The problems of Earth: Chemical pollution

Chemical pollution is the presence of chemical elements in our environment that disrupt the balance of the ecosystem. 

Dumping of polluted waters. (nrdc, 2018)

Polluting chemical elements or compounds can be organic or inorganic, naturally-occurring or man-made and can be persistent, meaning that they do not easily degrade in nature. Chemical pollution affects soil, air and water. 

Pollution may muddy landscapes, poison soils and waterways, threaten the health or kill plants and animals –including human beings. Chemical pollutants may accumulate in sediments over long periods of time, such as the Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) used for agriculture, they can also accumulate in animals, making some species unsafe to eat. More than one billion people lack access to clean water and 2,4 billion don’t have adequate sanitation, putting them at risk of contracting deadly diseases because of pollution. Every year, an estimated 2,2 billion tons of waste is dumped in our oceans. Marine ecosystems are dying out because of water pollution. 27% of the coral reefs have been destroyed.

Airplane applying pesticides on an extensive plantation (American bird conservancy, 2020)

Chemical pollution sources are diverse but agriculture, farming and industry are the main ones. The application of humongous quantities of Nitrogen and other fertilizers that leak through the soil and run down the rivers, causes an increasing mass of phytoplankton –algae– to unbalanced levels that rotten the ecosystem. Rotten ecosystems use up a lot of oxygen and animals die from the lack of it, this is eutrophication. Pesticides and other chemical components of industry –for example the industry of paper– are associated with heavy metals pollution, sulphide and dioxins. Dioxins are similar to many body hormones and can cause unbalanced endocrine system. 

Nuclear waste is dumped and sunk deep in the ocean in containers that are already leaking. Radiation is threatening to living beings because it damages the body cells, which can ultimately cause cancer, cell death and other irreversible diseases. In fact, biologists have found a correlation between the leakage of nuclear liquid into the ocean from the 2011 incident in Fukushima and an increase of skin ulcers in walruses and seals in Alaska, which demonstrates the global effect of radioactive contamination.

Nuclear waste container adrift (Disasterrally, 2020) 

Mining and smelting cause a lot of metal pollution and turbidity to the water bodies, other industries such as the textile and paper also pollute and over-consume fresh water. In result, we have reduced the freshwater population over 80%. Polluted freshwater pollutes the ocean eventually. We still don’t know the long term effects of this amounts of pollution in the ocean, but one thing for sure is that it is contaminating one of our major sources of food. The concentration of the toxic materials in our oceans can reach levels that are enough to kill all marine life.

Mining waste dumped in the ocean. (SumOfUs, 2018) 

Household chemicals such as detergents, sanitizers, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals among others, can easily become chemical pollutants when released into the environment. The most famous are the sun-protection products that damage algae and corals and products with silicons because they change the balance of the body hormones, which disrupts the life cycle of many species.   

Fossil energies also pollute the ecosystem, not only at their source but also when they are consumed or burned because of the CO2 and the particulate matter. 

In crowded cities with dense traffic, air pollution is a huge source of pollution. Transportation emissions contribute in air pollution. In some cities, there is a permanent cloud of dust and fog coming from the vehicles’ smoke. This smoke contents particulate matter, CO2 and CO which is highly toxic as it dimness with blood ability to transport oxygen. SO2 is also a product of burning coal and damages eyes and lungs, plus it is responsible for acid rain. Acid rain damages buildings and forests and kills aquatic life. Another contributor to acid rain is NO2, also emitted by vehicles. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), motor vehicles collectively cause 75% of CO pollution in the United States (U.S.) and the Environmental Defense Fund estimates that on-road vehicles cause ⅓ of the air pollution and the greenhouse gas in the U.S.. CO2 –one of the main gases causing the Global Warming– is also emitted by vehicles and the burning of fossil fuels. The U.S. was considered the world’s biggest polluter in terms of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, but in 2008 China moved to the top spot.

