How Pollution Affects Us And Our Enviornment Essay, Research Paper

Outline

Introduction:

I.What is Pollution?

A. Who makes up most of the pollution

1.What pollutants are

2.What causes there formation

B. Who and what is harmed by pollution

II.Acid Precipitation

A.How is it caused

B.What are its effects

III. Air Pollution

A.How is it caused

B.What are its effects

Conclusion:We need to use renewable resources and finding uses for waste products

instead of creating pollution by throwing them out. Our environment is a crucial part of

our lives, and we must learn how to treat it correctly. Without it we would not be living.

We need to become more aware of the circumstances that are going to take place if

action is not taken . We need to stop making emphasis on what will make us more

comfortable, because if we don?t soon we will not have a world to live in and we will all

die. Then how important will living comfortable be.

Alina M. Torres

Professor Kronen

ENC 2301

December 7, 1998

How Pollution Affects Us and Our Surroundings

Pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the environment,

causing damage to living things. This is caused by humans and complex organisms

everyday. It is difficult to actually say what exactly pollution is because some

environmental elements that are pollutants to certain species maybe desirable nutrients to

others. A dictionary defines pollution as ? the contamination of one substance by another

so that the former is unfit for its intended use?.

Since us humans are basically inefficient, wasteful, and inconsiderate to our

surroundings we make up most of the pollution that is currently affecting us because of

the whole industrial origin and human growth population. Pollution takes many

different forms: noise, radio waves and even heat. The more obvious types are solid

litter, fumes from car exhausts and our lack of recycling (Becklake, page 5). Some of the

main causes for the existence of these substances are our growing technology making it

mandatory for industrial growth making way for industrial emissions that are escaping

into the air, nuclear waste plants having to be made to make human waste valuable in

some way since so much was being produced. When fossil fuels in homes and vehicles

such as coal and gas are burned they produce sulfur and nitrogen, which react with damp

air to make sulfuric and nitric acids. If the air is dry the reaction takes place very slowly

causing pollution.

As in result of all this we are not only hurting ourselves with these pollutants but

we are also, not only hurting, but killing off our surroundings little by little that are in

some way crucial to our existence here. For example, we are gradually killing our ozone

layer by releasing various chemicals such as carbon monoxide which is produced by cars

and is highly poisonous and let out into the atmosphere. Lead is another serious pollutant

from car exhaust. It is added to gasoline to make engines run more smoothly. According

to Malcolm Penny, in several states the use of leaded gasoline is illegal. Despite its

availability in Great Britain only one in a thousand motorists use lead free gasoline in

1997.(10) The ozone layer is a region in the earth?s stratosphere. It is formed of oxygen

that is created by the action if sunlight. This layer is of great importance to us because it

protects the earth of getting direct ultraviolet rays which are dangerous to us.

Acid precipitation, although a secondary pollutant, is another factor caused by

industrial and vehicle emissions when sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide

in the air combine with water. This poses as a great threat to living organisms, buildings,

monuments, and other objects. For example a species can be killed off with strong

enough acid precipitation and that is harmful because that will always harm the food

chain in some way, meaning it will affect us as well. According to John Becklake, the

damage has been very serious. In the 1900?s anglers in Norway caught more than

sixty-six pounds of salmon, but since 1970 they have caught none. This incident should

set an alarm to everyone, even our foods are being polluted.(12) Acid Precipitation

affects the leaves of trees which reduces their ability to make food by photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the process of plants making their own food, by the use of energy. As a

result the trees will starve. Scientists believe that the tress are dying from a mixture of

tens or even hundreds of chemicals which are released into the air.

The air we breathe is a mixture of gasses: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and

other gasses. The air surrounding the earth is a thin layer called the atmosphere.

According to Becklake, since our evolution the atmosphere has remained more less as we

know it today.(44) Our daily activities threaten to change this perfect balance. It isn?t

only nitrogen and oxygen that are affected, but others which occur in small quantities.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been growing steadily for the past

two hundred years with the growth of industry and the increase of car usage.(Penny 66)

As result of my research, I have found that we need to use renewable

resources and finding uses for waste products instead of creating pollution by throwing

them out. Our environment is a crucial part of our lives and we need to learn how to

treat it correctly because without it we would not be living right now. We need to

become more aware of the circumstances that are going to take place if action is not

taken. We need to stop making emphasis on what would make us live more comfortably

because if we don?t soon we will not have a world to live in. And how comfortable

would that be?