Introduction
Pollution of the environment is one of the oldest problems in the history of civilization. Man has long been considered the environment primarily as a source of resources, seeking to achieve independence from it, to improve the conditions of its existence. While population and the scale of production was small, and very extensive natural spaces, to achieve the goals we were willing to sacrifice some of the untouched nature, exactly as some degree of purity and water. This process in our relatively closed, not unlimited world cannot continue indefinitely. For example, it is estimated that each year for every person in the world has to 8 tons of waste: 95% of them - Industrial and 5% - household (Peirce, J., 1998).
The scale of production has been steadily growing. Environmental consequences are becoming more serious and widespread, and natural space continuously reducing. Therefore, at the present level of development of the productive forces of human society activity affects the biosphere as a whole. So we put the question: what causes human industrial activity? How to prevent or eliminate its negative consequences?
Body
Expanding the scope of its activities, a human began to build instead of the natural environment - the biosphere, an artificial habitat - technosphere, which became the main source of danger for all things on earth. Occurring on accidents and disasters not only cause loss of life, but also to the destruction of the environment, its global degradation that can cause irreversible genetic changes in humans. Even in the twentieth century, human activities is so extensive that disrupt the natural functioning of the biosphere and its energy balance, formed the cycling of matter; reduced diversity of species and biological communities. The biosphere is a shell of the Earth, including both the area of distribution of living matter and the substance itself. The biosphere is the lower part of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and the whole upper part of the lithosphere of the Earth inhabited by living organisms. Biosphere is the largest ecosystem of the Earth.
Biosphere on the principle of the cycle: with virtually no waste. We use the substance of the planet, forming a huge amount of waste. In the circulation of substances included toxic compounds synthesized by man: plastics, pesticides, rodenticide, defoliants, and others. The result is the enrichment of the biosphere unusual for her poisonous compounds disrupted natural balance of chemical elements and lose their ability to cleanse it. When taking into account all types of waste amount of beneficial social product are not more than 2% of the natural resources used, and the remaining 98% goes to waste. Polluting the biosphere, man himself becomes a consumer of contaminated food products. Experts believe that 40% of all human diseases are associated with environmental degradation. There were agents alters the normal structure of genes. This is mutagens.
Environmental pollution can be divided into four main types:
Ingredient pollution is an entry into the biosphere substances, both quantitatively and qualitatively alien to her. Pollutants biosphere may be gas and vapor, liquid and solid.
Energy pollution is a noise, heat, light, radiation, electromagnetic.
Destructive pollution is deforestation, violation of watercourses, quarrying mining, road construction, soil erosion, land drainage, urbanization and others. That is, representing a change of landscapes and ecological systems as a result of the transformation of nature by man.
Biopollution is the impact on the composition and structure of populations of living organisms.
Currently, a large influence on the composition of the atmosphere has a human economic activity. The air settlements with a developed industry, a considerable amount of impurities has come. The main sources of air pollution are the fuel and energy sector, industry, transport. They cause environmental pollution with heavy metals, asbestos, carbon monoxide, sulfur, nitrogen and benzopyrene. Lead, cadmium, mercury, copper, nickel, zinc, chromium, vanadium component is substantially constant air industrial centers (Sellers, B., 1984).
Air pollution reduces the body's resistance to infection, resulting in increased morbidity, adverse physiological changes occurring organism. Compared with other sources of chemical contamination poisoned the atmosphere represents a danger, because on his way there are no chemical barriers. In the air pollution of large cities and agglomerations contribution vehicles reaches 90%.
One of the pollutants is sulfur dioxide has. The concentration of the substance in the atmosphere is particularly high in the vicinity of smelters. It causes the destruction of chlorophyll, hypoplasia of pollen grains, drying and falling off leaves needles. Part of the SO2 is oxidized to sulfur trioxide. Solutions of sulfuric acid and sulfuric acid, falling with rain on the earth's surface, harm living organisms, destroying the building. The soil becomes acidic, it leaches from humus - organic matter that contains all the components necessary for plant growth. It reduces the amount of calcium, magnesium and potassium. In acidic soils and reduced the number of their species of animals, slowing the rate of decomposition of litter. All this creates unfavorable conditions for plant growth.
Each year, as a result of fuel combustion billions of tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere. Half of the carbon dioxide produced during the combustion of fossil fuel is absorbed by green plants and oceans, half remains in the air. The content of CO2 in the atmosphere is gradually increased, and in the last 100 years has increased by more than 10%. CO2 prevents heat radiation into space, so creating a greenhouse effect. Changes in the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have a significant impact on the Earth's climate.
As a result of the interaction of geological, climatic, biological factors thin upper layer of the lithosphere has turned into a special environment - soil, where there is a significant part of the exchange processes between the animate and inanimate nature. Its main feature is fertility, the ability to provide digestible plant nutrients and moisture.
