Marine pollution also hits our belly

I am not kidding, am serious. Marine pollution does hit our belly. Yeah you are right it disturbs our digestive system if we eat sea food mainly fish, prawns, shrimps and lobsters caught from the polluted salt water. Therefore, this type of pollution should not be treated simply as an issue of the fish folk. It is our issue because whatever type of pollution exists in this world, we the human beings have to suffer first and after that our fragile environment and the ecosystem receive hit.

What is marine pollution?

Marine pollution means any type of contamination in all types of slat water including that of sea and ocean owing to release of various types of solid, liquid and even gaseous matter from identifiable sources like civic waste, industrial effluent, oil spill from ships or unidentifiable sources like dust and plastic particles with the wind pressure etc.

Climate Change and Prostitution

Is there any nexus between the climate change and the prostitution? What the heck of this linkage! You might be thinking like this. But wait, wait a minute; there is indeed a direct relationship between both of them. Graver the climate change, higher the rate of conversion into sex workers; it does not happen happily but owing to certain compulsions. Let me make you recall some past memories.

Sex workers protest to green leaders

Four years back a mega conference was held in Copenhagen on the issue of the climate change. The mayor of the city restricted the hotels not to offer any sort of physical entertainment to the delegates of the conference. What was the end result? In extreme protest most of the Danish sex workers offered free service of sexual pleasure to all the delegates on the condition the hotel - where they were staying - just show the restriction order issued by the Copenhagen mayor to prove before the world they were debarred from earning their livelihood through the oldest profession of the world. Wasn’t it obstacle to the employment-based cultural heritage simultaneously? We all know that prostitution is one of the oldest professions of the world.

Atmospheric pollution and our kids

It was rightly said by someone that if you can’t give clean air to breathe to your kids, the fortunes and fortunes for them would be insufficient to make them happier and healthier. We in our whole life put our every effort to raise our standard of living and save a lot to leave for our kids but forget the bitter reality of leaving behind a more polluted world for our coming generation to keep ailing in it.

The atmospheric pollution is the main hurdle to let us breathe clean air because it does not leave a modicum of air free from pollutants. When various gases harmful for the consumption of human and other living beings exceed in quantity in ambient air it is called the atmospheric pollution. We can avoid several types of pollution by adopting different precautionary measures but we can’t keep ourselves safe from the polluted air because our very survival is almost impossible without the air – clean or polluted – we have to breathe.

Types of air pollutants

There are two types of air pollutants which contaminate the air. One is primary air pollutants comprising of sulphur dioxide (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) which are generated as a result of any kind of combustion and mostly being emitted by vehicles and industries. Apart from them volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter, toxic metals particles, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia and odour if found in the air more than the permissible limit will be quite harmful for both living beings and environment. All of these elements are called primary pollutants.

The secondary air pollutants are particulate matter formed from gaseous primary pollutants and compounds in photochemical smog, ground level ozone (O3) formed from NOx and VOCs, peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) - generated from NOx and VOCs and various minor pollutants mostly created from indoor pollution during the process of burning of fireplace and smoke emission during the cooking.

Causes of atmospheric pollution

Most of the atmospheric pollution is the result of the vehicular and industrial emissions if released in excess of prescribed limits as set under environmental quality standards. Every country has its own set of air quality standards but as we know the ambient air is not the property of any country nor has it any specific culture. Its immune system is also uniform across the world. Therefore, most of the air quality standards of every country of the world are same. Unfortunately many countries especially the poor ones have yet to develop their own air quality standards and still following those set by global organisations like World Health Organisation.

Effects of atmospheric pollution

When we relate the prevailing atmospheric pollution with our coming generations especially with our own kids our goose bumps raise up unintentionally. The harms of this menace which we keep on listening and watching on media are enough to tell how catastrophic it would further become if we don’t take action to control it immediately.

