Essay on Environmental Pollution: Read these 4 essays on Environmental Pollution for school students.
Essay 1 – Short Essay on Environmental Pollution
The term pollution is derived from the Latin word pollutioneum meaning ‘make dirty’.
Rapid and unplanned industrialization, urbanization, deforestation cause the release of a variety of extraneous materials (inorganic, organic, biological or radiological) and energy into the environment in a continuous and uninterrupted manner.
When the concentration of such materials exceeds the threshold limit, the environment becomes partially or totally unsuitable for living organisms.
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This is known as environmental pollution. The concentration of the extraneous materials becomes so high that the eco-system is unable to either neutralize or disperse them and they get accumulated.
Pollution can thus be defined as ‘an undesirable change in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of air, water and soil due to anthropogenic activities, which may harmfully affect the life or create a potential health hazard to all living organisms in the biosphere’. The extraneous materials and energy that cause pollution are termed as ‘pollutants’.
Sometimes the term ‘contaminant’ is used along with ‘pollutant’. Pollutants are generally considered as substances that occur in nature in greater amount than natural abundance are caused by human activities and have a detrimental effect on all living organisms, e.g., Pb, Hg, NOx, whereas contaminants are substances which do not occur naturally but are introduced by human activities into the environment, affecting its composition. They may or may not have detrimental effect, e.g., MIC (methyl isocyanine, CH3-N=C=0). A contaminant is considered to be a pollutant only when it has any detrimental effect.
Environmental pollution is the most important agent causing environmental degradation. They have a cause-effect relationship- pollution being the cause and degradation, the effect.
Essay 2 – Long Essay on Environmental Pollution
Pollution of Environment or environmental pollution means making the environment foul.
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Our environment means the surrounding of our house where we live, the surrounding of our village where we live or the surrounding of our town or city where we live.
It our surrounding gets polluted we suffer from many kinds of disease and sickness. If our surrounding gets highly polluted, our life gets endangered.
Causes of the environmental pollution:
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Smoke rises from the fuel that we burn in our kitchens and workshops. This smoke gives rise to carbon dioxide that pollutes our environment. The smoke that rises from the motor-trucks, motor-cars and motor-cycles, give rise to carbon dioxide that pollutes the environment of our village, town and cities. The harmful gas that rises from our heaps of filth from the latrine and urinals and from the uncleaned drains, pollute our environment. The smoke that people make while they smoke cigars and cigarettes or biree and ganja, pollutes our environment. The smoke that rises from the hotels and restaurants in towns an cities, pollute the environment. The smoke that rises from the mills and factories of the industrial estates pollutes the environment. The gas that rises from the deposits of filthy waste of the mills and factories, pollute the environment. In such very many ways our environment is getting polluted.
How to eradicate the environmental pollution:
Existence of our life depends mostly and mainly on oxygen. Oxygen in the atmosphere saves our life. This oxygen is exhaled by trees. Trees consume the carbon dioxide which is fatal to our existence. Trees make the oxygen and spreads it in the air for us. As such, we should have enough number of trees in our environment to eradicate our environmental pollution.
Long time back, there were numerous trees in our environment, and small woods and forests surrounded each of our villages. At that time, there were extensive forests and jungles in our country. But the most foolish of the people, for their selfish ends, thinned away our groves, woods forests and jungles by indiscriminately cutting away the trees from them.
So we shall have to plant a large number of trees to save our environment from the fatal pollution. We should not pass stool and urine in the open. We should make scientific latrines and urinals for us. Drains and deposits of filth should not be allowed to leave gas and for this we should apply the necessary scientific method. We should pay careful attention so that our environment keeps neat and clean. Above all, we shall put stress on the a forestation of our environment.
Conclusion:
The students too, have a lot of duties for eradicating the environmental pollution. They can plant trees near their houses and in their education institutions. They can enlighten the people nearby about the danger of the environmental pollution and can encourage them to do the needful in this respect.
Essay 3 – Essay on Environmental Pollution in India
The grand industrial development, the successful Green Revolution, the transport explosion, the rapid growth of cities and haphazard management of natural resources have adversely affected environmental balance. Environmental pollution in India has increased manifold, One of the greatest problems confronting the modern civilized world is pollution, which literally means fouling the natural habitat and environment. Air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, noise pollution are some types of pollution.
