Info taken from:
- Water Supply.
Water pollution is together with air pollution the most serious form of environmental pollution. Water pollution not only does huge damage to our environment but also to our health. Water is the most precious resource on our planet, and water pollution is the main reason why freshwater resources are constantly declining, and the worst part in the whole story is the fact that there are still many people in the world who do not take water pollution problem seriously.
The contamination of water bodies has tremendous negative impact on environment, it has ability to destroy many animal habitats, and cause irreparable damage to many ecosystems. Water pollution is not only killing millions of people around the globe each year, it is also killing millions of plants and animals that simply cannot cope with the increasing levels of water pollution caused by different chemicals and other waste.
In some areas of the world water pollution issue is totally out of control, and in these areas polluted water spreads different toxins and other chemicals into environment, making it dirty, and above all unhealthy place to live in.
The main problem with water pollution is the fact that in many countries around the globe large industries still continue to dump different types of waste into streams and rivers because there is the lack of controlling mechanisms that would keep their eyes on these industries and prevent them from dumping industrial waste into water bodies.
If this world really wants clean environment, then the crucial thing to do is to stop the two most common types of pollution, namely the air and the water pollution. However, world still looks to be lacking global will needed for such an action and this is the reason why these two forms of pollution will continue to deteriorate our environment for years to come.
The aquatic life is mostly affected with water pollution, and water pollution can even lead to an extinction of some animal species, like this was the case with the Yangtze River Dolphin.
Chemical compounds and other water pollutants cause aquatic animals difficulties with breathing while on the other hand these chemicals can also be quite toxic for land animals once they drink this polluted water.
The environmental damage of water pollution doesn't stop there; water pollution also increases the impact of air pollution because the more polluted water gets the better chance there is that some of these pollutants will evaporate into air. Polluted water is also one of the major contributing factors to acid rain creation, and generally speaking this is certainly one of the biggest environmental problems.
Info taken from:
- Pollution
There are various types of pollution for example air, water, and land pollution. Pollution is the release of contaminants into the environment. It effects everything in the world and is everywhere it even effects remote places like the artic. There is nowhere on the planet that is not polluted.
Air pollution is the contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substance. Air pollution harms humans. It causes health problems such as burning eyes and nose. There is also more serious health problems that it can cause some chemicals can cause cancer, birth defects, brain, and nerve damage. Air pollution damages the ozone layer that protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. Air pollution also effects plants it interferes with photosynthesis so the plants cannot properly make their own food. It affects the fruits the plants grow and make them smaller and less nutritious.
Water pollution is the addition of harmful materials to a body of water in concentrations that affect its quality. Water pollution kills life that lives in water. Water pollution also affects the food chain when smaller organisms eat it and are than eaten by larger ones eventually humans come into the food chain too. People can get hepatitis by eating poisoned seafood. Plants are also affected by water pollution. As people dump chemicals into the water the plants there are affected by it. The chemicals work as a fertilizer by making the plants grow as they grow they need more and more oxygen that they used to share with other organisms that lived there. As the plants die from their lack of water they have to decompose which uses even more oxygen, which the fish and other organisms need to survive. This causes the whole ecosystem to be unbalanced.Land pollution is the addition of undesirable matter to the land that may damage the terrestrial organisms. Mainly herbicides and pesticides pollute soil.
Land pollution can also become contaminated by activities such as mining and improper waste disposal. Air pollution also affects Land pollution, acid rain caused by air pollution comes down and soaks into the ground and pollutes all the ground water. Because all water leads to the ocean even the polluted ground water will get to the ocean and pollute it too.
The Earth has very fragile ecosystems and pollution takes away the balance of all of them. Humans should control their waste and not throw it into the ocean or on the land. All of our pollution is going to come back and affect us if we don't stop polluting or world.
Info taken from:
Intensification of agriculture
- Increased use of fertilisers/pesticides.
states that: “Fertilizers and pesticides both have definite pros and cons associated with their use. Both types of chemical tend to increase yields, and thus make a significant difference in food production, particularly in countries that struggle periodically with famines. On the other hand, they both can cause water pollution when erosion carries the chemicals off of farms along with eroded soils after each rainfall. There is also concern by some authorities that pesticides pose a risk, not only to nontarget animal and plant” species, but to humans as well. So therefore fertilisers/pesticides are not supposed to and with today’s products shouldn’t. They are designed to break down which is why routine application is needed.
