Why is pollution affecting earth

Other agricultural air pollutants include pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. All of which also contribute to water pollution. Nutrient pollution is caused by wastewater, sewage, and fertilizers. The high levels of nutrients in these sources end up in bodies of water and promote algae and weed growth, which can make the water undrinkable and depleted oxygen causing aquatic organisms to die.

Pesticides and herbicides applied to crops and residential areas concentrate in the soil and are carried to the groundwater by rainwater and runoff. For these reasons anytime someone drills a well for water it must be checked for pollutants. Industrial waste is one of the main causes of water pollution, by creating primary and secondary pollutants including sulphur, lead and mercury, nitrates and phosphates, and oil spills.

This causes serious problems including the harming and killing of sea creatures, which ultimately affects humans. This occurs when humans apply chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides to the soil, dispose of waste improperly, and irresponsibly exploit minerals through mining.

Soil is also polluted through leaking underground septic tanks, sewage systems, the leaching of harmful substances from landfill, and direct discharge of waste water by industrial plants into rivers and oceans. Rain and flooding can bring pollutants from other already polluted lands to soil at other locations. Over-farming and over-grazing by agricultural activities causes the soil to lose its nutrient value and structure causing soil degradation, another type of soil pollution.

Landfills can leach harmful substances into the soil and water ways and create very bad smells, and breeding grounds for rodents that transmit diseases. Noise is considered an environmental pollutant caused by household sources, social events, commercial and industrial activities, and transportation. Light pollution is caused by the prolonged and excessive use of artificial lights at night that can cause health problems in humans and disrupt natural cycles, including wildlife activities.

Sources of light pollution include electronic billboards, night sports grounds, street and car lights, city parks, public places, airports, and residential areas. Pollution ends up in these forms including dust, smog, and toxic gas emissions. In addition to the natural sources of pollution, they can also come from human activity. These sources include industries such as mining, manufacturing plants, power plants, oil refineries, and transportation that release pollutants into the air or water.

Smog sometimes referred to as ground-level ozone occurs when emissions from combusting fossil fuels react with sunlight. Soot also known as particulate matter is made up of tiny particles of chemicals, soil, smoke, dust, or allergens—in the form of either gas or solids—that are carried in the air.

The sources of smog and soot are similar. Smog can irritate the eyes and throat and also damage the lungs, especially those of children, senior citizens, and people who work or exercise outdoors.

The tiniest airborne particles in soot, whether gaseous or solid, are especially dangerous because they can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream and worsen bronchitis, lead to heart attacks, and even hasten death.

Because highways and polluting facilities have historically been sited in or next to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, the negative effects of this pollution have been disproportionately experienced by the people who live in these communities. In the Union of Concerned Scientists found that soot exposure was 34 percent higher for Asian Americans , on average, than for other Americans. For Black people, the exposure rate was 24 percent higher; for Latinos, 23 percent higher.

A number of air pollutants pose severe health risks and can sometimes be fatal even in small amounts. Almost of them are regulated by law; some of the most common are mercury, lead, dioxins, and benzene. Benzene, classified as a carcinogen by the EPA, can cause eye, skin, and lung irritation in the short term and blood disorders in the long term.

Dioxins, more typically found in food but also present in small amounts in the air, can affect the liver in the short term and harm the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems as well as reproductive functions. Mercury attacks the central nervous system. Another category of toxic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs , are by-products of traffic exhaust and wildfire smoke.

In large amounts they have been linked to eye and lung irritation, blood and liver issues, and even cancer. In one study, the children of mothers exposed to PAHs during pregnancy showed slower brain-processing speeds and more pronounced symptoms of ADHD. In October more than countries reached an agreement to reduce the use of these chemicals—which are found in air conditioners and refrigerators—and develop greener alternatives over time. Though President Trump was unwilling to sign on to this agreement, a bipartisan group of senators overrode his objections in and set the United States on track to slash HFCs by 85 percent by Mold and allergens from trees, weeds, and grass are also carried in the air, are exacerbated by climate change, and can be hazardous to health.

Pollen allergies are worsening because of climate change. According to the most recent State of Global Air report —which summarizes the latest scientific understanding of air pollution around the world—4. Some four out of ten U. These rule changes are its last-ditch bid to blind the government to new research. But the latest air pollution research, coupled with the plunging cost of clean energy, should render that dynamic moot.

The health benefits of avoided severe heat will not manifest. However — and this is the crucial fact — the air quality benefits will manifest, no matter what the rest of the world does. The air quality benefits arrive much sooner than the climate benefits. They are, at least for the next several decades, much larger. They can be secured without the cooperation of other countries. And if this is true in the US — which, after all, has comparatively clean air — it is true tenfold for countries like China and India, where air quality remains abysmal.

A Lancet Commission study in found that in , air pollution killed 1. He hopes to do similar modeling on China at some point. The true toll may be almost double that, which is why both countries have experienced mass demonstrations against pollution in recent years that have left their governments scrambling. The extraordinary level of suffering humanity is currently experiencing from air pollution is not necessary for modernity; it could be reduced, at a cost well below the net social benefits, with clean energy technologies on hand.

If they are not necessary, then the millions of lives ended or degraded by fossil fuels every year are a choice. And when suffering on this scale, that is this brutally inequitable, becomes a choice, it enters the same ethical terrain as war, slavery, and genocide.

The effects are more distributed over time and geography, as are the decision-making and the moral culpability, but the cumulative impact on human well-being — on our longevity, health, learning, and happiness — is comparable, and every bit as much worth fighting.

US policymakers have a chance to kick-start an energy transition that could save 1. As Shindell says, it would be unconscionable not to act on it. Air pollution affects all things.

It is harmful to our health, and it impacts the environment - reducing visibility and blocking sunlight, causing acid rain, and harming forests, wildlife, and agriculture. Greenhouse gas pollution, the cause of climate change, affects the entire planet. According to the World Health Organization , an estimated seven million people die each year from air pollution. More than 4, people died in just a few months due to a severe smog event that occurred in London in Ground-level ozone causes muscles in the lungs to contract, making it difficult to breathe.

Exposure to high ozone levels can cause sore throat, coughing, lung inflammation, and permanent lung damage. Ozone pollution affects our lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Credit: UCAR. Symptoms from short term exposure typically resolve quickly, but long term exposure is linked to serious illness and disease in multiple body systems.

Children, the elderly, and people with ongoing illnesses are more vulnerable to air pollution than other groups. Urban populations are also at greater risk due to high concentrations of pollution within cities. Check the current air quality in your area to determine if you should take precautions such as reducing or avoiding outdoor activity.