At all stages of development, man was closely associated with nature. But with the emergence and formation of an industrial society, environmental pollution is increasingly becoming a problem in the modern world.
Types of pollution are quite diverse in their strength of impact and are characterized by the danger of spreading in airspace, as well as in the water element and with the help of soil.
Natural causes
There are two types of sources of harmful emissions into the atmosphere - natural and man-made. These are its main types. Environmental pollution, the scheme of which is given below, is an important problem that needs to be addressed.
The first type is in no way connected with the activities of people and occurs according to certain laws of nature. It should be noted that this type of pollution took place long before humanity appeared, therefore the environment copes with such “waste” very well.
This is due to the fact that evolution has already laid down natural disasters (storms, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, decomposition of dead animals and plants). Natural pollution can be considered as biological pollution of the environment. Types of pollution of this kind include, first of all, the waste products of nature itself as a whole.
Natural pollution can be illustrated by the following examples:
- Death Valley. At the foot of the volcano Kikhpinich (Kamchatka), a valley extends, which is filled with volcanic hydrogen sulfide gases. In the absence of wind above ground level, gas accumulates, and all animals and birds that fall in this area die. Scientists involved in the study of the Death Valley, not only study this phenomenon, but also cleanse the territory of corpses. This is necessary in order to prevent scavengers from coming to the valley, who can harm not only live animals, but also spread the infection from the dead. Thus, this type of pollution has quite vivid signs that have similar types of environmental pollution.
“The Red Tide.” On the surface of the seas, a brown coating forms, very reminiscent of blood. This is due to the propagation of a certain type of algae, which are very toxic in nature. Poisonous substances get along the food chain to the inhabitants of the sea, which is why the latter die.
There are cases when the crews of vessels passing in such areas received severe poisoning by eating fish or shellfish caught in poisonous places. Scientists attribute the appearance of toxic algae to a large amount of chemical emissions into the ocean.
Anthropogenic sources
The saturation of nature with harmful substances by man deserves special attention, since they are not limited to decomposition or fires caused by people. The classification of environmental pollution in this case may be as follows:
- aerosol;
- smog (photochemical fog);
- fallout;
- inorganic water pollution;
- organic;
- thermal types;
- Soil pollution;
- saturation with pesticides;
- acid rain (as a result of the relationship with the water cycle in nature).
All these methods are types of anthropogenic environmental pollution, that is, the result of human activity.
Aerosol emissions
In the atmosphere in connection with the functioning of mankind there is a mass of impurities that can be called technogenic dust. It is expressed in the form of fog, haze or ordinary smoke. As a result of the burning of certain substances in production, toxic fumes and carcinogenic compounds are released into the environment.
The main sources of the occurrence of industrial dust are metallurgical plants, oil refineries, soot, and the like, which use the heat treatment of raw materials. Also, the main types of environmental pollution by aerosol methods include the release of dust and toxic substances in the mining industry.
When artificial embankments (dumps) are formed from overburden during mining, a huge amount of processing results are emitted into the atmosphere. Harmful particles are released into the environment and during blasting.
For example, an average power explosion produces up to 2 thousand cubic meters of carbon monoxide and about 150 tons of dust. During the technological processes of processing semi-finished products for the production of cement into the air, a lot of chemicals and process dust are also released.
Aerosol can also be called types of environmental pollution by transport. As a result of the combustion of a substance (gasoline or diesel fuel), gases are released: carbon oxides, hydrocarbon and nitrogen. The duration of these mixtures in the atmosphere until their natural decomposition is from several hours to several years.
Photochemical fog
Smog is formed by combining chemically harmful emissions into the atmosphere with solar radiation energy. The result is a photochemical reaction of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and other harmful substances.
Fog, therefore, represents a category of saturation with harmful substances, which contains the types of chemical pollution of the environment.
