Pollution and Threat to Environment

Fazila Ishfaq (Environmental Engineer) views from Imran Khan :D

Look around you and find the ecosystem, is it okay? You can see a lot of contamination, pollution streams loaded with industrial chemicals, rivers got polluted by nutrients which come from farms, inappropriate solid waste management and garbage blowing away from landfills, when you see up in the sky it’s all cover-up in smog. Even if you see chunks of land which are old also get polluted by the pollution.

Pollution is a serious threat nowadays. Pollution may be categorized as muddy landscapes, poison soils, and waterways, or may be harmful or kill plants and animals. The people who get out homes daily are mostly and regularly harmed by pollution. If the situation remains in long terms, for example, it can lead to many health diseases e.g. chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, and other diseases. If the environment is polluted by air pollution how can species underwater be safe, fishes accumulate the toxic materials and when it consumed by humans they ultimately unhealthy and cause several diseases. Around 1 billion people are unable to get safe and clean drinking water access and 2.4 billion don’t have adequate sanitation, which causes deadly diseases.

Many human activities and products are polluting the world in several ways. Even those places that are not even touched by the 21st-century also tasting the effects of pollution.

LITTER IN OCEAN

Litter comes in a variety of ways in the world, picnic parties at the beach site, containers that fall off ships during storms, the garbage that washes off city streets into rivers that lead into the sea, and waste from a landfill that blows into streams or directly into the ocean and contaminate it. Once in the ocean or sea, this debris, and plastic trash may degrade very slowly and remain there for years, also many fishes consume it and died, ultimately this trash comes up on beaches and causes land pollution.

Free the world from plastic pollution

USE OF PESTICIDES AND FERTILIZERS

The massive use of pesticides and fertilizers on farms has increased by 26-fold over the past 60 years, as we see crop production is increasing. But there have been serious environmental threats by using such kinds of pesticides. Indiscriminate use of pesticides and fertilizer pollute nearby land and water, and when it rains such toxic chemicals wash into nearby streams, rivers, canals, and groundwater. There are some insects and organisms and species like fish which are beneficial also killed by this kind of fertilizer. As a result growth of algae takes place due to excess nutrients.

AIR POLLUTION

Air pollution brings to mind visions of smoke come out from chimneys, but this pollution comes in many other ways. The burning of fossil fuels, in both energy plants and vehicles, releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing climate change and global warming. Various Industrial processes also emit particulate matter, such as carbon monoxide sulfur dioxide, and other toxic gases. Indoor areas can become polluted by emissions from smoking and cooking and other domestic uses. Some of these noxious chemicals, when released into the air, contribute to smog and acid rain. Short term exposure to air pollution can irritate the human in a variety of ways like eyes, nose, and throat and cause upper respiratory infections, nausea and allergic reactions, headaches. Long-term exposures can lead to chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, and heart disease and many more. Long-term exposures also can lead to significant climatic changes that can have far-reaching negative impacts on food, water and ecosystems, and our surroundings.

LIGHT POLLUTION AND NOISE

Artificial light and noise often drown out natural landscapes. In the Arctic, the sound frequency of gas and oil explorations is so loud that causes disturbance for sea life e.g. whales and they have difficulty in feeding and breeding. Light pollution disrupts circadian rhythms for both humans and animals alike and may even contribute to the development of cancer. Light pollution also can impact sea turtles. Adult and hatchling sea turtles are drawn toward lights along the beach, thinking they are heading toward the moon. Therefore the management of Coastal developments are requested and encouraged to turn off their lights or cover them at night to avoid such circumstances.

TOXIC CHEMICALS

It has been come to know that by 2000, the world’s chemical production had increased by 400 fold since 1930. Chemicals have made modern life easy but it also creates many difficulties. They can travel great distances by air or accumulate in the bodies of animals and humans who absorb chemicals through the skin or ingest them in food or water. Few chemicals are harmless; others can cause a lot of damage to both the human body and other sea creatures. Increasingly, there is a particular concern lately about three types of chemicals: chemicals that persist in the environment and accumulate in the bodies of wildlife and people, endocrine disruptors that can interfere with hormones, and chemicals that cause cancer or damage DNA.