Each and every human being in the planet are directly or indirectly polluting the environment in order to meet their daily needs, even though everyone is more concerned regarding the preservation of the environment.Honestly, as an environmental student we are raising our voice against industrialization, deforestation, air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination and so on, but we didn’t realize that the root cause of the pollution problems are creating by us. By analysing our daily activities it is damn clear that we are personally contributing to problems which is harmful to the environment.
Some of the pollution problems caused by our day by day activities is depicted below,Use of CarOur daily litterHousehold appliancesUse of Car:In our lives, we travel from one place to another for a great variety of reasons. That reasons intended us to believe that owning a car is a birth-right.We accept that, often use of a car has more advantages as well as disadvantages.
It will reduce the time of travelling, safe and secure mode of transportation even in the worst weather conditions. While comparing the advantages and dis advantages, the disadvantages will be dominant among all its beneficial uses.It is very hard to believe that second by seconds we are feeding the environment by means of toxic pollutants and gases which is exhausted from our own cars. The usage of motor vehicles is a major source of smog forming air pollutants. The emissions from the vehicles are as a result of combustion and evaporation of fuel. When the fuel in a vehicle is burned, pollutants such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, total nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter are emitted. Air pollution caused by the emission of the above mentioned pollutants leads to severe environmental hazards such as acid rain, global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, and are leading causes of climate change. All over the world is facing great concern about the climate problems such as excessive flooding, droughts etc. For an instance, the state of Kerala (where I belong to) faces the worst flood in nearly a century. In that over 483 people died and about a million people are evacuated. This recent incident depicts how the environment is affected by human activities and how they are reacting. As a fact that the motor vehicles are not only creating air pollution but also leads to different types of pollution that adversely affect the quality of soil and water.The fuel leakage from the car, dumbing of damaged parts of vehicles, and waste oils to the soil will cause the contamination of the soil and leads to the loss of fertility of the soil.The dumbing of damaged parts of vehicles and waste oil to the nearby by water bodies affect the aquatic life and affect the quality of the water leads to severe water pollution.Our daily litter:The everyday garbage releasing from our houses consists of trashes and household toxic substances that are improperly disposed of on land or water. The disposal of litter may me intentional or unintentional, small or large, will cause drastic environmental effects for years to come. While carelessly tossing an item from our window or the other way someone is doing, consider the impact that we are doing to the environment by recycling, reusing, and disposal of wastes in a proper manner.Land Litter:Cigarette butts, plastic bags, old tires, fast food wrappers and plastic and glass bottles are comes in all types and is not hard to spot. It can cause vehicle accidents and injuries, smother plants, start fires and harm or kill animals. It also attracts rats and harmful bacteria.More over the household toxic substances and garbage’s released out of house and gets dumbed as landfills which generate methane, a highly inflammable gas and cause severe soil problems like contamination of soil. Methane can cause explosive compounds on reacting with the air, and leads to air pollution and cause health issues to humans as well as animals and leads to global warming, climate change etc.Contaminated Groundwater:One of the major concern regarding the improper and illegal dumping of garbage not only cause soil and air pollution but also it will drastically affect the ground water system. Household toxic substances, chemicals, improper dumbing and tobacco products can sweep into ground water and affect the water quality of the people, especially who rely on the wells. Every living being in the planet need clean water to survive, including humans, animals, plants etc. Litter can also clog storm-water drains and cause flooding. While disposing the food scraps and other wastes to the water bodies improperly leads to increase in algal blooms in water, and it will reduce the amount of available oxygen for aquatic life.Household appliances and products:The household appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, kitchen stoves etc. cause severe environmental problems. The carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide emitted from the above listed home appliances leads to air pollution and indirectly leads to other environmental hazards such as acid rain, global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, and are leading causes of climate change. Environment Types of ActivitySite Preparation Reservoir Dam structure Power transmissionAtmosphere Vehicular movement and the use of heavy mechanical equipment’s which are needed for site preparation (drilling, tunnelling, and digging) causes impacts as noise, dust and vibration in the surroundings and release toxic air pollutants(NOX , CO2, CO, Methane etc.) No significant impacts Impact on the quality of the air at the phase of construction by means of emission of toxic pollutants