The chain reaction of the conversion of nitrogen dioxide to nitric oxide and atomic oxygen should result in ozone (a combination of molecular and atomic oxygen). The oxidation of nitrogen by this compound should produce molecular oxygen and, as a result, nitrogen dioxide. However, when it occurs, ozone immediately reacts with exhaust gases in the atmosphere, resulting in the formation of a certain number of combined oxygen atoms and molecules.
This compound, reacting with impurities in the air, forms oxidants and free radicals that are characteristic of smog. Compounds with which the air is literally saturated have a very negative effect on the circulatory and respiratory systems of residents, as a result of which a person may die.
Fallout
This type of pollution is the most dangerous for humanity and for all life in the world. Precipitation that contains radioactive particles is atmospheric moisture and dust.
The heaviest particles of radioactive elements settle immediately on the surface of the earth, lighter ones tend to linger in the atmosphere and be transported over fairly large distances.
Due to the water cycle in nature, the radionucleotides contained in the air fall to the ground in the form of rain, snow or fog.
When such deposits fall on the skin of a person, radioactive atoms penetrate the body, destroying it gradually from the inside.
Inorganic types
Types of environmental pollution are also represented by inorganic “methods”.
In connection with the development of industry, waste water that is generated during the activities of factories and enterprises for the harvesting and processing of timber, during work in mines, in mines, and also as a result of the use of transport, gets into the water.
For example, wastewater, which then falls into water bodies, contains a large amount of residues of synthetic detergents. These elements, falling into the water treatment system, are not removed and returned to the water supply.
Types of chemical environmental pollution include, in this case, pollution of wastewater with compounds of elements such as cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury and other equally hazardous substances.
These compounds are absorbed by low-organized inhabitants of water bodies and transmitted along the food chain to highly organized organisms.
Chemical contaminants have the property of changing the pH of the water to the point where the inhabitants of the aquatic environment cannot live and reproduce in such water.
However, many invertebrate organisms inhabiting the water element are able to accumulate in themselves radioactive elements and poisons. That is why they serve as an indicator of what the main types of environmental pollution caused the pollution of the reservoir.
Despite the fact that water has the property of self-cleaning, due to the ingress of a large number of chemical compounds into it, the organisms that provide purification die. Accordingly, additional methods are required to separate harmful particles from water, but, unfortunately, this is not enough.
Organic garbage
Types of pollution of the environment surrounding a person include their organic nature. These include oil, consisting mainly of saturated hydrocarbons.
In the presence of oil stains on the surface of the water, the inhabitants of the seas, as well as animals and plants of the coastal zone die.
This is due to the fact that oil, falling on fish or waterfowl, envelops them with a thin black-brown film, in connection with which the natural streamlining of the plumage of birds (or fish scales) is disturbed.
Long before people learned how to extract this natural resource, oil also hit the surface of the water. However, in the seas and oceans there are microscopic bacteria that can process "black gold", eating them. Gradually, the stain from the surface disappears, and bacteria become food for highly organized creatures.
The difficulty today in the natural destruction of spots is a huge amount of oil, which spills out during the collapse of tankers or accidents on platforms. Bacteria do not have time to process it, and a combustible substance can enter the stream in other bodies of water, spreading over the oceans.
Thermal type
Emissions of temperature-unstable wastewater into rivers and lakes by power plants - this example illustrates a category such as types of energy pollution of the environment.
At first glance, a slight increase in water temperature should not harm the ecosystem as a whole. However, the amount of such effluents and the constant change and instability of the temperature of the liquid in water bodies leads to an artificial limitation of water exchange between the surface and the bottom.
Since there is a violation of the cycle necessary for the rational functioning of phytoplankton and algae, the species constancy of the water structure changes.
Soil pollution
Earth's soil is an essential component of the biosphere. This shell accumulates not only organic substances, but also energy. The existence of soil as an element of the biosphere is one of the important links in its functioning. Therefore, the problems of pollution of the earth's surface with chemicals (organic and inorganic), as well as a special kind of substances (pesticides) require special attention from scientists.
Pesticide pollution
Since special pesticides for treating plants are produced and used by humans, it can be said that soil contamination with these elements can illustrate the types of physical pollution of the environment.
