Pollution is the process by which harmful substances (called pollutants) are released into the natural environment. The list of pollutants includes volcanic ash, trash, chemicals released by industries, smoke, plastics, etc. With the advancement of technology and with new inventions, the lives of people have been made easier, but the irony is that these eventually end up polluting the atmosphere, thereby becoming a major threat to all living things which are a part of planet Earth.

Types of Pollution

The major types of pollution include air pollution, water pollution and land pollution. Air pollution is the contamination of the atmosphere mainly due to smoke from vehicles, factories and forest fires. Water gets polluted when toxic substances like chemicals and plastic waste are discharged into the water bodies, and the process by which accumulated solid and liquid waste contaminate the soil and groundwater are referred to as land pollution.

All of them affect the Earth’s lifespan to a great extent because they tamper with the normal and healthy conditions of the Earth’s environment, which in turn questions the scope of survival of all its inhabitants.

Causes

Environmental pollution is caused as a result of man’s activities in his attempt to construct a developed and technologically advanced world for himself. Some of the causes are:

• Discharge of chemical waste
• Plastic waste
• Mining
• Burning of fossil fuels
• Forest fires
• Transportation
• Use of machinery that emits large amounts of carbon compounds
• Burning of Garbage
• Smoke released from factories and industries
• Oil spills
• Marine dumping
• Sewage disposal
• Fertilisers and pesticides
• Radioactive waste

Effects

Environmental pollution affects the Earth to an extent that we cannot imagine. Human beings have the habit of taking things for granted. They do not realise the seriousness of their actions until they witness the worst-case scenarios. It is only then that they start thinking about doing something to stop the effects of pollution but little do they know that most of it are irreversible. Pollution of air, water and land pose a serious threat to the well-being of every little thing that inhabit the Earth.

Effects of pollution include:

• Global warming
• Depletion of the ozone layer
• Degradation of the environment
• Infertility of land
• Increased risk on human health, which includes allergies, respiratory diseases, heart attack, cancer, etc.
• Animal health
• Acid rain
• Climate change

It is high time human beings realised that if they do not act immediately, there would not be anything left for their future generations, not even what little they had. Measures to control pollution should be put into effect as soon as possible if they need a planet to call their own.