Top 5 Environmental Issues Facing Our Planet

Top 5 Environmental Issues Facing Our Planet

Our environment is constantly changing. There is no denying that. However, as our environment changes, so does the need to become increasingly aware of the problems that surround it. With a massive influx of natural disasters, warming and cooling periods, different types of weather patterns and much more, people need to be aware of what types of environmental problems our planet is facing.
1. Overpopulation: The worlds population has tripled in the last 60 years placing stress on every aspect of the environment. Population explosion in less developed and developing countries is straining the already scarce resources. Intensive agriculture practiced to produce food damages the environment through use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides.
2. Pollution: Pollution of air, water and soil require millions of years to recoup. Industry and motor vehicle exhaust are the number one pollutants. Heavy metals, nitrates and plastic are toxins responsible for pollution. While water pollution is caused by oil spill, acid rain, urban runoff; air pollution is caused by various gases and toxins released by industries and factories and combustion of fossil fuels; soil pollution is majorly caused by industrial waste that deprives soil from essential nutrients.
3. Global Warming: Climate changes like global warming is the result of human practices like emission of Greenhouse gases. Global warming leads to rising temperatures of the oceans and the Earth’s surface causing melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels and also unnatural patterns of precipitation such as flash floods, excessive snow or desertification.

4. Natural Resource Depletion: Natural resource depletion is another crucial current environmental problems. Fossil fuel consumption results in emission of Greenhouse gases, which is responsible for global warming and climate change. Globally, people are taking efforts to shift to renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, biogas and geothermal energy. The cost of installing the infrastructure and maintaining these sources has plummeted in the recent years.
5. Ocean Acidification: A direct effect of excessive CO2 production. The oceans absorb as much as 25% of all human carbon dioxide emissions. The gas then combines with other elements to form compounds such as carbolic acid.he effect of over acidification of the oceans on sea creatures such as shellfish and plankton is similar to osteoporosis in humans. The acid effectively is dissolving the skeletons of the creatures.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 workers and leading to the worst oil spill and environmental catastrophe in US history.

A ruptured underwater pipe spewed almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over three months, threatening hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands, and estuaries. Thousands of animals, including turtles, crabs, fish, and birds fell victim, and the local fishing and tourism industries suffered badly.

Effects on Wildlife

There were some immediate impacts to the animals of the Gulf of Mexico that could be seen with the naked eye: pelicans black with oil, fish belly-up in brown sludge, smothered turtles washed up on beaches. But not much time has passed since the spill, and it will take many more years of monitoring and research to understand what happened. 

Strandings of both dolphins and sea turtles increased significantly in the years following the spill. "From 2002 to 2009, the Gulf averaged 63 dolphin deaths a year. That rose to 125 in the seven months after the spill in 2010 and 335 in all of 2011, averaging more than 200 a year since April 2010," reported Reuters in 2015. Since then, dolphin deaths have declined, and long-term impacts on the population are not yet known. Kemp's ridley sea turtle nests have gone down in the years since the spill, and long-term effects are not yet known.

Seabirds were initially harmed by crude surface oil—even a small bit of oil on their feathers impeded their ability to fly, swim and find food by diving. Seabird losses may have numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but reliable estimates are hard to come by. Looking beyond the sea, researchers are currently studying how oil may have affected land birds that live in the marshes along the Gulf coast.

Invertebrates in the Gulf were hard hit by the Deepwater Horizon spill—both in coastal areas and in the deep. Shrimp fisheries were closed for much of the year following the spill, but these commercially-important species now seem to have recovered. Deep-water corals grow very slowly and can live for many centuries. Found as deep as 4,000 feet below the surface, corals near the blowout showed signs of tissue damage and were covered by an unknown brown substance, later identified as oil from the spill. Laboratory studies conducted with coral species showed that baby coral exposed to oil and dispersant had lower survival rates and difficulty settling on a hard surface to grow.

The impact of the spill on fish communities is still largely unknown. Lab studies have shown that oil can cause heart defects in the developing larvae of tuna and other fish, but we won't know if this occurred in the wild until after those larvae would have grown up. Some fish larvae populations actually grew after the spill, as they had more food in the form of oil-eating microbes.

There were some reports of deformed wildlife after the spill. For years following the spill there were reports of fish with lesions and deformities, and some reports of eyeless and deformed shrimp after the spill. However, consuming Gulf seafood is now completely safe.

Green Planet and Pollution Disasters

Three ways to keep our planet green

Plant a notion

"Going green" doesn't have to be a daunting task that means sweeping life changes. Simple things can make a difference.

The contents of this list might not be new, but they bear repeating. Sometimes it takes a few reminders for things take root.

5. Recycle Glass
Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn't recycled it can take a million years to decompose.

14. Rethink bottled water

Nearly 90% of plastic water bottles are not recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. Buy a reusable container and fill it with tap water, a great choice for the environment, your wallet, and possibly your health. The EPA's standards for tap water are more stringent than the FDA's standards for bottled water.

Worst Examples of pollution

Bhopal Gas Leak

The world’s worst ever industrial accident happened on the night of December 2-3, 1984, when toxic gases leaked from the Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The deadly fumes drifted into the sleeping city and people woke with burning eyes and lungs.

