Essay: Environmental Pollution

Essay: Environmental Pollution

Environment is a very important aspect of human life as it provides us essentials of life that is air, water and food. Excessive man-made activities like industrialization, construction and deforestation have led to environmental pollution. Environmental pollution nowadays has become a serious ecological issue and a threat to the mankind as well as the ecosystem.

Environmental pollution is when human activities introduce contaminants in the environment causing irreversible changes. The types of environmental pollution are specific to causes and components of the environment. Environmental pollution is classified into groups depending on the pollutants found in the environment. They are air pollution, noise pollution, soil pollution and water pollution.

The main pollutants are industries because industries emit harmful gases in the atmosphere which cause air pollution. Industrial effluents are also discharged into water bodies causing water pollution. Other pollutants include smokes from vehicle combustion and greenhouse gases emission for example carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, etc.

Air pollution has resulted in harm to human health and destruction of the ozone layers in the atmosphere. Water pollution has caused death of aquatic life and acidification. Soil pollution has resulted in unhealthy soil that is unbalanced soil pH which does not favour plant growth.

In a nutshell, environmental pollution has become a great concern to save our planet. We need to adapt various measures to reduce environment pollution. Some of them includes planting trees, reducing the use of non-renewable resources, proper disposal of wastes etc. It is the responsibility of every individual to save our environment.

Additional Information:

-       Environmental pollution is the lack of purity in air, water, land as well as the appropriate level of sound. Natural as well as man- made source causes environmental pollution. There are natural sources like volcano, earthquake and flood/landslides, depletion of ozone layer, greenhouse effect, climate change, acid rain and storm. Some of them are directly or indirectly related to human activities. Heavy deforestation, and desertification hinders natural processing of gases and controlling dust particles. It increases the level of carbon dioxides, sulphur dioxides, CFCs. That can cause the depletion of ozone layer, greenhouse effect, global warming, climate change and acid rain.

Types of Environmental Pollution:

a.    Air Pollution

b.    Water Pollution

c.    Land Pollution

d.    Noise Pollution

Causes of Air Pollution

Our atmosphere is composed of various gases like nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc.

1.    Some and dust emitted from vehicles

2.    Smoke, dust, gases, emitted from industries

3.    Smoke emitted from kitchen and burning of agricultural residues

4.    Bad smell and micro-organisms from dumping sites

5.    Volcano, forest fire, construction works, excavation works, etc.

Causes of Water Pollution

When water is polluted it becomes black, blurred, colourless, full of micro organism and harmful chemicals.

1.    Water supply and drainage systems are placed side by side in urban areas. Leakage of sewerage pipe may cause the pollution of drinking water supply.

2.    Sanitation activities

3.    Direct mixing of industrial discharge, hospital discharge, laboratory discharge, etc.

4.    Leakage of agro - chemicals

5.    Natural calamities like flood, landslides, soil erosion, heavy rain, etc.

Causes of Land Pollution

1.    Random disposal of waste cause land pollution.

2.    Leather tanning- industry, paper factory, distillery, battery factory, etc.

3.    Disposal of unnecessary goods like plastic goods, cans, bottles, etc.

4.    Construction works, excavation, volcanoes, etc.

5.    Accumulation of agro- chemicals

Causes of Noise Pollution

1.    Mikes, factories and industries, means of transport, jet planes, etc. cause noise pollution.

2.    Besides thunderbolts, explosives, atomic weapons also create noise pollution.

3.    Populated areas, market areas, heavy traffic and industrial areas

4.    Various construction activities

5.    Radio, TV, musical instruments in high volume can cause sound pollution.