EA 2020

Pollution is either land pollution, air pollution or water pollution. In any case, it is all harming the planet. While we may not think of all the different types of pollution out there, we need to educate ourselves so we can do something about it.

Thermal Pollution

Human activity can change the temperature of fresh water bodies such as lakes or rivers. The most common form of thermal pollution is the use of water as a cooling agent in power plants.

Water Pollution

Shipping is a major source of pollution and the dumping of waste from cruise liners and yachting. Super tanker transporting crude oil and other petrochemicals have regularly been in the news with terrible accidents causing wide-spread pollution at sea and at land. Oil slicks stay on the water for a long time and are lethal to wildlife, marine and on shore. The fisheries depending on healthy fish stocks in the affected coastal regions were never fully compensated for their loss.

Another form of water pollution arises from gold mining in the rainforest where high pressure water treatment washes clear the gold from within the soil but at the same time phosphates are released and pollute the rivers and lakes, causing harm to wildlife and indigenous populations.

Further harm is caused by afforestation of single specimen fir or pine trees which change the acidity of the soil around them. Rainwater washes this acidity into rivers and lakes, polluting the fresh water with higher acidity levels.

Inadequate treatment of sewage and storm water run-off can lead to major water pollution along coastlines and is the most common form of water pollution.

Health Risks through Pollution

Before the Olympics could take place in China, participating countries warned the Chinese government that they had to do something to reduce the air pollution and smog in Beijing. Drastic measures were needed before athletes from around the world could begin to train and compete in China. Ozone pollution can be responsible for respiratory diseases, throat inflammation, chest pains, cardiovascular disease and water pollution across the world is the cause of at least 14,000 fatalities every day of the year with poor drinking water conditions being the main factor.

In the former USSR the after effects of radioactive pollution from sites such as the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power station are still felt to this day and thousands of people suffer from radiation sickness and there are still many children with deformed limbs being born in the years since the nuclear disaster and an increased number of people suffer from a variety of cancerous problems.

The high number of children suffering from asthma in the UK has been linked to air pollution. Swimmers and beachgoers regularly suffer from skin rashes and eye irritation thanks to water pollution, mainly owing to sewage leaking or being allowed to enter the ocean’s water. Oil spills not only cause skin irritations to humans, they practically glue marine wildlife to the spot, clogging up feathers for waterfowl and leading to their eventual slow and painful death.

Soil pollution through heavy metal can kill and water from agricultural fields which were treated with man-made fertilisers will end up in our rivers, lakes and oceans, poisoning marine life, which will ultimately poison us as the last recipient in the food chain.

Pollution is a silent killer.