What is pollution and
where does pollution come from?
Vocabulary
By-product: A secondary or incidental product of a manufacturing process, a side effect
Pollution: The introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment, especially the contamination of soil, water, or the atmosphere
Waste: An unusable or unwanted substance or material
Many different types of human actions result in pollution – some intentional, some accidental. Sometimes pollution occurs naturally, as in the case of volcanic ash or smoke from naturally occurring forest fires. By-products from human waste and household emissions, industrial waste, or naturally-occurring substances, like carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide - whose presence is exacerbated by human actions, can all result in the contamination of air, land, and water.
Human Waste
Human waste can be household garbage or biological waste (feces, urine). Emissions from our daily activities, such as carbon by-products from burning fossil fuels through gasoline in our cars or coal in a household furnace (activities that are said to create a “carbon footprint”), can also affect the environment.
Industrial Waste and By-products
Industrial by-products, such as mercury dumped into rivers from chemical plants or emitted into the air from coal fired power plants, are pollutants that can cause immediate harm to the environment and linger in the land and water for centuries. They can cause damage long after the original pollution occurred.
Natural Toxins
Living organisms produce all kinds of toxins that can have harmful effects on other organisms or the environment. Human activities can influence the production of toxins. For example, sewage overflows can trigger harmful algal blooms, and large amounts of carbon dioxide in the air can increase the acidification of oceans as the water absorbs the CO2.
Activities
Calculate Your Household’s Carbon Footprint (activity):
Resources
What lifestyle changes will shrink your carbon footprint the most? (reading):
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-actions-reduce-carbon-footprint
What You Can Do About Climate Change? (reading):
https://www.epa.gov/climate-change/what-you-can-do-about-climate-change