Саша Надим Влад Я. Влад Рита маша вадим

Саша Надим Влад Я. Влад Рита маша вадим

1 Air pollution is a huge problem—and not just for people living in smog-choked cities: through such things as global warming and damage to the ozone layer, it has the potential to affect us all. So what exactly causes this major environmental issue and what consequences that we can see nowadays? Let's take a closer look! But, first of all we should probably have an idea of what is air pollution.

2. Air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, dust, fumes or odor in harmful amounts. That is, amounts which could be harmful to the health or comfort of humans and animals or which could cause damage to plants and materials.

3. When we think of pollution, we tend to think it's a problem that humans cause through ignorance or stupidity—and that's certainly true. So, let’s take a look on things that can cause air pollution.

4.Fossil fuels are the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Burning coal, petroleum and other fossil fuels at extremely high temperatures is the primary means by which electricity is produced, but also leads to heavy concentrations of pollutants in our air and water. The real problem is that the atmosphere already absorbs a ton of greenhouse gases naturally, but is trapping up to 25 percent more of the sun's radiation due to annual increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Factories pollute the air through fossil fuel emissions. These emissions include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Combustion creates these toxic pollutants. Industrial processes will also emit manmade emissions such as fluorine-containing gases. The air is directly impacted, yet the effects go far beyond air quality issues. Greenhouse gas emissions can cause physical damage to plants and reduce crop yields.

6. All methods of mining affect air quality. When the soil is removed, vegetation is also removed, exposing the soil to the weather, causing particulates to become airborne through wind erosion and road traffic. Particulate matter can be composed of such noxious materials as arsenic, cadmium, and lead. In general, particulates affect human health adversely by contributing to illnesses relating to the respiratory tract, such as emphysema, but they also can be ingested or absorbed into the skin.

7. We usually think of air pollution as being outdoors, but the air in your house or office could also be polluted. Sources of indoor pollution include

• pollen

• Tobacco smoke

• Household products and pesticides

• Gases such as radon and carbon monoxide

• Materials used in the building such as asbestos, formaldehyde and lead

Usually indoor air quality problems only cause discomfort. However, some pollutants can cause diseases that show up much later, such as respiratory diseases or cancer.

8. Sometimes the connection between air pollution and human health is obvious. Some estimates suggest perhaps 10-20 percent of cancers are caused by air pollution of one kind or another, but cancers can take a long time to develop and many other things can cause them too. Proving a direct link with a particular kind of air pollution is very difficult. Also air pollution can cause heart diseases because carbon monoxide that contains in the polluted air takes oxygen away from the heart and other vital organs. Air pollution can also aggravate respiratory diseases.

9. Global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This carbon overload is caused mainly when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas or cut down and burn forests. There are many heat-trapping gases, but CO2 puts us at the greatest risk of irreversible changes if it continues to accumulate unabated in the atmosphere.

10. Scientists have discovered that air pollution from burning of fossil fuels is the major cause of acid rain. The main chemicals in air pollution that create acid rain are sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen (NOx). Acid rain usually forms high in the clouds where sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water, oxygen, and oxidants. this mixture forms a mild solution of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Rainwater, snow, fog, and other forms of precipitation containing those mild solutions of sulfuric and nitric acids fall to earth as acid rain.

11. Habitat is the place in which animals live, including in and on the soil, as well as in water.

Acid rain can change the chemistry and quality of soils and water. For example, water bodies can become too acidic for some animals to survive or have normal physiological functions. Alternatively, acid rain can increase the release of heavy metals, such as aluminum, from soils into water habitats. The result is higher availability of heavy metals in the water column, which are very toxic to many animals including fish. Plants store carbon dioxide in their tissues in a process called carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By affecting plants, air pollution impairs one mechanism for improving air quality. This creates a vicious cycle of continued air quality impairment.

12.Troposphere ozone layer acts as a shield against all ultraviolet radiation approaching the planet Earth through absorption. Other factor that strongly affects the ozone layer thickness in stratosphere is local pollution levels of primary pollutants such as total hydrocarbon compounds and nitrogen oxides. Results: The dependency of ozone layer thickness on ambient pollutant levels presented in detail reflecting negative relation of both non-methane hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide concentrations in ambient air. The ozone thickness related to the ground level concentration of non-methane hydrocarbon and can be used as an indicator of the health of ozone layer thickness in the stratosphere.

and at the end I would say that as long as our planet has become a barren desert, we must do everything possible that would prevent this and leave to our descendants hope for a brighter future, and fertile land

Дата добавления: 2015-11-05