AIR POLLUTION.

 Air pollution is caused by harmful materials into the environment; it can be natural as in the case of volcanic activity which spews ashes and gases into the environment, or man made.

Polluted air makes people eyes burn and cause difficulty in breathing and can also lead to lung cancer.

Volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide can kill people in the nearby vicinity and make the soil infertile for years.  In 1986 a toxic cloud developed on account of a volcano in Cameroon. As the cloud moved it killed birds and other organisms that it swept by. It also killed thousands of cattle and 1700 people.

However, the maximum amount of pollution is caused by burning of fossil fuels like Petro products and coal. Vehicles and factories produce gases like Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Sulfur Dioxide and other hydrocarbons. These chemicals react with air to produce smog or haze. Smog makes breathing difficult.

When Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide mix with moisture, they turn into acids and fall as rain. Acid rain can kill all the trees in a forest and makes lakes acidic where fish would find it difficult to live. In Sweden acid rain has created thousands of dead lakes where fish no longer live. Our Taj Mahal too was once gleaming white but acid rain has made it pale.

Greenhouse gases are another source of strong air pollution. Carbon Dioxide and Methane are known as Greenhouse gases. They occur naturally and are essential for life as they absorb sunlight reflected from the earth preventing it from escaping it into space.  They tarp the reflected sunlight and therefore make the earth warm enough for people and animals to live on. This is called the Greenhouse effect.

Humans’ burn fossil fuel and the forest trees increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has enhanced the greenhouse effect and the global temperatures are warming up. This warming up has caused the ice sheets and glaciers to melt causing the sea level to rise 2 mm per year. With time the coastal regions would therefore be flooded. This warming may also more severe storms and droughts and flooding as well.

Global warming also increases ocean acidification as it absorbs more of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through rain as well as rivers. As ocean acidification increases it becomes more difficult for some life forms to survive there.  

The CFC’s or Chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration damage the Ozone layer in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The Ozone layer absorbs the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. If that filters through it can pose serious problems for humans as well as animals causing skin cancer, eye disease and other illness. In the 1980’s scientists have noticed that the Ozone layer over Antarctica is thinning. Australia lies at the edge of this hole and later most of the countries have cut down the usage of CFC’s considerably.