Environment Pollution
In our natural environment pollution is the single biggest threat to our current way of life. There are a number of variable sources of environment pollution, including air pollution, water pollution, ground water pollution, and land pollution. Of course noise pollution is another growing source of problematic pollution in our world as well. Every aspect of pollutants carries a very serious consequence in our daily and worldly environment.
The history of air pollution is a long and involved one. From the Middle Ages and beyond, there have been issues regarding air pollution that have proven that air quality is affected by nearly every substance that we insist on burning. Coal burning created smog, and its associated health problems, since the Middle Ages. The 18th through the 19th centuries saw serious health effects on the environment thanks to the burning of coal. Smog is certainly far from a new problem, and in our environment pollution still plagues the cities and towns of the world.
Water pollution is yet another plague that compounds the health of the natural world. Water pollution contaminates everything from the sea life to the sea grasses and flora that support the sea life. Our waters have become so polluted that fish harvesting to swimming have become significantly dangerous. The Hudson River became so polluted that the EPA banned the eating of all sea life harvested from the river in the 70s and 80s at various points.
Moreover, the 80s saw an influx of trash along the shoreline from dumping of medical waste, causing hypodermic needles to collect along the East Coast shorelines. Water pollution threatened the health of every sea creature and child along the country’s oceans.
Water pollution reached levels that were so high that the natural aquatic environment suffered great damage that lead to a major movement to “Save the Bay.” The Chesapeake Bay lost most of its natural grasses, which hurt the blue crab and oyster populations. This cut into the watermen’s ability to produce a reasonable living while also cutting sea life populations down to dangerously low levels. It took nearly a decade of concerted effort to reproduce the sea grasses that were demolished through human activity. Boating, dumping, and overharvesting all played a role in reducing the bay’s ability to filter the pollutants and produce healthy grasses.
Land pollution and water pollution are interconnected. Land pollution is a hazardous form of environment pollution that affects everything from our drinking water to our crops to our natural ecosystems. Land pollution can be caused by runoff from the roadways, hazardous chemicals that most households use on a regular basis, and construction sites. Natural waste can also cause environment pollution that affects our ground water, making it highly dangerous to drink unfiltered. Microbes can enter the digestive tract and cause illness. These microbes can come from unprocessed waste that can seep into the groundwater and cause serious implications.
Environment pollution that comes from land pollution is a serious problem for natural ecosystems. Mining can cause the destruction of trees, streams, and the life that is supported by these elements. As the ecosystem is destroyed, the entire ecosystem from insects to large animals find that they do not have enough food or drinkable water and starve to death. As with mining, these effects can happen from the runoff thanks to construction sites.
Chemicals and even sediment disruption can impact the land in unimaginable ways. What looks like a simple construction project can have ramifications from the immediate natural environment to the surrounding environment.
Environment pollution is on the rise. With more construction, industrial pollution, ground water threats, and air pollution causes, nearly everything we do has an environmental impact. Environment pollution is a chronic, widespread problem that seems no longer containable. Our cars, our electricity needs, and our housing needs all contribute to the destruction of our natural environment.
It is difficult to predict exactly how much destruction will be caused over the next ten years, but it has already been proven that the predictions from just five years ago were woefully inadequate and our destructive environment pollution is growing faster than our remedies. Saving the planet from this perpetual destruction requires immediate action on everyone’s part.