Why the air is contaminated

The air pollution It can be defined as the Alteration of the composition of gases suspended in the atmosphere. These polluting gases are, for example, carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur oxides (sox) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) among others. All of them affect our health, for example with respiratory problems, but also contribute to the grievance of climate change and the ozone layer hole, thus affecting the environment and its ecosystems. Thus, normally, these new components are harmful to the health of living beings and they come, mostly, activities carried out by humans, such as the use of cars or industrialization.

The contamination of our atmosphere is directly linked to the technological and industrial development advances that humans have been doing mainly in the last century. That is why, in the last 150 years, a greater amount of emissions have been issued to the atmosphere than those corresponding to the rest of our civilization.

Obviously, not all regions produce the same emissions, so gases will not be concentrated in the same way. On the one hand, there may be areas located with a greater concentration of pollutants, which form an immense polluting cloud and where there are great difficulties to breathe and, on the other hand, there will be areas in which due to lack of industrial structures or because they are far from cities and urban nuclei, they have contamination levels lower than the country’s average. These differences between regions can be economic incentives for the poorest countries, that is, that some of the most polluting and richer countries (China, USA, Russia, Japan, etc.) can pay to exceed their emissions in exchange for other countries to cover their annual quota. This process is commonly called Carbon market.

Pollutant emissions to our atmosphere may be produced by anthropic reasons, that is, by Causes that are actions of the human beingor by Natural causes. In the latter case, the emissions of harmful gases that are produced, although they are important, are not the main cause by which the air quality of our atmosphere is decreasing at times.

Below are the main causes of air or atmospheric pollution:

Industries

Most industrial activities emit substances harmful to our health and that of the environment. The smoke emissions emanating from industries, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides, ozone (O3) or methane (CH4), cause the quality of the air we breathe decreases considerably. Depending on the industrial activity carried out (chemistry, textile, etc.), different concentrations of these harmful gases will be issued. In some cases, depending on the nature and composition of each contaminant, these can be mixed and react to each other, causing even more dangerous substances.

A drastic example of industrial pollution is the one that happened in England in December 1952, called Smog, when the entire city of London and its surroundings were exposed to a large cloud of black smoke that covered the sky. During those days, the amount of respiratory diseases increased dramatically, killing more than 10,000 people in a few days. This phenomenon, in addition to being harmful to humans, seriously affected the environment and its fauna and flora, producing their deaths or physiological changes in them.

Cars and transports that use fossil fuels

The use of fuels such as gasoline or diesel to move with our usual means of transport, is increasing. These emissions, produce pollutant substances such as monoxide and carbon dioxide (CO and CO2), nitrogen oxides and in less quantity, sulfur dioxide (SO2).

This process turns out to be a serious problem, especially in very populated cities, since because of the large number of cars that circulate every day and the withholdings that are formed, an immense cloud of pollution is created that can last several days. This process is aggravated if cars and motorcycles that are used are over ten years old, so prevention measures have begun to regulate the amount of cars that enter into these large cities.

In order to start remedying this problem, in these last ten years, electric or hybrid cars have begun to be launched. This has been done mainly for two reasons; to pollute less and to stop depending on fuels that are a limited resource and will end up exhausting in the next 30 years.

There are other types of pollution that, like those mentioned above, are produced by the human being. They are, for example, garbage burning, evaporation of certain herbicides and pesticides, mining extractions or chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).

Natural causes of air pollution

But there is also a part of the Air pollution produced naturallythat is, by the same environment. A good example are volcanic eruptions or forest fires. The gases that are emitted in these processes, it is true that they contaminate the air, but neither with a good piece reach the damage and pollution that humans do with the poor management of the resources we have.

In addition, actions such as deforestation forests do not help our atmosphere, naturally to be recovering little by little. The plants and trees that surround us have a fundamental role in the renewal of the air we breathe, since they capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and make it oxygen (O2) that we breathe.

It could be said, then, that the air of our atmosphere is mainly contaminated by our fault, and we also do not allow it to be renewed naturally.

Air pollution leads to the environment and its fauna and flora suffering serious consequences. Next, the main consequences of air pollution.

Climate change and greenhouse effect

Because of the pollutants that we emit to our atmosphere, a layer of gases in our atmosphere is being created that prevents the sun’s rays from entering, can come out in the same way. That is, these heat rays are retained on planet Earth and cause it to warm more and more at times, what we know as a greenhouse effect. This has serious consequences for the flora and fauna of our environment, since it implies that they must adapt how they can to this temperature rise or die. A good example is the displacement of many species, both vegetable and animal, at higher altitudes to live.

This increase in temperatures, in the long term will imply that our stations and temperatures are increasingly irregular, and it will be increasingly difficult for living beings to adapt to this climate change.

Diseases

Every day there are more cases of respiratory, cardiovascular and even dermatological problems directly related to air pollution. This implies a risk in the health of humans that can even be lethal in some cases.

Plants and crops problems

The presence of more pollutants in the air, produces that plant species have more difficulties in making photosynthesis and are also exposed to a greater range of diseases and problems when growing. This implies that the productions and the quality of the crops are reduced, which will lead to the vegetable products that are increasingly difficult to obtain and raise their price.

Environmental phenomena

In addition to the problems of global warming, there are environmental factors that have also been affected by the increase in polluting gases in our atmosphere. A good example is acid rain, produced by high concentration gases such as sulfur acids, and leads to degradation immediate destruction of the environment on which it falls, in addition to being extremely harmful for living beings. Another example, already mentioned above, is that of the SMOG, a large cloud of polluting gases that is retained for some time especially on cities where there are large spikes of contamination.

In conclusion, these last two centuries have contaminated our atmosphere at levels that the planet Earth will not endure for much longer. Thus, or we begin to correct our actions and adopt new more sustainable measures, or the amount of problems that contain the pollution of our air will affect us severely and irreversibly.

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