- 7 main causes of environmental pollution
- 1-Automotive industry
- 2-Proliferation of plastic
- 3-Annoying noises
- 4-Aquatic garbage cans
- 5-Electronic scrap
- 7-Laws and education
The causes of environmental pollution are very varied, and most are due to human activity. We live in a consumer society, where the useful life of a physical product is very limited, and in a short time, it becomes garbage that contributes as one more element to pollution.
Many of the products are non-biodegradable materials and this is a long-term problem, since this type of material does not decompose easily and is usually the one used daily (plastic, metal, glass, batteries, etc.).
Completely eliminating the use of practices and materials responsible for the causes of environmental pollution is practically impossible, as they were created with the aim of making people's lives easier. The solution to these problems must be others, such as recycling.
There is often a tendency to believe that large factories are primarily responsible for the causes of environmental pollution, but it is something that is half right, since the current overpopulation is a very influential factor.
7 main causes of environmental pollution
1-Automotive industry
In every city, especially cosmopolitan ones, everyday vehicles produce different types of gases that are harmful to health and the environment, such as:
- Carbon dioxide.
- Carbon monoxide.
- Nitrous oxide.
- Sulfur dioxide.
- Hydrogen sulfide.
These gases and particles contribute to air pollution.
Vehicular transportation is essential in people's daily lives, and necessary due to current economic and industrial movements.
Still, steps can be taken to reduce the impact of pollution, such as using bicycles for short distances or using public transportation.
Currently, the idea of using electric cars for the future, free of polluting emissions for the environment, has taken hold.
2-Proliferation of plastic
The creation of plastic has its origins in 1907 in New York. Since then, it has been part of countless number of products on the market.
The main problem with plastic is that it takes many years to decompose (on average, five hundred years).
Added to that, its low cost of production, so its proliferation is inevitable. So there is a serious long-term problem.
Burying plastic is not the best option, as it is not a biodegradable material. Of course, the idea that the ocean can swallow it is also discarded.
So, the best option to avoid the accumulation of this synthetic material over the centuries would be to burn it.
Burning the plastic would help free the land and oceans from having to take care of tons of this material, but in turn, it would be contributing again to the first item on the list, which is the emission of toxic gases.
Bearing in mind that practically every item of daily use is made of plastic due to the low manufacturing cost, it is a very difficult problem to solve.
3-Annoying noises
Noise pollution (or noise pollution) is not a minor issue. Noise, unlike the previous two cases and most forms of pollution, is not something that prevails over time and presents a problem due to accumulation. However, it has other ways of affecting the environment.
Excess sound disturbs normal living conditions in a certain area, and that has consequences, especially in terms of health, both for animals and humans.
Animals with the sharpest sense of hearing depend almost 100% on it to locate their prey and communicate. An alteration of the sonic waves is a total confusion for them, and interrupts their normal habits of life.
In both cases (animals and humans), excess noise not only affects hearing capacity, but also causes other health damage (physical and psychological damage).
Again, urban areas and cosmopolitan cities are the areas most affected by noise pollution; Transportation, along with all machines that use an internal combustion engine (for example, lawnmowers) play an important role in this type of contamination.
4-Aquatic garbage cans
Unlike the items listed above, water pollution can occur both naturally and by acts of man, although the latter has greater responsibility for it.
Water pollution from natural sources can be due to:
- Climatic factors.
- Geological factors.
- Saline intrusion.
- Ashes from a volcano.
- Etc.
However, these natural causes do not present a major danger and imbalance on a global scale.
As for man, the causes are practically innumerable, the ocean has become a garbage dump of all kinds since industrialization, added to the wastewater that flows into rivers and seas from urban areas and chemical and radioactive waste from factories..
Water pollution not only affects the aquatic ecosystem, but every living thing on the planet.
5-Electronic scrap
The main problems that the technology industry presents to the environment are two:
- The shelf life of manufactured products is relatively short.
- This has accelerated growth and must be constantly innovated so as not to be left out of the market, since generally the products are obsolete and are discarded, regardless of whether they work or not.
Thus, like plastic, electronic scrap accumulates massively every day on planet earth, in addition to the fact that electronic devices contain materials that are harmful to health and the environment, such as lead and mercury.
6-Deforestation
Deforestation is 100% the product of man. The indiscriminate felling of trees for economic purposes seems to have no limits.
Some consequences of deforestation:
- Floods: trees absorb large amounts of water, thus avoiding overflowing rivers and basins.
- Destruction of biodiversity: many species of plants and animals are in danger of extinction due to the alteration of their natural habitat.
- Climate change: Trees absorb greenhouse gases that cause global warming, in addition to blocking the sun's rays during daylight hours.
Although wood is a necessary resource in everyday life, to avoid future problems, replanting should be an obligation imposed by law every time a tree is cut down.
7-Laws and education
The laws that govern massive polluters (factories) have not been enough to stop the devastation of the environment and the natural destruction of particular areas of planet earth.
On the education side, it is only in the last two decades that measures have been taken on the matter accordingly.
In many cases, a person pollutes without having a minimum awareness of the grain of sand that is contributing to the global damage of the planet.
Laws and education have a profound impact on this cause.
References
- Abel, PD (1989). Water Pollution Biology. Ellis Horwood, Chichester.
- Anon. (nineteen ninety five). Bones reveal medieval air pollution. British Archeology, 2: 5.
- Anon. (nineteen ninety six). Controlling sediment in streams and watercourses. Enact, 4 (3): 8-9.
- Ashenden, TW and Edge, CP (1995). Increasing concentrations of nitrogen dioxide pollution in rural Wales. Environmental Pollution, 87: 11-16.
- Bates, TS, Lamb, BK, Guenther, A., Dignon, J., and Stoiber, RE (1992). Sulfur emissions to the atmosphere from natural sources. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry, 14: 315-37.