IQ points off entire neighborhoods.

Until the 1970s, lead paint and leaded gasoline were common in North America. Unlike many of the other neurotoxic metals, it also happens to be rather common, naturally. It is still used extensively in car batteries, though most of these are caught in the hazardous waste recycling stream as per federal, state and provincial law. It’s use in paint has proven particularly difficult to remediate given how long these substances are capable of persisting in soils, particularly in urban areas. The long time use of lead in gasoline has resulted in a very widespread soil contamination.
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