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Environmental pollution
Environmental pollution is the contamination of environment which causes discomfort, instability, disorder and leaves harmful impact on physical system and on living organism. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances, or energy, such as noise, heat, or light energy. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels.
With the increasing awareness day by day about the environmental degradation and pollution, the field of ecology has become an entirety in itself. The pace with which this stream of environmental science has progressed has invented a lot of newer terms with meanings totally unrelated to the common words. Ecology is all about how environment is maintained, degrades, and destroyed by human beings and the various harmful effects that come associated with the ecological imbalance. The gravity of this ecological imbalance has been well understood by the ecologists, one of the consequences of this is the emergence of newer terminologies in the science of ecology.
There are many types of pollution which is listed below:
Air pollution: Air pollution is the human introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the environment. Air pollution is often identified with major stationary sources, but the greatest source of emissions is mobile sources, mainly automobiles.
Water pollution: Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater caused by human activities, which can be harmful to organisms and plants which live in these water bodies. Water pollution has many causes and characteristics. The primary sources of water pollution are generally grouped into two categories based on their point of origin. Point-source pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway through a discrete "point source". The second primary category, non-point source pollution, refers to contamination that, as its name suggests, does not originate from a single discrete source.
Soil contamination: This type of contamination typically arises from the rupture of underground storage tanks, application of pesticides, and percolation of contaminated surface water to subsurface strata, oil and fuel dumping, leaching of wastes from landfills or direct discharge of industrial wastes to the soil. There is a very large set of health consequences from exposure to soil contamination depending on pollutant type, pathway of attack and vulnerability of the exposed population.
Radioactive contamination: when an uncontrolled distribution of radioactive material is given in the environment is called radioactive contamination. This distribution is also given accidentally or slowly through any process which uses radioactive matters. The biological effects of internally deposited radionuclides depend greatly on the activity and the biodistribution and removal rates of the radionuclide, which in turn depends on its chemical form. The biological effects may also depend on the chemical toxicity of the deposited material, independent of its radioactivity.
Noise pollution: Displeasing human- or machine-created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life is known as noise pollution. The source of most noise worldwide is transportation systems, motor vehicle noise, but also including aircraft noise and rail noise. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise pollution. This unwanted sound can damage physiological and psychological health. Noise pollution can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects.
Light pollution: Light pollution, also known as photopollution or luminous pollution, is excess or obtrusive light created mainly by humans. Light pollution can be construed to fall into two main branches: annoying light that intrudes on an otherwise natural or low light setting and excessive light, generally indoors, that leads to worker discomfort and adverse health effects.
Visual pollution: Visual pollution is the term given to unattractive or unnatural visual elements of a vista, a landscape, or any other thing that a person might not want to look at. Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue, referring to the impacts of pollution that impair one's ability to enjoy a vista or view.
Thermal pollution: Thermal pollution is a temperature change in natural bodies of water caused by human influence. The temperature change can be upwards or downwards. Thermal pollution may also increase the metabolic rate of aquatic animals, as enzyme activity, resulting in these organisms consuming more food in a shorter time than if their environment were not changed. Releases of unnaturally cold water from reservoirs can dramatically change the fish and macro invertebrate fauna of rivers, and reduce river productivity.
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