This is among few of those types of pollution which can easily migrate from one place to another. Air contaminants easily move with the wind to miles and miles because of their lighter weight and can become danger for those who actually are not responsible of their creation. Therefore, all the countries have to not only adopt measures at national level but also think globally to mitigate the contaminated air emissions to keep the air quality up to a breathable level.

How to control atmospheric pollution?

At least each country of the world has to take following actions to curb this menace from further expansion:

• Legislate to control air pollution, implement the green laws strictly and punish the air polluters without any discrimination
• During the whole process of air quality control, take on board all stakeholders especially industrialists and vehicles owners to develop in them a sense of ownership for the ambient air.
• “Air around us is our personal property” should be made a global slogan and may be publicised massively.
• Incentives must be offered in shape of easy financing and tax exemptions to those industries which keep emissions within the permissible limits.
• Above all enhance in our kids importance of air quality for our health so that when they become vehicle owners and industrialists in future government don’t have to apply laws over them as they will already be taking care of our air environment. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; Confused?

You might have listened several times the three ways to reduce solid waste and might have been impressed to observe their rhythmic phonic but hardly have understood its real spirit because such words have become quite buzzword in our social sector.

If we talk about environment we simply express concerns over rising environmental degradation, if we talk about human rights we just be alarmed over their flagrant violations and when we discuss the wave of terrorism we just start counting the cost of terror all around the world. Instead of going to the root cause of a malady and do something practical for its eradication we mostly pay lip service to its consequences or look to others for their solution. How apathetic we are getting since we adopt a lavish and luxurious life style after the rapid advancement in our standard of living owing to the galloping development in science and technology.

About Air Pollution

Smoke-emitting vehicles plying on roads, chimneys of factories marring the air quality, heaps of garbage being openly burnt on road sides in backward countries, unrestrained burning of fossil fuels and indoor emissions owing to badly planned structure of homes has deprived us of the clean air to breath. According to a latest survey, nearly 140 million people all around the world are forced to breathe polluted air because of living in an atmosphere below the minimum level of air quality standards. We may be part of this hapless lot of the people.

What is air pollution?

Air pollution is contamination of air by the excess of various gases in the atmosphere. Air should have a moderate quantity of various gases and some of them are very essential to support the life like oxygen but the excess quantity of few of them is bad and in some cases worst for both the air quality of the environment and for the life of humans, animals and plants as well. It is generally said that many types of pollutions can be avoided for the time being or one can save oneself from their hazards but if there is pollution in the air you don’t have any other option but to inhale it for your very survival. If we don’t breathe the polluted air obviously we won’t have this much resources and a luxurious lifestyle to keep an oxygen bag on our back all the time full of clean air to inhale clean air.

What are the air pollutants?

There are three types of air pollutants.

Criteria air pollutants: These pollutants can be regulated with mitigation efforts and are the basic standard to evaluate the quality of air. Most important of them are carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particles and sulfur dioxide.

Air toxics: These are the hazardous gases found in air in low concentration but are persistent enough to harm the environment and negatively impact the human, animal and plant life. Most of the air toxics are the result of motor vehicle emissions, solid fuel combustion, industrial emissions, and materials such as paints and adhesives in new buildings. Main hazardous gases under this category are: benzene, toluene, xylenes, formaldehyde and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

Biological air pollutants: These pollutants are the outcome of the human activities. These are mostly produced by microbiological contamination like life remains of living beings including humans, animals and mainly insects which contaminate the air with emissions of smell and bacteria.

What are the sources of the air pollution?

The main sources of air pollution are:

Silencer of vehicles: One of the deadliest gases which comes out of the silencer of the vehicle is carbon mono oxide which is a slow poison if persists in the air for a long time. It is said that in a closed room if .05 per cent carbon mono oxide is present in the overall air of that room the living being staying there may die very shortly.

Another emission is hydrocarbon which is not harmful in itself but if react with sunlight may convert into myriad of harmful chemicals causing various respiratory diseases. Two other gases in vehicular emissions are oxides of nitrogen and oxides of sulphur both have potential to bring on various diseases pertaining to air, nose, eyes and throat.