As for fertilizers, I can’t say but shouldn’t unless contains something not needed to replenish soil properties.
Most fertilizers are all natural anyway except potting soils which are only used indoors
The introduction of chemicals, the influence on wildlife populations and the impact on pollutions are ways in which pesticides affects the environment.
How does pesticides affect the environment?
Pesticides allow farmers to control the pests that eat their farmland. But pesticides also harm the people that distribute them. If not handled properly then pesticides face a major health risk for farmers and their workers. It also contaminates the food we eat every day.
How does fertilizer affect the environment?
Fertilizer helps replace the nutrients back into the environment, but this comes at a price. Excess fertilizer runs off into streams and groundwater depleting it of oxygen. This reduces the ability for that water to sustain wildlife.
- Genetic modification of crops
Genetically modified (GM) foods also called genetically-engineered or transgenic food hold great promise that they may provide one of the solutions to help geed growing world populations.
states that “There is growing scientific evidence that GE crops are harmful to biodiversity and the environment. Furthermore, once GE crops are released into the environment they cannot be recalled. As living organisms they can reproduce and pollute indefinitely”. So therefore genetic modification crops are harmful to the environment.
The introduction of herbicide-tolerant GE crops to the US has resulted in a huge increase in both herbicide use, and the incidence of herbicide-resistant weeds.
Roundup, the herbicide sold by Monsanto in conjunction with its Roundup Ready GE crops, has been shown to be a potential endocrine disrupter — that is, it could interfere with our hormones. It is also toxic to certain wildlife, such as tadpoles.
The introduction of GE canola has been shown to have serious biodiversity impacts. For example, a UK government study found there were 24% fewer butterflies in the margins of GE canola fields because there were fewer weed flowers (and hence nectar) for them to feed on. In addition, there were fewer seeds for birds.
The use of Roundup on GE soy has also been shown to have an adverse impact on soil health, leading to reduced amounts of beneficial nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil.
Insect-resistant GE crops (termed BT crops) have been shown to be toxic to “non-target” organisms (such as butterflies) and beneficial insects (such as green lacewings). They also threaten soil and water ecosystems, since many BT crops secrete BT toxins from the root into the soil. Agricultural wastes from BT maize have been identified entering water courses.
BT crops are intended to prevent the need for three applications of insecticide. Yet BT maize varieties continuously release a toxin into the environment in quantities 3000–5000 times higher than the sprays used for non-GM farming.
In 1935, some 3000 imported cane toads were introduced in north Queensland to control native cane beetle populations. Today, cane toad numbers exceed 200 million, spreading into neighbouring states and threatening local biodiversity. We learnt an important lesson from this — playing around with natural ecosystems can have unpredictable effects which are extremely difficult to undo. This is just as true for the genetic engineering of crops.
In fact, the risks associated with GE crops may be greater – pollination through open air exacerbates the potential for contamination and hampers containment.
To date, no assessments of the environmental impacts of GE crops have been undertaken in Australia. However, one thing is certain – once harmful effects become apparent, it will already be too late.
- Soil Erosion
Erosion affects the environment in detrimental ways when it is caused by humans' actions that leave the land damaged and vulnerable. It is normal for erosion to occur as part of the natural order, but even storms that were once part of this natural cycle have become problems. More severe and frequent rain and windstorms have put additional strain on land deposits. In addition, powerful machinery used in farming and surface mining have increased the rate and depth of erosion. The increasing rate of erosion has robbed the soil of its nutrients in some agricultural environments, which may cause problems with food production in the future. Info taken from:
Erosion affects the environment in a number of ways, such as the falling of trees, the flooding of forests, destruction from wind erosion, and a number of others. The one I'm focusing on in this section though is soil erosion
Water Soil Erosion
There are two different types of soil erosion; Wind and Water. Soil erosion from water comes in the form of rain and runoff. When the rain falls, it can break up the particles of the soil, (especially fine sand and silt) and disperse them. This destruction of soil increases with thunderstorms, or heavy rain. Runoff can carry these particles to rivers, oceans, streams or lakes. Runoff occurs when water drifts down a slope, or surface, and is not absorbed into the soil. Runoff increases when soil is crusty, compacted, or is over hydrated, as in it can't absorb any more water. This runoff can carry off more rich topsoil.
