PLANET EARTH
(POLLUTION and SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT)
Pollution is waste that we put into the environment. It can harm plants and animals, including humans. Pollution comes from factories, and also from homes, farming, cars, ships, trucks, and aircraft. It includes smoke from fires, exhaust gases from engines, poisonous chemicals from industrial processes, rubbish such as plastic packaging, and sewage. These things pollute the landscape, rivers, lakes, seas, and the air. Noise and light can also be forms of pollution.
AIR POLLUTION
The city of Bangkok in Thailand is affected by smog – a mix of smoke and fog. It causes difficulties for people with breathing problems, such as asthma and bronchitis. Smoke from car engines, power stations, and factories is made up of waste gases, dust, and tiny particles of unburned fuel. These harmful waste gases include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Some of the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap heat from the Sun. This is called the greenhouse effect, because the atmosphere works like the glass in a greenhouse. The greenhouse effect is natural, but pollution causes an increase in the gases that produce it, including carbon dioxide, water vapour, and methane.
ACID RAIN
Many trees are killed by acidic rain formed from pollutants in the air, especially sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. These gases mix with water in the atmosphere to form rain that is acidic. Acid rain also kills aquatic life when it runs into ponds and lakes.
ACCIDENTAL POLLUTION
Leaks from oil tankers into the sea create oil slicks on the water surface. Where the oil reaches the shore, it covers beaches and kills seabirds.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
By using scarce resources such as oil, coal, and gas and producing pollution, we are storing up problems for future generations. We need to find ways of meeting our own needs now without spoiling the Earth for people in the future. The idea of sustainable development is to provide a good quality of life for everyone without causing pollution or using up resources that cannot be replaced. Using renewable forms of energy and reducing waste will help towards sustainable development.
Source:
factmonster.com
Other Links:
PLANET EARTH: SEDIMENTS
PLANET EARTH: ICE
