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- Humans pollute the air, land, and sea by burning fossil fuels, overusing chemicals and pesticides, and creating sewage run-off.
- The health consequences of that pollution are clear: Air pollution causes some 8.8 million deaths annually worldwide.
- Marine animals that ingest microplastics and methylmercury also pass along these toxic pollutants to the people who consume them.
Humans excel at consuming resources and creating waste.
Not only does pollution — in all its myriad forms — negatively impact the planet’s climate and ecosystems, it can also be deadly.
Burning fossil fuels like oil and natural gas, for instance, emits harmful air pollutants like benzene (a chemical inked to childhood leukemia and blood disorders) and formaldehyde (a known carcinogen). Plus, it sends large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — which leads more heat to get trapped on Earth.
When we think of pollution, oil spills, litter, and smog often come to mind. But there are other, less obvious pollutants that people spread all the time. Here are 17 different types of pollution that impact the environment — and human health — every day.
When we think of pollution, images of cars, factories, and power plants spewing dark plumes typically come to mind. That’s air pollution, essentially, and it’s mostly made up of carbon dioxide and methane.
Reuters
Most emissions of CO2 and methane come from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. As these emissions of greenhouse gases add up, they trap more heat on the planet, rather than letting it dissipate into space — leading to global warming.
Burning fossil fuels also sends carcinogenic particles into the air.
Factories and gas-powered vehicles also produce other air pollutants like nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrocarbons. These chemicals can react with sunlight to create smog.
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Currently, 91% of the world’s population lives in places where the air quality does not meet hte standards for safety set by the World Health Organization.
In some parts of the world, like China and India, smog can get so thick that people can’t see the sun and have to wear masks.
Sometimes those nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide chemicals can react with the moisture in the atmosphere and change into acids. That water-chemical mixture then returns to Earth as acid rain.
Wikimedia Commons
Acid rain can kill trees and devastate lakes and streams. The addition of too much acid rain to a body of water makes it too acidic for fish and other marine life to survive.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Health-insurance startups like Oscar Health and Clover Health have raked in $1.3 billion in the past year. We took a look at their financials, which show how hard it is to get a foothold in the industry.
- 4 drinks you consume every day that might raise your risk of cancer
- China’s elaborate winter festival is now a graveyard of melting ice castles. Take a look.
Source: Business Insider – awoodward@businessinsider.com (Aylin Woodward)