including dusts. Exhausted air pollutants from machineries and vehicles during the power transmission cause air pollution. HydrosphereAdversely affect the hydrology of the streams, rivers and lake.Changes to water quality.Acidification of regional water bodies.Impacts of tailing.Depletion of nutrientsChanges in dissolved oxygen leveletc.Impact the upstream and downstream flow of the water from its sources.Water quality and physical changesEffects of impoundmentFlooding due to the failure of dam structure.Construction of transmission lines and substation near water bodies leads to contamination and exhaustion.Lithosphere Loss of vegetation (flora and fauna)Forest depletion No significant impacts Loss of vegetationSoil erosion Loss of vegetation, Soil erosion, creeps, formation of gullies and swamps during the installation of transmission towers. Human impact Noise and air pollution due to the construction of site.Safety concerns due to digging and drilling activities.Loss of habitat. Migration of humans due to air, noise, water and soil pollutions.In case of flooding cause the destruction of human life and properties The house hold products such as shampoo, hair spray, perfume, air fresheners, cleaning sprays, laundry detergents etc. are also involved in air pollution, soil contamination and water pollution. These unavoidable home appliances and products also contributed as much as the fuel did to the production of ozone and fine particles.Module 4-04Environment Types of ActivitySite Preparation Reservoir Dam structure Power transmissionHydrosphere Adversely affect the hydrology of the streams, rivers and lake.Changes to water quality.Acidification of regional water bodies.Impacts of tailing.Depletion of nutrientsChanges in dissolved oxygen leveletc.Impact the upstream and downstream flow of the water from its sources.Water quality and physical changesEffects of impoundmentFlooding due to the failure of dam structure.Construction of transmission lines and substation near water bodies leads to contamination and exhaustion.BiosphereNoise and air pollution due to the construction of site affects all living organisms including humans.Safety concerns due to digging and drilling activities.Loss of habitat. Impact on fish and their migration. Migration of humans due to air, noise, water and soil pollutions.In case of flooding cause the destruction of all living organisms especially human life and their properties Impact to birdsCollision with towers and wiresElectric shock through excrements when sitting over an insulator chainLithosphere Loss of vegetation (flora and fauna)Forest depletion No significant impacts Loss of vegetationSoil erosion Loss of vegetation, Soil erosion, creeps, formation of gullies and swamps during the installation of transmission towers. Atmosphere Vehicular movement and the use of heavy mechanical equipment’s which are needed for site preparation (drilling, tunnelling, and digging) causes impacts as noise, dust and vibration in the surroundings and release toxic air pollutants(NOX , CO2, CO, Methane etc.) No significant impacts Impact on the quality of the air at the phase of construction by means of emission of toxic pollutants including dusts. Exhausted air pollutants from machineries and vehicles during the power transmission cause air pollution. Module 01-03As per our point of view, Sustainable development is simply long term development. It is the development where the means and resources are used but also left for the future generation. The definition of sustainable development as from the report of the Brundtland Commission (1987 AD) The development process that aims to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs is called sustainable development.”Earths human population growth gets an advantage of sustainable development, which means such development which is actually does not deplete the Earth’s Resources. While considering some examples of sustainable development, i.e. several renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to generate electricity. Solar Energy will never deplete whether human use it or not. Similar case with wind energy; it would not deplete if you use it to convert into Electricity. Both Sun and Wind remain available as its production not depend upon human consumption and utilization. Therefore it gives opportunity to the human to go for such natural resource which are not being extracted from ores or mines having capacity to decrease upon consumption.Therefore we can say that sustainable development help Earth’s human population to be on surplus sides in term of resources.More over there is a flip side of population growth that will adversely affect the environmental sustainability,By increasing the population the more human requires more natural resources, this will cause a demand of natural resources that is unsustainable. In general, presently we are experiencing a human overpopulation crisis. The human overpopulation can be detrimental to the environment when natural resources are overused to the point that using those resources becomes unsustainable. As human overpopulation continues we will have a long list of effects including,Degradation of the EnvironmentDepletion of Natural ResourcesHigher Cost of LivingRise in UnemploymentConflicts and WarsAnd much moreAs a conclusion for this topic, the increased demand from increasing population will always place an increasing stress on the resource requirements. If resource development or efficiency of use cannot keep up with the fundamental population increase, a sustainable ecosystem cannot be attained. In a meanwhile, by means of sustainable development will help the upcoming population to survive in this world by benefiting the use sustainable resources.