Wind Soil Erosion
Wind erosion is affected by more than a few factors. The soil weight greatly affects the effect of the erosion. Lighter particles can be carried away by the wind. As the soil particles get heavier, they can just coast along the soil. This heavy soil can break down because of this, and be carried away, as well as break down other soil particles. Soil that is rough has a greater resistance to this type of erosion, but that resistance can reduce as the erosion wears away the roughness into smooth, vulnerable soil.
You can reduce these affects by cultivating your land, making windbreaks, covering your plants, or by simply making sure that you have good strong trees to break the wind. This is important, as wind erosion can do as little as damage your crop or as much as destroy the soil completely.
Info taken from:
- Monoculture
Monocultures started off as a rather harmless way of increasing the yield by growing only one type of crop. But over the past decade, the threat that comes with Monocultures have grown and now are threatening the world. The problem with monocultures is that when farmers only grow one type of plant or a region of farmers only plant one species of a certain plant. Pests, multiply at frightening rates because they have all the food in the world to eat and reproduce with. This then forces farmers to increase the amount of pesticides that they use to keep the pests away from their crops. Therefore, it is like a never ending cycle where farmers have to keep using more and more pesticides to keep away the ever growing number of pests. Also, Monocultures also increase the amount of pesticides that are used. Normal conventional farming helps replace nutrients back into the ground by using crop rotation. This helps reduce the amount of fertilizers that are used. But when farmers use the technique of using monocultures, nutrients are taken out of the ground and then never replaced. Therefore, once again the never ending cycle of taking out the nutrients and not replacing them, forces farmers to use fertilizer each year.
What is a monoculture?
A monoculture is where a farm only plants one species of plant throughout their entire farm. Unlike congenital farms, which use crop rotation and change the species of a plant to ensure than nutrients are replaced back into the soil and allow for less fertilizer and pesticides to be used.
How do monocultures harm the environment?
Monocultures harm the environment by reducing the nutrients in the soil because farmers are not using crop rotation. While, a higher yield is produced, it is not always good for the environment. Because crop rotation is not used and the species of the plant is not changed, more fertilizer is used to ensure the plants have the nutrients they need. Also more pesticides are used to keep the pests away.
Info taken from:
- Pollution of waterways.
There are many different types of water pollution and all have a different adverse effect on the environment.
- Heavy metals from industrial processes can accumulate in nearby lakes and rivers. These are toxic to marine life such as fish and shellfish, and can affect the rest of the food chain. This means that entire animal communities can be badly affected by this type of pollutant.
- Industrial waste often contains many toxic compounds that damage the health of aquatic animals and those who eat them. Some toxins affect the reproductive success of marine life and can therefore disrupt the community structure of an aquatic environment.
- Microbial pollutants from sewage often result in infectious diseases that infect aquatic life and terrestrial life through drinking water. This often increases the number of mortalities seen within an environment.
- Organic matter and nutrients causes an increase in aerobic algae and depletes oxygen from the water column. This is called eutrophication and causes the suffocation of fish and other aquatic organisms.
- Sulphate particles from acid rain change the ph. of water making it more acidic, this damages the health of marine life in the rivers and lakes it contaminates, and often increases the number of mortalities within an environment.
- Suspended particles can often reduce the amount of sunlight penetrating the water, disrupting the growth of photosynthetic plants and micro-organisms. This has subsequent effects on the rest of the aquatic community that depend on these organisms to survive.
Info taken from:
- Loss of biodiversity
Biodiversity keeps our planet habitable, we depend on plants for soil conservation, air conservation and water conservation, their ability to convert solar energy into chemical energy and their ability to extract the minerals that animals need to survive from the earth. We rely on animals for food and the role they play in their environments. Our environments dominated by biodiversity are the only things that keep us alive, we rely on other organisms for our most basic needs. As we systematically destroy biodiversity, we change our environments from life supporting systems to non-habitable landscapes. The only thing that keeps us alive and well are our life sustaining ecosystems, our activity has destroyed and is in the process of destroying every ecosystem on the planet. Our species is slowly destroying itself by killing that which it depends on for survival. Our uncontrolled population growth, destruction of important ecosystems, utilization of the atmosphere and the oceans as toxic dumps, etc. We are destroying biodiversity and the ability of our planet to support human life, we are replacing our natural environments with urban sprawl. You cannot get food from a city, you cannot get drinkable water or breathable oxygen. Our actions are the cause of our own demise.