Despite the fact that this group of chemicals is an important element in agriculture for large-scale cultivation of plant foods, such poisons pose a huge danger to the soil.
Pesticides tend to accumulate in the body into which they enter and, like radioactive elements, destroy human health from the inside and also lead to the death of many microorganisms. Violation of the natural course of the evolutionary process occurs, among other reasons, also due to the fact that environmental pollution is observed.
Types of pollution, which include pesticide saturation, cause imbalance and, as a consequence, natural selection. Chemicals enter the human body through the food chain and are found not only in the internal organs of adults, but also in newborns. This means that pesticides accumulated during life can be transmitted vertically from mother to child.
To date, such chemicals are being developed and tested that, after application, having the necessary effect, independently decompose into safe elements. It is important to observe the order of the chemical reaction, excluding the presence of such catalysts that could disrupt the natural course of decomposition of harmful substances into elementary ones.
Acid rain
As a result of human functioning, a large amount of oxides of chemical elements is released into the atmosphere, which causes environmental pollution. Types of pollution can be arbitrarily defined as domestic and industrial.
When burning combustible materials intended for domestic and industrial needs, nitrogen oxides, sulfur, carbon and hydrogen sulfide are released. When interacting with moisture contained in the atmosphere, these mixtures degenerate into acids, which then precipitate as precipitation.
With the threat of such anomalies, it is necessary to be extremely careful, since the effect of acid on people, even in a small concentration, causes a chemical burn. When exposed to acid rain, a person can not only lose part of his hair or ruin his headgear, but also get a burn on his face or body.
Acid, precipitated in the form of precipitation, harms not only people, but also the soil, that is, causes environmental pollution. Types of pollution, which are associated with the peculiarities of water circulation in nature, cause the earth to be oversaturated with these compounds. Soil in the future is not able to maintain beneficial natural properties. If vegetation appears on such soil, which is then taken for food, it can harm human health.
In addition, acid rainwater, penetrating deep into the ground, enters groundwater. It is they who spread chemical compounds over long distances, which in the future can harm even those areas that are quite far from the area where acid precipitation occurred.
Noise pollution
A person cannot live in absolute silence, as well as with fairly loud sounds. This imbalance changes intracranial pressure and can lead to disruption of the entire body.
In connection with these features of the human essence, we can distinguish noise pollution of the environment that cannot be seen.
The noise produced by numerous factories, machinery, trains, cars affects residents of big cities or people who are forced to be close to such “noisy” achievements of mankind, it is extremely negative.
The impact of such sounds disrupts the natural functioning of internal organs, blood vessels, etc., which in the worst case can lead to premature aging and death.
Ways to fight
The types of sources of environmental pollution are quite diverse. However, it can be noted that they are all related to human activity. Some sources directly pollute the atmosphere, soil or water with toxic substances, while others only violate the natural course of events in nature. At the same time, the system quite often weakens, important food and other chains are broken, mutations occur.
Genetically modified organisms are individuals that are fully adapted to survive in conditions of severe environmental pollution. With each pesticide attack, the cells changed so much that they could (already in future generations) withstand the destructive action of the most powerful substances.
But do not forget that our Earth is not adapted to absorb the "amenities" of civilization, so today the development is no longer of new chemically hazardous substances, but of their neutralizers.
The latest drugs or cultures of microorganisms are designed not only not to harm, but also to contribute to the rapid decomposition into safe elements of those substances that are planned to be used.
Sakhalin buckwheat
The natural properties of plants and organisms are revealed and used in the struggle for the purity of the planet. For example, Sakhalin buckwheat has an excellent property - it can germinate and bloom on soil that is saturated with heavy metals.
According to the results of numerous experiments, such plants can take up to 1 kg of cadmium, 24 kg of lead and 322 kg of zinc from the soil in 1 year only. And the experiment at one of the military training grounds where chemical weapons were tested showed that 2 years after the buckwheat was planted in the soil, the soil was completely clean.