We are polluting ourselves
By Dana Jansen
Pollution. We all know what it is. It is the introduction of any kind of contaminant into an environment that can’t support the contaminant and results in the environment becoming unstable or receiving harm, discomfort or disorder. Pollution is generally classified as water, air or soil contamination.
These days everything we do can be seen as pollution. There are so many advertisements on television, the radio and on posters that draw our attention to things like littering and how the small things affect the world in a big way.
A classic example is the plastic that is used to hold cans together. These plastic rings, when washed into the ocean, lakes or rivers, can be fatal for fish and small creatures. They can get their heads or other limbs stuck in them. More recently these have been replaced with cardboard, but there are still many places which use the plastic.
Pollution is not just the smoke and pollution most people expect. It can be any number of things in excess amounts: noise, heat, light, energy, visual, thermal, or radioactive substances, littering, chemicals and many other things can be described as pollutants. However these elements are all safe in naturally occurring amounts.
According to Top-10-List the most polluted places in the world are
- Beijing, China
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Cairo, Egypt
- Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Moscow, Russia
- New Delhi, India
- Linfen, China
- Dzerzhinsk, Russia
We can all do our bit to help the environment in this ever growing world. We need everyone to be involved. We can help by simply driving economical cars that use cleaner fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol, these help to reduce emissions released in to the atmosphere which cause pollution. Planting trees helps to reduce the carbon dioxide gases in the air.
It is up to the adults to set an example for children. An easy lesson to start with is to teach recycling. Recycling is especially important because it saves new resources from being harvested and wasted.
The picture displayed shows a lake I found when I was out driving not long ago. There were no aquatic birds and little living plant matter. The water was a horrible green. There was rubbish floating all through it. I looked at it and thought how nice it must have been long ago. Bustling with life I’m sure. Now it seems like a desolate wasteland of filthy water and rubbish. If you enjoy seeing clean lakes with wildlife living happily on and around it, does this image make you wonder what will happen to the wildlife when all our lakes end up like this?
Have a think about how you are polluting our world. We need it to survive in the future. Don’t you think it’s about time we started taking care of it?