Irrational human activities led to the destruction of topsoil, pollution, changes in the composition. Reusable plowing makes the soil vulnerable to winds plane washout caused by melted snow and rainwater, eventually going on accelerated wind and water erosion of soil, its salinity. Use a large scale fertilizer, chemical poisons to control pests and weeds in the soil determines the accumulation of substances alien to her.
Vast tracts of land are killed by mining works at construction companies, cities, roads, airfields. One consequence of the increasing anthropogenic impact is intensive contamination of soil metals and their compounds. In the production process disperses people concentrated in the crust metals stocks, which then secondarily accumulate in the upper soil layer. As the measurement of all the metals of the first class of danger, pollution of soil lead and its compounds is the most widespread. It is known that in the smelting and refining of lead per ton received into the environment is thrown up to 25 kg of this metal. Due to the fact that the lead compounds are used as additives in gasoline vehicles is perhaps the main source of lead contamination.
Steel plants, waste water from the mines are the most massive sources of soil contamination with copper. Of industrial dust, especially from the mines, and through the use of superphosphate fertilizer contaminates soil by zinc (Yaron, B., 1996).
The problem of radioactive contamination of the biosphere originated in 1945 after the explosion of the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Testing of nuclear weapons produced before 1962 in the atmosphere, caused by global radioactive contamination. With the explosion of the atomic bomb there is a very strong ionizing radiation, radioactive particles are dispersed over large distances, contaminating the soil, water, living organisms. Many radioactive isotopes have long half-life, being dangerous at all times during its existence (Dept. of the Environment, 1976).
All these isotopes are included in the cycling of matter, fall in living organisms, and has a devastating effect on the cells. Very dangerous is strontium - 90, as well as the lithosphere, due to its proximity to calcium. Accumulate in the bones of the skeleton; it serves as a constant source of exposure of the body. Radioactive cesium (137Cs) is similar to potassium, a lot of it in the muscles of animals affected.
In the testing of nuclear weapons, there is another negative side. A nuclear explosion produced an enormous amount of fine dust, which lasts a long time in the atmosphere and absorbs a significant portion of solar radiation. The calculations of scientists show that even with the limited, local use of nuclear weapons formed dust will delay most of the solar radiation. It is known that water is the most common inorganic compound on Earth. Water is the basis of all life processes, the main source of oxygen in the energy process on earth - photosynthesis. Plants are consists at the 90% of water, and an average of the animals consists 75% of water. Losing 10-20% water in living organisms leads to their death.
Surface water quality, on which depend the lives of many people around the world, is deteriorating as a result of human activity. This reduces the possibility to use surface water as drinking water for people and livestock, irrigation and industrial needs. The main danger to humans and the environment are wastewater. Most of the river water used is returned to the water bodies in the form of wastewater. The main pollutants of surface waters are oil and oil products, which fall into them in oil production, transportation, processing and use as fuel and industrial raw materials. Products of industrial production at its principal place of negative effects on the aquatic environment occupy detergents - detergents. An even greater danger is posed by water pollution by radioactive substances, as water is subjected to thermal pollution. Thus, when power plants use water to condense the spent steam and return it to the heated reservoir 10-500S reduced content of oxygen dissolved in water.
Ground water is the main source of potable water in the world. Unlike surface water, which can be cleaned with water treatment plants, groundwater included in a hydrological cycle and therefore cannot be cleaned. Most of the groundwater is fed by rainfall, which seeps into the soil. The main source of pollution of groundwater is a landfill. Solid waste at dumps consists of food waste, paper, plastics, metals and toxic materials. Hazardous pollutants with rainwater and moisture are seep into the soil (Stille, D., 1990).
Conclusion
The data and facts presented in this paper emphasize the need to protect and preserve our environment. Each individual is a child of nature. A human lives, enjoy nature and at the same time destroying it. With the development of civilization, mankind has tried increasingly to meet their vital needs. This required the creation and development of new energy sources, expansion of the areas of land used for agricultural land and pastures, construction of cities and enterprises. In pursuit of certain goals, we did not think about the environmental consequences of their actions. The entire biosphere is under ever-increasing pressure of human activities, so naturally become an urgent task - protective measures. This is not only related to the atmosphere, lithosphere, natural waters, but also animals. Every year they are less. I think that first of all one should not treat it with indifference. But now it has become a huge problem of national importance. Therefore, measures to protect nature should be no charity, and binding, since the state of the environment depends on the existence of life on Earth.
Works Cited
Peirce, J. Jeffrey, and Ruth F. Weiner. Environmental Pollution and Control. 4th ed. Boston, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998. Print.
Radioactive Pollution. London: Headquarters Library, Dept. of the Environment, 1976. Print.
Sellers, Brian. Pollution of Our Atmosphere. Bristol [England: A. Hilger, 1984. Print.
Stille, Darlene R. Water Pollution. Chicago: Childrens, 1990. Print.
Yaron, B., and R. Calvet. Soil Pollution: Processes and Dynamics. Berlin: Springer, 1996. Print.