Thousands died within days. In the years after, pollutants seeping out of the plant site into groundwater have caused cancer, growth retardation and dizziness, say Bhopalis.

Chernobyl Nuclear Accident

The biggest radiation contamination ever happened on April 26, 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s core went into meltdown, killing 30 people and releasing 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Japan. Even more radioactivity remains trapped within the plant.

From 1992 to 2002 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine more than 4000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed among children and adolescents, mainly due to contaminated milk. The 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable.

The Ozone Hole

The ozone layer shields the Earth from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. In 1985, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey discovered a large hole in the layer over Antarctica.

Chemicals used in air conditioners and aerosol sprays called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had eaten away the ozone, creating the hole, which appears in this image from 2000 as a giant blue blob. Today, although smaller than before, the hole remains about the size of North America despite near total elimination of CFCs from products worldwide.

Some causes and effects of factories pollution

Causes

1. Lack of Policies to Control Pollution: Lack of effective policies and poor enforcement drive allowed many industries to bypass laws made by pollution control board which resulted in mass scale pollution that affected lives of many people.

2. Unplanned Industrial Growth: In most industrial townships, unplanned growth took place wherein those companies flouted rules and norms and polluted the environment with both air and water pollution.

3. Use of Outdated Technologies: Most industries still rely on old technologies to produce products that generate large amount of waste. To avoid high cost and expenditure, many companies still make use of traditional technologies to produce high end products.

4. Presence of Large Number of Small Scale Industries: Many small scale industries and factories that don’t have enough capital and rely on government grants to run their day-to-day businesses often escape environment regulations and release large amount of toxic gases in the atmosphere.

Effects

1. Water Pollution: Most industries require large amounts of water for their work. When involved in a series of processes, the water comes into contact with heavy metals, harmful chemicals, radioactive waste and even organic sludge.

These are either dumped into open oceans or rivers. As a result, many of our water sources have high amount of industrial waste in them.

2. Soil Pollution: Soil pollution is creating problems in agriculture and destroying local vegetation. It also causes chronic health issues to the people that come in contact with such soil on a daily basis.

3. Air Pollution: Air pollution has led to a steep increase in various illnesses and it continues to affect us on a daily basis.

4. Wildlife Extinction: By and large, the issue of industrial pollution shows us that it causes natural rhythms and patterns to fail, meaning that the wildlife is getting affected in a severe manner. Habitats are being lost, species are becoming extinct and it is harder for the environment to recover from each natural disaster. 

How Do Factories Pollute the Air?

Industrial pollution is one of the primary sources of environmental contamination. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), air pollution levels rose 14 percent from 1990 to 2008. This trend reflects the amount of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in the air. Air pollution can have profound effects on the health of the entire planet.

Types of Pollutants

In order to understand the causes of Air pollution, several divisions can be made.

 Primarily air pollutants can be caused by primary sources or secondary sources. The pollutants that are a direct result of the process can be called primary pollutants. A classic example of a primary pollutant would be the sulfur-dioxide emitted from factories

Secondary pollutants are the ones that are caused by the inter mingling and reactions of primary pollutants. Smog created by the interactions of several primary pollutants is known to be as secondary pollutant.

Do you know which the planet’s most polluting countries are?

China: The terrible condition of the air in its cities is just one example of how this country, growing at breakneck speed, does not exercise sufficient control over its emissions. Development of this kind must take account of environmental risks, given that in just a few years it has overtaken the United States in terms of tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere.

United States: Being a great power also has its downside, as is the case of the United States. Not only is it one of the worst countries in terms in of CO₂ emissions, but also with regard to water pollution and endangered species. The Obama government wishes to announce strong measures to cut back on these carbon emissions, in a country that has more than 600 electric power stations.

Brazil: Another of the countries experiencing greatest economic development in recent years, once again, accompanied by an increase in greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. This is added to by thespeed of deforestation of the Amazon region, one of the world's biggest green lungs. Brazil is also among the top countries in terms of endangered species and water pollution.

Indonesia: This has quickly become one of the world's most polluting countries. Furthermore, it is destroying forests at breakneck speed, so much so that ithas reached 40% deforestation in less than 50 years. This Asian country has emission levels similar to those of European countries, and Jakarta, its capital, is one of the most polluted cities. As an example, we have only to visit the areas surrounding the Citarum River, one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

                                                                                   

Japan: Fukushima is just the tip of the iceberg in a country where pollution getting worse day by day. The Japanese government set a target of a 3.8% reduction in emissions by 2020. Despite this, in February 2014 the highest rate of pollution was reached in increasingly large areas of the country, and the authorities had to recommend the use of masks and limit trips abroad.

Other countries with high emission rates are Russia, India, Germany, Australia and Canada. Most of the emissions that reach the atmosphere come from coal (43%), followed by oil (33%). Countries must rapidly direct their development toward clean and renewable energy, to curb emissions and avoid the dark forecast for 2050.

Yes to development, but always in a sustainable way!

Stop pollution before it gets worse