Essay/Term paper: Environmental pollution

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Society

Environmental Pollution

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Automobiles like these are around the world everyday, and their exhaust destroys
our air everyday.

Our environment is a major aspect of our life today. Many of us don't take our
Earth seriously and think that as long as pollution doesn't hurt them they can
go ahead and throw garbage on the ground or spill oil down the drain. Well to
many people have that theory and they are killing off our Earth and also
physically harming themselves from the air they breath and the water they swim
in. Our Earth is fragile like a human and people don't know. There are many
different types of environmental pollution (e.g. Water, air, atmospheric.)
Scientists believe that all cities with populations exceeding 50,000
have some degree of air pollution. Burning garbage in open dumps causes air
pollution, and also it smells pretty bad. Air pollution comes from many
different sources. One of the major sources is carbon monoxide which manly comes
from automobiles, but also burning of fossil fuels, CFCs etc. Air pollution does
not leave the Earth it all gets trapped up in the atmosphere. This doesn't
bother most people, and they think that it will not harm them. People burn down
forests and people burn fossil fuels, and CFCs from aerosols. Every bit of this
harms our atmosphere. Factories and transportation depend on huge amounts of
fuel billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year.
When these fuels burn they introduce smoke and other, less visible, by-products
into the atmosphere. Although wind and rain occasionally wash away the smoke
given off by power plants and automobiles, the cumulative effect of air
pollution poses a grave threat to humans and the environment. A big example of
smog is LA you can see the smog just hovering above the city. I don't think any
human alive should be subject to that kind of environment. Scientists believe
that all cities with populations exceeding 50,000 have some degree of air
pollution. Burning garbage in open dumps causes air pollution Scientist have
discovered that over the South Pole the ozone has a high level of ozone
depletion.
A computer-enhanced map, taken from satellite observations of ozone levels in
the atmosphere over the South Pole, shows the region of ozone depletion that has
begun to appear each spring over Antarctica.
When you look at this picture you can see the big red spot right above
the South Pole. If this depletion opens up dangerous and deadly UV Rays from the
sun will come into Earth. Air pollution causes global warming which scientist
believe is making the Earth warmer and melting ice up in the South and North
Pole. The country Holland has had water from the ocean got too high for them and
flooded into towns. Holland spent millions of dollars to put up "dikes" which
are big barriers in the water to prevent their town to be completely submerged.
With the ocean getting deeper coastal cites all around the world could flood,
billions of dollars would be spent to try to prevent it, but in a while it could
not be stopped. Instead of waiting and having to spend all this money why don't
we put it together today and try different ways of preventing air pollution, it
would be much easier than all the trouble of stopping flooding.
Water pollution is another major aspect of environmental pollution.
Water pollution is scary because over 75% of our Earth is covered by the ocean.
Water pollution comes from many different sources around the world. One major
pollutant that destroys the ocean is oil spills. The oil from an oil spill kills
hundreds of sea animals from fish, to whales, to birds. Below is a small list of
just some of the major oil spills. Notice how many tons were spilled into our
ocean... Notable Oil Spills Date Location Description Tons
spilled Jan.-June, 1942 East coast of U.S. German U-boat attacks on
tankers after 590,000 March 18, 1967 Land's End, Cornwall, England
Grounding of 'Torrey Canyon' 119,000 June 13, 1968 South Africa Hull
failure of 'World Glory' 46,000 Nov. 5, 1969 Massachusetts Hull
failure of 'Keo' 30,000 March 20, 1970 Trälhavet Bay, Sweden
Collision of 'Othello' with another ship 60,000 to 100,000 Dec. 19,
1972 Gulf of Oman Collision of 'Sea Star' with another ship 115,000
May 12, 1976 La Coruna, Spain Grounding of 'Urquiola' 100,000
Dec. 15, 1976 Nantucket, Mass. Grounding of 'Argo Merchant' 26,000
Feb. 25, 1977 Pacific Ocean Fire aboard 'Hawaiian Patriot' 99,000 March 16,
1978 Portsall, France Grounding of 'Amoco Cadiz' 223,000 July 19,
1979 Trinidad and Tobago Collision between 'Atlantic Empress' 300,000
Nov. 1, 1979 Galveston Bay, Tex. Collision of 'Burmah Agate' with
36,000 Aug. 6, 1983 Cape Town, South Africa Fire aboard 'Castillo de
Beliver' 250,000 March 24, 1989 Prince William Sound, Alaska
Grounding of 'Exxon Valdez' 34,000 Jan. 25, 1991 Sea Island, Kuwait
Iraq deliberately dumped oil into 1,450,000* Dec. 3, 1992 Spain
Grounding of 'Aegean Sea' 84,000 Jan. 5, 1993 Shetland Islands
Grounding of 'Braer' 87,000

Over a million tons of oil has been spilled into the ocean, and we are not able
to clean all the oil out. Most of the oil stays on the surface so when fish come
up to the surface they get the oil on their body, and it gets into their body
and gills. Birds land on the water to catch fish or take a break when the oil
gets on their feathers and they are to weighted down to fly off, they later get
to tired and just die from either poisoning from the oil or their body just not
being able to take it.
Another way our ocean is polluted is also from humans. We litter the
ocean with garbage from boats and we pour oil down the storm drains. All the
garbage is spread throughout the ocean and it poisons animals or fish, and birds
get caught up in it. When those little plastic rings that hold soda cans
together get into the water birds get them caught in their throats, fish get
caught in them. There are many different things that can hurt the sea life.

In this picture above you can see the way the fish in the sea are affected by
our actions. Pollution in the sea also affects the food chain, fish, and
organisms can die of then other fish can't feed off the extinct fish, and so on.
Preventing water pollution is such an easy task, not very hard, people just have
to be aware of what they throw away our into the water, they can find a garbage
can.
I think that all kinds of environmental pollution can be stopped if we
all use our heads and just think before we throw a piece of trash on the ground,
throw it into a nearby garbage can. We should look at our Earth as a precious
human being and treat it like it were a child of our own. We should not trash it
and take advantage of it. If we abuse our Earth now who knows how it will get
back at us in the future. Saving the Earth is such a simple task, and I think
everyone should be involved in it rich or poor. If we don't save our Earth now
someday it will be to late. There are programs out there that try to save the
Earth, but not enough people corporate in these programs. If more people
supported and joined into these programs maybe our world wouldn't be in such
danger of dying. If our Earth dies it will surely take us all with it.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Environmental Health, Carleson Lavonne Chelsea House Publishers, New York 1994

Acid Rain, Tyson Peter Chelsea House Publishers, New York 1992

Clean Water, Barass Karen Chelsea House Publishers, New York 1992

"Environmental Pollution" Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia 1996

"Smog" Encarta Encyclopedia 1996