If adulterated fuel is used in vehicles as is being done in most of the developing countries the situation becomes more alarming. Vehicles with adulterated fuel also emit lead which if inhaled by human folk mixes in their blood and cause various serious and lethal diseases related to heart and brain.

Chimney of industries: Industries emit various types of gases which vary from industry to industry depending upon the nature of their manufacturing process. Most dangerous of them is methane which already played havoc once in an Indian city Bhopal where an industry accidentally emitted large amount of methane owing to lack of environment and safety standards causing thousands of deaths and leaving thousands of thousands physically and mentally impaired. Its causes can still be observed there where you can find so many people with scars on skin and other physical disorders.

Coal-fired power plants are one of the biggest sources of air pollution all around the world because they emit carbon dioxide in huge quantity far beyond the permissible limits.

Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone, and fluorinated gases (hydrofluorocarbons [HFCs], perfluorocarbons [PFCs], and sulfur hexafluoride [SF6]) are major green house gases (GHG) which trap temperature in atmosphere. Their emissions by industries in excess quantity cause climate change which depletes our natural resources most importantly our precious glaciers.

What are the effects of the air pollution?

The effects of air pollution are horrendous.

• It aggravates respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
• It severely impacts the functioning of lungs to breathe properly.
• It weakens our respiratory system with high vulnerability.
• It not only affects our nervous system but also lowers our IQ level.
• It causes cancer and premature death.

How to control the air pollution?

All of us have to play our role to control the air pollution. Pointing fingers at each other is so easy but the need of the hour is to control this menace at its source to hand over this world to our kids with an air quality not harmful for their breathing.

Role of the government: There are two pipes if regulated properly may help mitigate air pollution. One is the silencer of the vehicle and the other one is the chimney of the factory. Both can be regulated through green laws of every country and government can play an effective role to implement these laws properly. For this purpose all the governments have to admit that there is no alternate to control the air pollution if we really want to save the air quality from further degradation. 

Role of the communities: Communities have stronger role to play for this cause because whatever they would do, it would be purely voluntary and on the call of their conscience. Vehicle owners should maintain their vehicles properly and keep its silencer without any flaw to emit less. Similarly industrialists should adopt a proper environment, health and safety plan in their industries to keep their emissions within permissible limits. 

Environment and Pollution

Environment supports life and pollution does so death. In early seventies a few people of each nation were worry about environmental degradation because machine had not dominated the activities of life those days and it done so today. Half of the work which is being done by machines now was done manually in those golden times when ethical values and social life was enviable and everything was not mechanical. Care, love, sympathy was in abundance those days. But thanks to greed for wealth that today we have to search the human feelings from the mechanical process of the life. In this process our environment has also been severely hit by pollution the most deadly outcome of our rampant progress and development in every field.

Technologically most parts of the world are so civilized in present times but ethically and morally we are bankrupt. We are losing natural beauty of the environment but simultaneously are very proud of our achievements in science and technology. Isn’t it counterproductive that our every achievement is being offset by the hazards of pollution impacting our life and well being? Why do humans work day and night to spend a happy life without diseases and natural stress or a life full of machines but devoid of any kind of true rejoicing?

About Pollution

Have you ever seen a person in your whole life talking in favour of pollution or outright opposing the pollution control that is done for the cause of better environment? Even did you ever hear or watch a person who damn care the menace of pollution.

We all very vehemently talk against pollution, express grave concerns on its rise, strongly demand for its abatement, slam our leaders on not saving our environment but practically what we do. Maximum we give a meagre amount for the cause of pollution control to a green outfit or join a walk that too once in a year or watch a talk show on hazards of pollution where two or three so-called champions of environment beat about the bush and wind up the debate with lot of hollow pledges. In our daily life how much change we observe in our individual and collective behaviours regarding the protection of environment from the menace of pollution. In backward countries there is no change in both the behaviours and in developed countries individually there is lot of sense of responsibility in people but collectively environment is yet to get place in priority list of the most of the rich countries.