Pollution

Pollution

Pollution is defined as the introduction of contaminants or foreign particles in the atmosphere which degrade the normal quality of living standards. It can be added to the atmosphere either in physical form (such as dust/ plastic/ pollutants) or in the form of energy (such as noise/ light/ temperature etc.). It can arise from natural phenomenon such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and can also be generated by human factors such as burning of fossil fuels, excessive noise, industries etc. Due to all these factors, at least 7 million people and millions of aquatic animals die every year. Therefore, it is becoming a major headache to the mankind.

Human factors:

Human has himself been a major factor in adding fuel to the fire. There are innumerable ways through which human contributes to the major part of pollution, some being mentioned here:

Burning fossil fuels:

Burning of petroleum products, coal and oil releases nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and sulphur dioxide in air which cause lung diseases and breathing problems. These oxides also result in Acid rain which ultimately destroys monuments, building and degrades quality of land.

Industrial waste:

Industries play a major hand in contaminating water bodies and thus harms aquatic animals. These industries also release gaseous pollutants in air which decrease its quality index. Dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metals, trash, oil, solvents, chemicals and similar waste are just few examples which contributes to the industrial waste.

Agricultural activities:

Use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers cause air as well as water pollution. And use of such synthetic processes compromise with the quality of food we eat and thus, causes numerous health related issues. These pesticides and fertilizers are used to enhance and accelerate the growth of crops but in return cause the degradation in their nutritional content as well.

Deforestation and mining operations:

Reckless cutting of trees to get timber has reduced the green cover of earth. It inevitably decreases the quality of air we breathe, causes global temperature fluctuations. It has led to increase in the average temperature of earth also referred to as global warming. Mining operations are referred to as processes of extraction of minerals from the earth, use of machineries and these processes, emit a huge amount of dust particles in air thus, causing a lot of air pollution.

There are few ways through which we can play our part to reduce pollution. Using public transport instead of personal vehicles, adopting renewable source of energy and products, recycling and reusing, avoiding plastics and crackers can help to reduce the pollution to a major extent.