Nancy Patetefa

Sally Timmins
Geography 1700
March 19, 2015
Environmental Degradation
The specific environmental issue that I chose to focus on is pollution. Pollution is an
unwelcome concentration of substances that are beyond the environment's capacity to handle.
These substances are detrimental to people and other living things (Botany Pollution.) I chose
this as my topic because I want to know more in depth about pollution. I want to be aware of
what the root problem of pollution is, where and why this is occurring and what is being done to
handle this environmental issue.
After researching I have found that there are countless of causes for pollution. Some of
those causes are industrialization, population growth, globalization, production and consumption.
These specific causes affect different ecosystems in the world; those main ecosystems are air,
water and soil. I have broken it down to focus on how pollution is affecting our air and water
ecosystems. Air pollution is known to be the most dangerous type of pollution. The main cause
of air pollution is caused by human and human made pollutants. Humans need to burn fossils for
daily driving and cooking, these activities then leave chemical substances in the air that pollute
our air system. Some of the gas pollutants that released in the atmosphere when we do these
daily activities are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.

(Image Source: Pollution by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sanchez, taken from Wikipedia Commons.)

Water pollution occurs when industrial wastes are dumped into the ocean, when sewage
systems are not properly cared for; chemicals on other objects enter into the water and trash
being freely and uncaringly thrown into the water source. Many of these causes can be
pinpointed and tracked down, whereas others are not that easy. When water is polluted it affects
everyone and everything, Water pollution not only harms the aquatic beings but it also
contaminates the entire food chain by severely affecting humans dependent on these. Water
borne disease like cholera, diarrheas has increased in all places (Conserve Energy Future.) This
fact is crucial to be aware of because many people dont understand the effects of water pollution
has on them.
Pollution is occurring all over the world. This happens because there is human and animal
life throughout the world. While researching I couldnt find recent information on pollution
however I did find research that was done back in 2006. In this article it lists what is considered

to be the top ten polluted areas. The pollution that is found in these areas is extremely health
hazardous and dangerous to humans. They cause an enormous amount of misery and harm,
especially to children," Richard Fuller, founder and director of the Blacksmith Institute (Live
Science.) The top ten areas that are considered dangerous and most polluted according to this
article are,

Lifen, China
Haina, Dominican Republic
Ranipet, India
Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan
La Oroya, Peru
Dzerzinsk, Russia
Norilsk, Russia
Rudnaya Pristan, Russia
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Kabwe, Zambia

At first I was relieved because I didnt see the United States listed. Soon after reading
into the article I felt remorseful because of the pollution effects and what it can cause for those
people living in these areas. The pollution found can cause cancer, mental retardation and birth
defects. The research states that this affected more than ten million people. Once the research
project was complete, clean up teams were sent out to help clear and clean out the pollution.
Fuller said the institute is currently working with national and international organizations to
help clean up six of these sites (Live Science.)

(Image Source: Mute Swan by Thue, take from Wikipedia Commons)

Pollution is happening because of the way people are living. We are driving more and
walking less. We throw out trash in the streets and are ignorant to the damage that it can cause to
the environment. Two interesting statistics that I have found are, Americans generate 30 billion
foam cups, 220 million tires, and 1.8 billion disposable diapers every year and About 7 million
premature deaths annually are linked to air pollution. That is one in eight deaths worldwide (Live
Science.) These two statistics are extremely mind blowing and was a huge eye opener for me.
There are a million ways and things that you can do to help prevent more pollution from
happening in the future. Personally, I think that simply educating people in detail how pollution
affects them can make an enormous difference. I found amazing detailed suggestions that could
benefit the world by being aware of how we are polluting the environment and how we can
change that. Some of the suggestions are,

Reusing things that are still good to use. Fix things or get things fixed. Learn how
things are made to help you to do this. It's informative, interesting and it can be a
lot of fun.

We can recycle almost everything these days: plastics, glass, aluminums, tin, other
metals, clothes, newspapers, and magazines, cardboard, even your organic
peelings from your vegetables can go on a compost heap.

Re-use your plastic shopping bags until you can use them no more...and then try
and recycle them! Many supermarkets have introduced schemes where you can

recycle your plastic carrier bags.

Manage your bank, credit card and utility accounts online and use paperless
banking. It's a lot easier and it saves paper which saves waste, natural resources

and energy.
Buy products with biodegradable packaging (or packaging that you will actively
recycle). Look out for this in the shops where you buy from, it should be clearly
labelled. If it is not available then write to your supermarket and ask them to start
using it. In the meantime look out for products that use the minimum amount of

packaging.
Use less harmful detergents in your home and at your place of work. The more
people that use these the more we can reduce pollution in our beautiful
environments (Taken from ecoants.com)

(Image Source: Air Pollution by Sanao, taken from Wikipedia Commons)

(Image Source: Exhausted Battery by Archenzo, taken from Wikipedia Commons)

Reflection:

Overall I found this assignment interesting, fun and beneficial. I always knew of pollution
and that the effects from it were bad. But I didnt understand in depth how it was affecting the
different ecosystems throughout earth, human and animal life. I think that pollution rates would
decrease if it was a requirement for people to take some environmental issue informational class.
This assignment has made me want to change my personal habits of not recycling, unplugging
electronics, picking up trash I see outside and letting my family/others the information that I
learned from doing this assignment. I believe the world would be a better and safer place if
everyone were aware of how to care for their environment and would go the extra mile of letting
others know how to too.

Works Cited
http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envfacts/facts/pollution2.htm
http://www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/causes-of-pollution.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pollution
http://biology.tutorvista.com/environmental-pollution.html
http://www.livescience.com/4226-world-10-polluted-places.html
http://www.livescience.com/22728-pollution-facts.html
http://www.ecoants.com/stoppollution.html