Air pollution in Tehran, Iran. (Greenprophet, 2010)

Besides the “daily licking” of chemical pollutants, ecological catastrophes play a role too. In these events, the ecological damage is caused by a punctual but massive release of toxic substances. It does not occur often, but the damage is enormous when it does. Some examples are the cases of Minamata (Japan), Bhopal (India), Chernobyl (Ukraine), Prince William Sound (Alaska), Seveso (Italy), Sandoz (Switzerland) or Aznalcóllar (Spain). 

Chernobyl (Google images, 2020)

Oil gushes and spills such as the Prestige in Spain in 2002, the one in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 or the Venezuelan oil tanker in Trinidad, the Caribbean in 2020 are not uncommon. In fact, the average from 1970 to 2013 is of 1 every 7 years– but far from closing the oil wells, the industry is still drilling. Only in the Gulf of Mexico there are more than 33.000 offshore oil wells. Besides this gushes, marine traffic pollutes the waters too.

Volunteers cleaning a Spanish beach after the Prestige oil spill. (Eleconomista.es, 2013)

Some of the chemical pollution consequences are the death of pollinating insects and other organisms, exhausted soils by overuse which drives to a reduction on food production, lack of oxygen in aquatic ecosystems –eutrophication–, toxic environments due to heavy metals and more. By 2080, scientists predict that the pollinating insects will disappear and one of the reasons are the pesticides. For human beings, it can involve a variety of health effects and even death by poisoning. Chemical intoxication can trigger immediate symptoms but also delayed diseases such as cancer, chronic diseases, unbalanced hormones, body malformations, reproductive difficulties and others. 

What is done and what to do?

The Netherlands is an example of how to run the agriculture industry in a sustainable way by applying low and high technology solutions to solve land limitations. Some NGOs are advocating to reduce pollution, inspiring local conservation and promoting sustainable living. In some marine natural parks, regular sunscreens are forbidden and you must use a biodegradable one. There are some international agreements for a more sustainable way of living and some enterprises have environmental challenges, but there is no global and unified commitment regarding environmental sustainability goals, nor a detailed strategy to achieve any of those goals. 

Regen villages (Architectmagazine.com, 2018)

In many cities such as Amsterdam or Copenhagen, the use of bicycles has decreased the air pollution and has returned the streets to the people. Cyclists rule in Amsterdam, the city is equipped with an elaborate network of cycle-paths and lanes, so safe and comfortable that even toddlers and elderly people use bikes as the easiest mode of transport, becoming the bicycle capital of the World. Due to citizen pressure, Dutch politicians became aware of the many advantages of cycling, and their transport policies shifted –maybe the car wasn’t the mode of transport of the future after all– so towns and cities began introducing measures to make their streets cycle-friendly. 

Bike parking lot in Amsterdam (steveandjonbest.wordpress.com, 2015)

It is important to choose smart and focus on what we can do locally. It is a small big change to choose biodegradable –it is different from degradable– or environmentally friendly household products and detergents, food from local and little fertilized agriculture, green sources of energy such as wind-farms or solar panels, you can check for the source of each fraction of the electricity that you are supplied with in your bills and different companies have different sources. Choose environmentally friendly transportation such as electric cars and alternative fuels. Join petitions for the decrease of the number of cars on the roads and streets by improving the bike lanes and public transportation such as trains, trams and electric buses. It is also important to pay attention to the tracking of the product that you are buying to avoid high content of chemicals and high content of emissions due to transportation or manufacturing. Reuse products, fix them instead of replacing them and buy recycled ones, this reduces the impact of the industry on the ecosystem. Customers have the power of demand, when enough customers demand a thing, the enterprises will move to do it in order to gain those customers. Therefore, demand products with less chemicals, less packaging, local... But most important, reduce the consumerism. Minimize your ecological footprint. Having already an unbalanced Earth, human beings cannot continue to intoxicate it. 

São Miguel Island, Azores (Maria Serra, 2020)

“In this world, a species can only thrive, when everything else around it thrives, too.” –David Attenborough. 

Maria Serra

SOURCES

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