According to Effects of Pollution by Scott Forseman, pollution is defined as the addition of any substance or form of energy to the environment at a rate faster than the environment can accommodate it by dispersion, decomposition, recycling, or storage in some harmless form. In my course of research, I uncovered many forms pollution. However, the ones I included were the forms of pollution that may interfere with our present and future existence. In this paper, air, water, and land pollutions have been identified and explained, as well as the consequences of these pollutants, also some possible solutions for these types of problems.
Air Pollution.
Air pollution is a problem that everyone should be concerned about. With the growing number of automobiles, and the greenhouse effect problem becoming more and more of a threat, air pollution is something to be concerned with. "Air pollution involves the release of gases, finely dissolved solids, or liquid aerosols into the atmosphere at rates that exceed the capacity of the atmosphere to dissipate them or to dispose of them through incorporation into solid or liquid layers of the biosphere (Newton 43)." Dust storms in deserts and smoke from forest and grass fires contribute to air pollution.
In Antarctica large amounts of an unknown substance were discovered. The substance was matched with a pesticide used in South Africa, which was used to control an insect dilemma. Another example, during the industrial revolution in England, smog and smoke from the factories, were carried to places as far away as Iceland. Also, a certain element from automobile emissions in the United States has been observed in places as far away as the Greenland ice sheet.
The effects of air pollution are experienced at distances considerably far from the source because weather plays a major factor in air pollution. The most important natural source of air pollution is volcanic activity, which at times pours great amounts of ash and toxic fumes into the atmosphere.