Info taken from:
- Air Pollution
Air pollution presents big environmental threat in many parts of the world. Air pollution includes variety of different harmful chemicals and gases released from our vehicles and our industrial facilities that make our air dirty. Vehicles are the biggest source of air pollution, and in some Asian states like India and China life in some cities is almost unbearable because of tremendous air pollution resulting from cars.
Air pollution has extremely negative effect on our environment, and the most obvious negative effect is the negative effect it has on our health. According to World Health Organization 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution, mostly from different respiratory diseases, but it can also lead to heart problems (heart strokes).
Air pollution also has negative impact on climate change, harmful emissions are not only polluting air we breathe but are also giving greenhouse effect much more impact, therefore increasing average temperature on our planet. More vehicles and more industries that are the main source of air pollution on this planet also means more impact to global warming problem.
Negative environmental effect on climate change is not everything air pollution is capable to do, it also has negative impact on ozone layer, especially some damaging chemicals that shrink our ozone layer, making it thinner, therefore opening the door for harmful ultraviolet rays, and increased risk of developing skin cancer.
Acid rains are yet another negative example that air pollution has on our environment. Acid rains destroy habitats of many animals, pollute water by affecting their acidity, and in general do great damage to many ecosystems.
Now that we know these negative effects of air pollution the question is what can we do to reduce it, and make our planet healthier place to be, and our air clean to breathe. First of all we should start using much less our cars than we used them now, or if we are really dependable upon them we should buy hybrid cars that release significantly less polluting particles compared to traditional cars. Second we should make our industries more green, and green in this case means using renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal energy instead of highly polluting fossil fuels like coal and oil.
If we continue this current trend the number of harmful emissions from vehicles and industry will only increase in years to come, and air pollution problem will continue to grow. We can only hope that world will soon see that current environmental state of air planet is more than worrying and that we must do something to prevent seeing the worse of it. Fighting air pollution is definitely one of the best ways to help our environment.
Info taken from:
- Water Pollution
Water pollution is together with air pollution the most serious form of environmental pollution. Water pollution not only does huge damage to our environment but also to our health. Water is the most precious resource on our planet, and water pollution is the main reason why freshwater resources are constantly declining, and the worst part in the whole story is the fact that there are still many people in the world who do not take water pollution problem seriously.
The contamination of water bodies has tremendous negative impact on environment, it has ability to destroy many animal habitats, and cause irreparable damage to many ecosystems. Water pollution is not only killing millions of people around the globe each year, it is also killing millions of plants and animals that simply cannot cope with the increasing levels of water pollution caused by different chemicals and other waste.
In some areas of the world water pollution issue is totally out of control, and in these areas polluted water spreads different toxins and other chemicals into environment, making it dirty, and above all unhealthy place to live in.
The main problem with water pollution is the fact that in many countries around the globe large industries still continue to dump different types of waste into streams and rivers because there is the lack of controlling mechanisms that would keep their eyes on these industries and prevent them from dumping industrial waste into water bodies.
If this world really wants clean environment, then the crucial thing to do is to stop the two most common types of pollution, namely the air and the water pollution. However, world still looks to be lacking global will needed for such an action and this is the reason why these two forms of pollution will continue to deteriorate our environment for years to come.
The aquatic life is mostly affected with water pollution, and water pollution can even lead to an extinction of some animal species, like this was the case with the Yangtze River Dolphin.
Chemical compounds and other water pollutants cause aquatic animals difficulties with breathing while on the other hand these chemicals can also be quite toxic for land animals once they drink this polluted water.
The environmental damage of water pollution doesn't stop there, water pollution also increases the impact of air pollution, and because the more polluted water gets the better chance there is that some of these pollutants will evaporate into air. Polluted water is also one of the major contributing factors to acid rain creation, and generally speaking this is certainly one of the biggest environmental problems.
Info taken from:
- Noise Pollution
In humans, apart from annoyance, exposure to high levels of noise for a long period can increase blood pressure, cause deafness, and other cardiac issues. Noise also has detrimental effects on the growth of some plants. Birds as well rely on hearing to help find them to prey; hence, they are seriously disadvantaged by noise.
- Carbon monoxide emissions.
Carbon emissions, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2), are part of a collection of gases that negatively influence the quality of our air and increase the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases have a direct influence on the environment, causing extreme weather changes, a global temperature increase, the loss of ecosystems and potentially hazardous health effects for people.
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