Pollution and Human Impact

Air pollution is defined as the introduction of harmful substances into the atmosphere (air) that cause adverse effects on living organisms and the environment.

The increased and excessive use of automobiles and rapid growth of Industrial establishments post-industrial revolution era has contributed to the tremendous rise of pollution. The oxides of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen emission from vehicle exhaust and in the industrial process due to incomplete combustion of carbon compounds cause serious air pollution with other lethal gases release. The effluents from the industry that are toxic are released in the environment causing air pollution, noise pollution has become everyday routine with non-stop working of machinery and equipment, horns of car and engines harmful to people working around, establishments have caused deforestation leading to soil pollution.

Human beings are responsible for the vast majority of environmental pollution through industrialization, transportation, waste generation, and resource consumption.

In modern times major types of pollution in urban areas are atmosphere, water and noise. Atmospheric pollution can be controlled to a large extent by location of factories and industries away from cities. Widening of roads will lead to less congestion, reduce idling time of engines of vehicles and ultimately be helpful in controlling atmospheric pollution due to vehicles. Sewage treatment plants and control on use of pesticides will reduce pollution of water bodies and prevent eutrophication of natural ponds and lakes. Clean city surroundings and proper waste disposal will reduce or eliminate breeding grounds of stray animals and disease spreading insect and non insect vectors. 

The Cyclone Collector is the device that is used for minimizing air pollution by trapping the suspended particles like coarse dust generated due to activities like mining, cement and wood factories. These are the dry scrubbers that work on the principle of inertia. Cyclone collector work similar to a centrifuge, but with a continuous feed of dirty air.

The prevention of addition of undesirable and toxic substances will result in prevention of pollution. Banning atomic blasts would prevent soil and water pollution from the harmful release of radiations. Use of electrically operated automobiles would prevent the release of oxides of sulphur, nitrogen and carbon and so, air pollution would be prevented. Sewage treatment would remove the toxic components and would prevent water pollution.

The human population explosion is the major cause of environmental degradation to which other causes are connected. Uncontrolled growth of the human population resulted in excessive use of resources and depletion of natural resources. Industrialization is being done for fulfilling demands that are contributing to air, land and water pollution. Agricultural lands are decreasing day by day and forests are being cut for residential and industrial purposes leading to deforestation which is causing land degradation and soil erosion. Over-farming and excessive use of resources are deteriorating the environment rapidly in all aspects.

Radioactive waste is usually the by-product of nuclear power generation. These radioactive elements are highly hazardous chemicals. Radioactive elements have half-life which means the time required for half of its atoms to disintegrate and become non-radioactive.

Radioactive elements have longer half-life and hence takes very long time to disintegrate. This is the unique problem posed by radioactive elements apart from adverse impacts on ecosystems, contamination of groundwater and toxicity to humans

River Gomti is a major tributary of the Ganges, which is completely polluted due to industrial units established near and around the banks of the river. These industries are sugar industries, yeast units and remaining are agro-based paper companies. It is a major river in Uttar Pradesh.

Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes changes to biophysical environments and ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans, including global warming, environmental degradation (such as ocean acidification), mass extinction and biodiversity loss, ecological crisis, and ecological collapse.

Accumulated waste which is left untreated and uncared is harmful to the environment as it starts degrading in the open atmosphere by the action of microorganisms, some of the waste is eaten by stray animals which causes a problem in their functions as it consists of harmful elements such as acids, polythene, etc. The foul smell generating out of accumulated waste cause breathing problem in humans and air pollution. This waste dissolves in water bodies and form part of land making soil unusable and infertile and water harmful for drinking.

There are five major types of pollution:
1. Air pollution

Geochemical cycle refers to the chemical interactions in surface reservoirs such as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Pollution is any undesirable change in physical, chemical or biological characteristics of air, land, water or soil. Agents that bring about such an undesirable change are called as pollutants. Local flora and fauna is also affected by the pollutant. Balance of nature also gets disturbed as pollutant affects the living organism and composition of gases in the atmosphere.

• Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that causes adverse change. 
• Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. 
• Hence, Introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e, physical systems or living organisms, is called Pollution.
• So, the correct answer is 'Pollution'.

Fuel-powered ecosystems (industrialized systems) rely on fossil fuels, which generate significant economic output but are also the primary source of environmental pollution.