Conserving Our Environment: The Pollution Crisis

our world is a world of many different inter relationships plants animals and elements of our environment are closely linked in many ways we are also part of this web of relationships but we use the environment in ways that no other creature can and in so doing we produce waste products which may not be useful either to plants or to animals as our population increases our waste products are discarded in such increasing quantities that they can't be absorbed by the environment these waste then become pollution let's look at some of the ways we are polluting our world we've become a aware of pollution problems caused by automobile exhausts but let's take a closer look at some pollution problems related to the automobile one of our most useful machines first of all the Iron Coal and other materials used in making cars are mined from the ground but some mining results in acids or other materials draining into streams this may make the water unfit to drink and even kill the fish in it the raw materials go to Mills where they are processed into Metals melting iron ore to make steel requires a tremendous amount of heat which usually comes from burning coal the burning fuel gives off gases as well as solid particles of soot Ash and metal dust the making of automobiles requires a great deal of electricity this is often generated from burning coal or oil adding further to the air pollution the finished cars require gasoline for fuel and oil for lubrication but producing oil and gas gasoline brings up a new set of pollution problems offshore Wells are becoming common sources for crude oil but there is always danger of a pipe breaking accidentally when this happens thousands of tons of oil May flow into the ocean large quantities of oil may also be spilled by shipwrecks smaller quantities come from tanker ships which flush out their oil tanks at Sea no matter how the oil is dumped into the sea plants and animals are harmed by these oil spills in their environment most oil of course reaches the refinery saf where it's used to make the motor oil and gasoline that we use when gasoline is burned in the car several waste products are given off one is carbon monoxide a poisonous gas but engines also emit hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen leaded gasolines emit tiny particles of lead compound pounds which are poisonous when there were only a few cars their exhaust emissions were little or no problem but today there are so many cars that the emissions become dangerously concentrated when there is not enough wind to carry the polluted air away or when weather conditions prevent it from escaping upward it will remain suspended over a city we call it smog and every major city in the world has a smog problem are there other pollution problems related to the automobile some old and worn out cars may be simply abandoned to pollute our landscape most cars end up in junkyards and as we build more and more cars the junk pile grows and grows but cars are only one of our pollution problems everything we throw away is a potential pollutant as the cities collect trash they must find ways to dispose of it some Cities Burn the trash but you can see what this is doing to the air others bury the trash in landfills and wait for it to break down or decompose naturally but certain types of materials will not decompose readily aluminum glass and plastic will remain as trash almost indefinitely many towns still pipe raw sewage from our sinks and toilets into the nearest stream or river polluting the fresh water and damaging fish and other living things in it most towns however pipe such sewage to treatment plants where most of the harmful materials are removed but these treatment plants are are frequently too small to keep up with our constantly increasing population feeding that population requires growing more and more food and that means more and more pesticides are sprayed on food crops to protect them from insects some of these pesticides become harmless in a few weeks but certain others such as DDT remain poisonous for years they are called persistent pesticides some of the pesticide eventually Finds Its way into animals that eat plants traces of pesticides have been found in the milk we drink pesticides may also be washed from the fields into our supplies of freshh water and finally into the ocean traces of poisonous pesticides have been found in fish all over the world the Waters of our Earth may be polluted in another way by thermal pollution power plants use water for cooling purposes the water which flows through power plants is is usually warmed up by several degrees before its return to the river or lake sometimes fish are not able to get enough oxygen in warmer water so they die this is thermal pollution another problem affecting our environment is sound [Music] pollution the noise in our cities gets louder each year and some scientists believe that this is already creating many psychological problems we are also becoming concerned about visual pollution would you rather see this or this this or this a beautiful environment can add to the pleasure of living what are we doing to protect our environment our growing concern is having its effect on our elected lawmakers many laws have been passed to control the use of poisons and other pollutants and the laws are becoming more strict each year many cities are building new soy treatment plants some factories which have been burning coal for many years are converting their equipment to burn natural gas which makes less pollution all new cars now have emission control devices oil companies are making gasolines which do not contain lead some junk cars are ground up and melted down to recycle the metal so it can be used again glass bottles are being recycled by some companies the same is true of aluminum cans recycling paper products has been going on for years but many people think that it's too much trouble to collect and return them recycling is also possible with worn out tires a big question is who should pay for cleaning up the environment where will the money come from to solve the problems when cities build new seage treatment plants money must come from increased taxes from the taxpayers all of us when industry spends extra money for research and new changes they have to charge more for their products no matter where the changes are made the cost always comes back to the public all of us but we are beginning to face the pollution crisis to face the extra cost to control it are there things that you and I can do right now yes although some things may seem small and insignificant but when millions of people do them the results can be worthwhile for example we can do more walking and bike riding instead of driving we can form car pools and let one car do the work of several we can take care of things so they will last longer we can conserve electricity we can use what we need but avoid waste we can conserve water when shopping we can look for products which are not overwrapped even so small a thing as not accepting paper bags when they're not needed can reduce pollution and we can select products which reduce pollution even if it means paying a higher price for them our pollution problems get more complex as population increases scientists do not all agree on how large a population our planet Earth can support on a permanent basis but they do agree that we have to work to solve the growing problems of pollution we have created a fantastic world of modern conveniences of almost everything man could dream [Music] up and everything we have made came from natural resources elements of the environment and now we find that we must use our intelligence in a different way to solve the pollution crisis and protect the environment that makes life possible for [Music] us