Pollution
Pollution is another big environmental issue that we facing today. Pollution is a obvious known factor to be contributing to the illnesses and diseases such as cancer, immune diseases, allergies, and asthma. Since we have been evolving and making our lives much more technological and easier, the amount of pollution that has been made by humans has increased. By increasing the amount of pollution that is in our atmosphere we are making human quality of life and the health of our environment dramatically change in a negative way. There are various and different types pollutions that can be harmful to our environment. The main type is Air pollution and water pollution.
Air Pollution
Our planet is unique, other planets might contain light, but Earth is the only one that we know of that contains air and water which is crucial for every living organism to survive including humans.
Air pollution is when the air in our atmosphere is filled up with gases, dust, fumes and chemicals in very large and dangerous amounts. By contaminating the air which we breathe in we are affecting all life around us such as plants, animal, and their ecosystems. Substances that promote and contribute towards air pollution are called pollutants. Pollutants that are introduced directly into the Earth’s atmosphere and the air around us are called the primary pollutants of air pollution, or the main causes of it. There are numerous and large amounts of primary pollutants that flow through the air, but one of the main ones is for example carbon monoxide that are from car exhausts and sulfur dioxide that is established from the burning of coal to create energy and electricity.
But it doesn’t stop there, more pollution is produced when the major pollutants (primary pollutants) that are in the Earth’s atmosphere experience or take part in a chemical reaction. The resulting combined pollutants that have gone through a change are called secondary pollutants; smog is an example of this.
Greenhouse gases are all of these major examples, by polluting the atmosphere we are not only affecting the air, but we are setting a change of motion in place that will increase the Earth’s climate, we are contributing to Global Warming.
What is being done?
Air pollution is a major problem that is needed to be addressed and dealt with locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. Because humanity is always growing and evolving the need for new technology for industries and motor vehicles is always going to go up and more drastically. There are of course much more pollutant sources that are growing through time and scientist are even finding additional primary pollutant effects.
In 1990 there was a Clean Air Act but the whole nation and the government knew that further more procedures and work was needed to combat the area of Air pollution. So what they did was that they announced a Pollution Prevention Act, this Act went way further than the Clean Air Act to stop the causes of air pollution at the very source of it all. After the Pollution Prevention Act, there were numerous countries close to a hundred that agreed to sign the Montreal Protocol, which was a large effort to prevent any more harm to the ozone and the Earth’s atmosphere.
Water pollution
It is no doubt that water is one of our most precious natural resource. Every year there is about twenty nine million gallons of petroleum that is introduced into the Atlantic Ocean. A report has been done by the National Research Council and it is shown that about 85 percent of water pollution is to be targeted at Oil spills, low amounts of petroleum that is released from airplanes and swept into the oceans, and recreational boats and ships that have released such substances.
The amount of petroleum that is introduced into the Atlantic Ocean near North America is less than first thought of. But however, at the same time there are new studies and reports showing that the effect on the all around environment of a large a major oil spill is dangerously fatal and longer lasting. Even very small amounts of petroleum that enters the waters can seriously harm the marine life and the ecosystems.
The petroleum which goes into the Atlantic Ocean can very seriously harm marine life such as fish, whales, seals, and other organisms that have their habitat there. In the year 1989, there was a Argentine resupply ship that beached on a reef around the US station on the Antarctica Peninsula, it spilled 600,000 litres of fuel. It was recorded to be the biggest marine oil spill ever to happen in Antarctica. Thankfully it was not a large disaster for it was only spread around a few kilometres around the spill. But the oil spill came as a warning to everyone; it can kill and harm marine life in a major way. Oil spills can impact the overall food chain, feathers of the birds that have oil coated on them can’t hold air or repel water, mammals like seals and whales die from drowning and freezing to death. Even the smallest creatures of the ocean can be affected by the oil’s toxicity.
What is being done?
The amounts of Ships and vessels that are entering the waters of the Atlantic Ocean are rising. More and more vessels are needed for research, supplies, transportation, and cargo. However the more ships and vessels that are being brought into the ocean, the more chance it is for one of them to have massive oil spill. The government is noticing this that is why the ships that enter the ocean must require a double hull that will largely reduce the chances of oil spills to occur.
Volunteers and workers are working very hard to clean up oil spills to save the ecosystem and the wildlife. More volunteers are needed though to combat the ever rising water pollution. However new vital steps are being taken for fast oil recovery from oil spills and wrecked ships.