What is Pollution? How is it effecting us?
By definition, pollution is the introduction of contaminants
into the natural environment that causes adverse change.
We can see these effects in the everyday places around the world,
next to us. If you look up in the night sky and notice
lack of
stars, that's due to light polution. When you hear that every year,
the earth's average temperature is rising, that's
because of
CO2 Pollution. If you look at the many bodies of water that have trash,
such as the Rio De Jeneiro River or the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you'll prominently see plastic and garbabe
pollution. We are at a point to where
9/10 people
globally are breathing polluted or contaminated air.
Although the world has become more aware of the issue thanks to an increase coverage
of the topic thanks to television and the
internet, much work still needs to be done. With the population
of the world still increasing, and the never ending demand of mass production remaning prominent, the
world slowly becomes degraded and transforms into what could potientially be a wasteland.
It might be too late, as factors such as the
Polar Ice Caps melting at an alarming rate. The world is slowly approaching
a point to where the damage to the planet is becoming increasingly irreversible.
Here are some examples of said pollution. Click on the pictures to learn more.
How can we help? What will our efforts come to?
Pollution is by no means an untreatable problem, but there is a big issue to why it remains so prominent: Human Interaction. Afterall, it might seem quite overwhelming having to completely change the way things are done given the stubbornness of Human Nature. With such a long history of dependancy on coal and gasoline, as well as the "cheaper" and more efficent methods of waste dumping, there would initially be an problem with everyone (businesses, governments, people, etc.) not wanting to even bother switching to a either a lack of personal gain or some sort of small harm to their personal lives. However, now is the opportune time for that change to happen. You might be asking yourself how exactly there are we supposed to go about this. While there are no definitive answers to that, there are many ways where even the smallest contribution will help if done by everyone.
Here are a handful of solutions that we, as humanity can do to continue the midgation of pollution:
- Slowly move away from using Fossil fuels and transition towards renewable energy.
- Reduce the use of lights whenever necessary.
- Use tiny robots/microbots to clean the ocean and other bodies of polluted water.
- Remembery to recycle and properly sort out your trash.
- Enforce stricter laws and regulations on illegal disposal of waste.
- Transition towards more energy efficent/saving tools and vehicles.
- Plant and care for Trees to reduce the carbon in the air.
- Don't burn trash, dispose of it properly.
- Increase and improve the usage of public transportation.
- Stop using plastic/one-time use bags, instead resuse higher quality ones.
With these recommendations, we hope to accomplish the following objectives:
- Increase the rate of recycling by 5%.
- Reduce the use of plastic by 5%.
- Promote the usage of cleaner energy methods.