Nearly 175 million hectares of land (35% of India’s total land area) is subject to serious environmental degradation. Hardly 10.12 per cent of the total area is under adequate tree cover. In fact deforestation, siltation, water, air and noise pollution, sanitation—all are threatening not only the quality of life rather the very survival of human beings.
It is doubtless that industrialization has done a great good to mankind. It has also led to urbanization. But the haphazard growth of modern cities, industrial cities, migration of rural population to the cities in search of work has created and unhealthy environment. It has given rise to overcrowding, slums, juvenile delinquency, inadequate air amenities, addiction to drugs and alcohol and crime are some results. People living in big cities no longer breathe the fresh air and see any green, open spaces. There is lot of noise pollution in big cities and it is almost impossible to get rid of this. There should be a regular check on the use of loud-speakers, indiscriminate use of horns by the motorists. Medical experts have warned that the excessive noise pollution can lead to deafness and create other health problems which can do irreversible damage to the well being of man.
Air pollution is another example of how the growth of modern industry and means of transport have played havoc with man’s environment. One of the worst agents of aerial pollution is the smoke being belched out by the chimneys of the factories and emitted by vehicles. While it cannot be totally eliminated because of the industrial expansion of the ever increasing number of motor vehicles, some measures can be taken to minimize the menace. Already enough damage has been done to human environment. Agricultural activities are yet another source of air pollution. Spraying of pesticides and insecticides, use of chemical fertilizers and manures and burning of field waste pollute the atmospheric air. Nuclear energy programme also pollutes the air. Radioactive fallouts and fluorides are very dangerous pollutants.
Water, one of the most essential needs for the survival of life on earth is being polluted to such an extent by industrial wastes that it is posing a serious threat to plant and animal life. Release of industrial wastes into river creates havoc. It is estimated that more than 500 tons of mercury enters the ocean every year as a result of dumping of wastes into rivers. Mercury concentration increases in fish, which may result in poisoning of the people and domestic animals. The same polluted water is used for irrigation and thus pollutes the food. It is unsafe for drinking, but is consumed by ignorant people thereby leading to disease and death. Now the Government is taking some interest in this neglected area by taking measures to check water pollution. In 1986 the Government launched the clean Ganga Programme and several sewage treatment plants started operating at various cities to purify the Ganga water.
India is a tropical country. It had at one time dense forests and was very rich in flora and fauna. But the rate at which the denudations of the country’s rich forest cover has been continuing it may not be left with any prest cover by the end of this century. Commercial felling of trees, over-gazing and over cultivation land .starved peasants—all these are factors that have been responsible for the shrinkage of the forest cover consequently leading to climatic changes. Destruction of forests has also led to extinction of many rare species of wild life; turned land into fallow wasteland.
So, unless everyone becomes aware of the need to save our planet from destruction, there can be no hope for mankind. In view of the increasing awareness of formidable dangers to mankind, many countries in the world have passed laws to prevent pollution. But it is hard to understand why the laws being framed by Government should vest all powers in Anti-Pollution Boards composed of salaried employees with no direct stake in the outcome of their activities, denying the victims of pollution any right. If the prompt action is not taken, the earth will soon become a graveyard and we cannot afford to be complacement in protecting and conserving our environment for ourselves and for the generations to come.
Essay 4 – Environmental Pollution and Human Population
An unprecedented increase in human population, accelerated pace of industrialization and new developments in technology have dramatically increased the anthropological influence on the environment and the life supporting systems on the earth.
Man’s impact on the environment has been very broad and complex and has often led to irreversible changes.
While geological and biological alternations of earth’s surface have been very slow, the changes introduced and/ or stimulated by man have accumulated quickly. These quick changes are often responsible for environmental pollution.
Environmental pollution is a kind of ecological crisis or ecological imbalance, which causes the unfavorable alternation of surroundings. These alternations may affect man directly or indirectly.
“Pollution is a harmful change in the natural environment caused by introduction of pollutants (chemical substances, or energy such as noise, heat or light) into the environment to such an extent that it affects human health, other living organisms, or the environment adversely.