Free Essay on The Pollution Problems Causes and Effects
“About 40 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by water, air and soil pollution,” (Lang) what do people think of when they hear pollution? Some would think of dirty skies and blackened waters or others would think of landfills. They are all correct, each one of those images is a sever pollution problem.
(Socha) For the last several years the problem of too much pollution has been brought to public attention and small steps to stop it have been taken but the main causes of pollution are still there. Three main causes to pollution are the cars and machines people use, lack of use of renewable resources and the willingness people have to throw away their junk instead of recycling and to not help stop pollution. As always pollution has been defined as “The act or process of polluting or the state of being polluted, especially the contamination of soil, water, or the atmosphere by the discharge of harmful substances.” is the definition of pollution. Even after understanding the definition there are still many levels of pollution. There can be pollution in your home that can be very dangerous even though it doesn’t affect the word as a whole much.
There is a chance that the air in an office building can be 100 times more polluted than the air outside. Buildings like these are considered sick buildings because of poor ventilation or other problems. Poisonous unnoticeable gasses slowly fill the inside of the building and harm the people inside. (Socha) Copying machines and other Electrical appliances and even furniture can cause indoor pollution. If there is not proper ventilation then the chemicals these things realize can make a person seriously ill and even kill them. Pollution isn’t just tied down to a worldwide problem like global warming.
Every person needs to consider the effects it could have on their lives. Pollution is everywhere and can affect anyone at any place. It ranges from littering to large droughts and global warming. If people think that the cause of global warming is just pollution they probably won’t think much about littering because it won’t affect it much. They’re wrong, every little thing a person does, even throwing a can to the ground, can have an effect on any type of pollution. Global warming isn’t caused by one big pollution source it builds up from everything people around the world do.
At first one person littering doesn’t seem like much but if everybody did it there would be rotting garbage everywhere and that would have a larger, noticeable effect on the neighborhood. People need to learn that even though pollution seems like other people’s problems it still affects them. That every person can do something to reduce pollution and that if every person does do something all types of pollution could be drastically reduced (Carty). Considering people use cars and machines all the time that makes them the first main cause of pollution. The machines that people use cause lots of pollution that normally wouldn’t occur naturally. Since they don’t occur in nature it is harder for nature to deal with it.
For example carbon pollution occurs somewhat naturally so trees use it to make oxygen. The machines and cars people use cause unnatural pollution like oil spills, acid rain and smog. CO2 emissions are also more than double the IPCC stabilized levels (Shewchuck). One of the largest contributors to the increase in pollution from last several years is the machines people use like cars and electronic appliances. Air pollution can be drastically reduced if people started walking or used other methods to get around.
The biggest contribution to air pollution is coal burning power plants. The combustion of non-renewable fuel causes a large amount of Sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is very dangerous and causes harm to living organisms. Carbon dioxide is also a major air pollutant which is caused by deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels (Socha). Since 1860 the concentration of CO2 in the air has increased by 10%. It is also predicted that carbon dioxide emissions will also increase by 4% a year.
It is thanks to this carbon dioxide that global warming has increased so much. It is predicted to be responsible for about 57% of the global warming trend. One of the biggest contributors to air pollution and global warming is stationary power plants and factories that burn fossil fuels and non-renewable recourses for energy. The smoke that flows out of these buildings is very dangerous and can cause harms to the areas around it and the world. The second cause of pollution comes from people and their lack of use of renewable resources and environmentally friendly products. Recycling is talked about a lot and I think that everyone knows about it but lots of people still chose to ignore it.
One of the best ways to reduce the usage of non-renewable resources is recycling (Carty). By recycling companies can just re-use the resources instead of having to dig up new material from the earth. Recycling also helps stop pollution directly too. Instead of throwing things away if you recycle the product isn’t put into a landfill. If people throw stuff then the item is added to landfills which cause lots of pollution, such as ground and water contamination (Kelly). Landfills are a problem that not to many people talk about or mention anymore but still exists.
Landfills are the cause of lots of methane gas from the rotting materials and toxic liquid that can poison the water table. Toxic wastes that people don’t properly expose of aren’t a large problem but it is still a very serious one. Companies and people who dump toxic waste, even a small quantity can ruin a whole ecosystem and cause harm to many life forms, even people. It doesn’t have to be some big company’s drum of toxic waste that was dumped in the ocean like what is always shown on TV but even things normal people throw away can be very dangerous. Computers and televisions are illegal to throw away and can be very harmful to nature. People don’t realize that lots of their electronic possessions are actually very toxic to the environment and that if they aren’t disposed of properly can contaminate the ground water and environment.
Lastly, the pollution that there is today is caused by the peoples attitude. Even though the amount of pollution that exists is only a little lower, people’s attitude toward it has steadily been changing. Their efforts to reduce pollution in the last few years have improved, however not everyone is trying to help and because of that the effect isn’t as large. People don’t even have to do anything big, they just have to learn and practice turning off their lights, driveling less, recycle, replace their light bulbs with efficient ones and maybe even buy solar panels (Carty). The public needs to learn that there are many little things they can do to help fight pollution and if everyone did some of these things pollution wouldn’t be that big of an issue.
Some people don’t realize all of the dangers that can come from pollution. Even though pollution has almost never really killed anyone directly a “science daily” article says that about 40% of deaths are caused by pollution. Many things like diseases and sickness are progressed due to environmental degradation. People drinking tainted water supplies ca use health problems making them susceptible to disease and more likely to die. Water pollution can also cause an increased amount of malaria carrying mosquitoes, which harm a lot of people each year (Lang). Toxic soil caused by ground chemicals can also enter people from their skin and cause serious health problems.
All types of pollutions can cause serious problems. Even if the problems aren’t in your neighborhood someone somewhere around the world is in danger because of pollution and even people die because of it. Three main causes to pollution are the cars and machines people use, lack of use of renewable resources and the willingness people have to throw away their junk instead of recycling and to not help stop pollution. People have many things to learn from pollution. The general public needs to be taught the dangers of pollution and the simple yet important steps that can be taken to prevent it. People have to realize the importance of the environment and that these problems are things people are facing right now not some time in the future.
After reading this people the reader can acknowledge the seriousness of pollution and take the steps mentioned to reduce it. They can recycle drive less, and use environmentally friendly products, and help get others to fight pollution too. Sources Works Cited Carty, Sue Lynn. Non Renewable Resources. 2006. 15 september 2011 ;http://greenliving.
lovetoknow.com/Non_Renewable_Resources;. Kelly, Megan. ehow Health. 23 June 2011. 15 september 2011 ;http://www.
ehow.com/info_8635772_environmental-problems-lack-recycling-create.html;. Lang, Susan. Science News.
14 august 2007. 15 september 2011 ;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070813162438.htm;. Shewchuck, Glen.
Pollution from Non-renewable Energy Sources. 7 December 2007. 15 september 2011 ;http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/multimedia/slideshows/animated/pollution_from.shtml;.
Socha, Tom. Air Pollution Causes and Effects. 9 November 2007. 15 September 2011 ;http://healthandenergy.com/air_pollution_causes.htm;.
