Pollution is any change in physical, chemical or biologiacal characteristics of the environment that has the potentiality to harm human life, life of other desirable species, natural resources, cultural assets, and industries. Another type of pollution is increase in CO2 and other green house gases and a decrease in stratospheric ozone on global scale creating global environmental pollution that would be affecting air, water and land resources, biological diversity and human health.
Global Environmental Pollution
Pollution can be atmospheric, soil and water. Based on physical nature of the pollutant, pollution can be gaseous pollution, dust pollution, thermal pollution, noise pollution, radioactive pollution. Based on emission of pollution, it can be:
- Point source pollution: from a single point such as chimney, sewer
- Line source pollution: pollution is passed along a narrow belt such as roads due to automobile exhaust.
- Area source pollution: such as mining area, industrial estate.
- Diffuse source pollution: it is over a large area e.g., sprayed pesticides or fertilizers through run-off.
- Fixed source pollution: pollutants are passed from fixed spots as of large factories, small-scale industries, mineral smelters, electrical power plants.
- Mobile source pollution: pollutants come out from a moving structure like transport vehicle.
How Does Global Environmental Pollution Affect the Nature
All the types of pollution finally contribute to create a big monster of green house effect and global warming.
- Global warming: it is believed that increase in concentration of green house gases has resulted in rise of atmospheric temperature, some 2.5oC since industrial revolution.
- Effect on atmosphere: warming of troposphere is accompanied by cooling of the upper strata of atmosphere. This cooling will tend to increase the size of ozone holes while cooling in thermosphere will disrupt radio communications and further warm the troposphere.
- Effect on weather and climate: moisture carrying capacity of air will increase. Precipitation will increase at higher latitudes in both summer and winter. Frequency of droughts and floods will increase at a large scale. Threat to human health will increase due to changed ranges of disease vectors and water borne vectors.
- Changes in sea level: rise in temperature will raise sea level due to thermal expansion of sea water, melting of glaciers and Greenland ice sheet. There is danger of submersion of large area as one third of human population lives within 60 km of coastline.
- Effects on range of species: many tree species and others that are sensitive to temperature will die out resulting in conversion of forests into scrub vegetation.
