What is Pollution?
Pollution,
we hear it every other day at school, college and read about it in newspapers.
So what is it? Pollution occurs when pollutants contaminate the natural
surroundings; which brings about changes that affect our normal lifestyles
adversely. Pollutants are the key elements or components of pollution which are
generally waste materials of different forms. Pollution disturbs our ecosystem
and the balance in the environment. With modernization and development in our
lives pollution has reached its peak; giving rise to global warming and human
illness.
Pollution
occurs in different forms; air, water, soil, radioactive, noise, heat/ thermal
and light. Every form of pollution has two sources of occurrence; the point and
the non-point sources. The point sources are easy to identify, monitor and
control, whereas the non-point sources are hard to control. Let us discuss the different types of
pollutions, their causes and effects on mankind and the environment as a whole.
Types and Causes of Pollution
Air
Pollution is the most prominent and dangerous form of pollution. It occurs due
to many reasons. Excessive burning of fuel which is a necessity of our daily
lives for cooking, driving and other industrial activities
Smoke from
chimneys, factories, vehicles or burning of wood basically occurs due to coal
burning; this releases sulphur dioxide into the air making it toxic. The
effects of air pollution are evident too. Release of sulphur dioxide and
hazardous gases into the air causes global warming and acid rain; which in turn
have increased temperatures, erratic rains and droughts worldwide; making it
tough for the animals to survive. We breathe in every polluted particle from
the air; result is increase in asthma and cancer in the lungs.
Water
Pollution has taken toll of all the surviving species of the earth. Almost 60%
of the species live in water bodies. It occurs due to several factors; the
industrial wastes dumped into the rivers and other water bodies cause an
imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and death of aquatic
species.
Also
spraying insecticides, pesticides like DDT on plants pollutes the ground water
system and oil spills in the oceans have caused irreparable damage to the water
bodies. Eutrophication is another big source; it occurs due to daily activities
like washing clothes, utensils near lakes, ponds or rivers; this forces
detergents to go into water which blocks sunlight from penetrating, thus
reducing oxygen and making it inhabitable.
Water
pollution not only harms the aquatic beings but it also contaminates the entire
food chain by severely affecting humans dependent on these. Water-borne
diseases like cholera, diarrhoea have also increased in all places.
Soil
pollution occurs due to incorporation of unwanted chemicals in the soil due to
human activities. Use of insecticides and pesticides absorbs the nitrogen
compounds from the soil making it unfit for plants to derive nutrition from.
Release of industrial waste, mining and deforestation also exploits the soil.
Since plants can’t grow properly, they can’t hold the soil and this leads to
soil erosion.
Noise
pollution is caused when noise which is an unpleasant sound affects our ears
and leads to psychological problems like stress, hypertension, hearing
impairment, etc. It is caused by machines in industries, loud music, etc.
Radioactive
pollution is highly dangerous when it occurs. It can occur due to nuclear plant
malfunctions, improper nuclear waste disposal, accidents, etc. It causes
cancer, infertility, blindness, defects at the time of birth; can sterilise
soil and affect air and water.
Thermal/heat
pollution is due to the excess heat in the environment creating unwanted
changes over long time periods; due to huge number of industrial plants,
deforestation and air pollution. It increases the earth’s temperature, causing
drastic climatic changes and extinction of wildlife.
Light
pollution occurs due to prominent excess illumination of an area. It is largely
visible in big cities, on advertising boards and billboards, in sports or
entertainment events at the night. In residential areas the lives of the
inhabitants is greatly affected by this. It also affects the astronomical
observations and activities by making the stars almost invisible.