Is there a solution to pollution?. Review on General Thoughts on Environmental Pollution

WikiPedia defines Environment as " a complex of surrounding circumstances, conditions, or influences in which a thing is situated or is developed." It aslo classifies environment into:

1. Natural Environment - that deals with all life and non-living things as they exist on Earth;

   
   




2. Social environment - refering to the culture that individuals live in; and

   
   




3. Artificial Environment - refering to man made surroundings.

   
   

In this review I would limit myself to the Natural environment and to the Artificial environment as and when it interferes with the former.

I would not talk much about the history of our planet and how our natural resources came into existance, assuming that all of us paid attention to it in school.

Nature has it own ways to treat waste and regenerate fresh life. Trees play a vital role in the same. Remember the CO2 and O2 generation cycle?. The problem starts when we accelerate waste generation expecting nature to step up its regeneration process too.

The industrial revolution in the early 20th century brought with it a chnage to the way we live. Small and large manufacturing units gave rise to the number of chimmneys pumping burnet and semi-burnt gasses into our atmosphere. The liquid effluents were drained directly into nearby streams or rivers, with little or no treatment. Our atmosphers and water channels were considered to have infinite capacity to hande the atrocities dishes out by us. This is where we went wrong at the very start. People and organisations did start waking up to the therst, but what has been done was too less and too late.

In lesser corrupt nations, waste treatment is better implemented, while in the sub-continent, factory owners still get away by bribing government official and their pawns.

Nuclear fules are another source of soil and water pollution. We are happy to run our gadgets on the powergenerated by Nuclear fules, but the side effect of its disposal in unknown to most of us. There are international laws governing how and where to deposit nuclear waste so that the damage caused is minimal. Radioactivity can cause deadly diseases like cancer. Lot os countries dispose nuclear waste in deep seas. The fish are exposed to real danger and it has a high likelyhood to reach those who consume fish dug out of the ocean. So that, s how the circle is completed.

Our recent observations about major floods in Orissa, hurrinaces in Florida and incessant rains in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore indicate that the forces of nature are getting stronger than earlier. It does have a causal realtionship with human activities.

Deforestation is changing the landsacpe of our plannet. The distribution of annual rainfall is dependant on the location and density of forests. As we work towards reducing the green cover, the distribution of clouds and rainfall is disturbed as well, thus resulting in too much rainfall at some places, and to little at others.

The increase in vehicular traffic is another cause of environmental pollution. People residing in urban areas are more prone to breathing ailments and diseases like tuberculosis. Emission norms, if strictly followed, can help a bit, but again in a country like India, neither are we so responsible, nor is the enforcement done well enough. A 100 re bribe to the local mamu can get one scott free, in case she is found driving a car with emissions higher than norms.

Equipment like Refrigerators, Air-conditioners, DG sets etc contribute in their own ways. The depletion in the ozone layer(Over Canada and over Australia) is attributed to the Chloro-Flouro Carbons(CFC), a major constituent in the emissions from the equipment mentioned above. Ozone layer protects us from the Ultra Voilet rays from the Sun, which in turn can cause skin cancer.

Earth is the only plannet that is known to support life as we know it.Having said all that, if we look at a higher level we can see that we have been able to drastically change the state of our Planet in the last 100 or so years, as it had never been done before. We are fast undoing what nature did for us in those millions of years. It is time when we though of slowing this down and then finding better ways to live without destroying our environment at that pace.

Various organizations and Environmentalists have been working towards making the ends meet, but the same will not be possible without proper realisation and sincere efforts by common people like you and me. I have started my bit, have you? Wiil we have a solution to pollution?

PS.

1.There are some very good suggestions on how we as common people can help mentioned in indian1969's review on the same topic.

2.(Added on 10th May'07) Do also read comments by sonali.prabhu and thakurman in the comments section, as there are some very useful inputs added by them. I did miss out covering niose pollution as pointed out by Hakoonamatata in comments.