Besides climate change, what are the impacts on water and air caused by pollution?
“Sooner or later, we will have to recognise that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.” - Evo Morales
Hello reader, I know you must be asking yourself what is pollution and why does air and water get polluted? Well, let's start there.
The term "pollution" refers to any substance that negatively impacts the environment or organisms that live within the affected environment. The five major types of pollution include: air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, light pollution, and noise pollution. But today we are going to talk about the impact that air and water pollution have.
Water and air pollution is more than just a harm for the Earth, it also affects and has a big negative impact on our health. Both caused by the “amazing hand” of humans and their “advanced” activities; also being not only local or national problems but being international problems that affect everyone no matter the social class or the neighborhood you live in.
For example, air pollution is caused by transport and industry activities having a detrimental effect on the environment and public health. Not standing behind we have that water pollution has made over 2.5 million acres of ponds, reservoirs, and lakes unsafe due to nutrient pollution, according to the water pollution statistics for 2021. Even though these are facts people seem to not believe it, and yes, progress in technology and industrialization is just amazing and makes us a very advanced civilization but can we develop and advance that even more without the Earth?
As for solutions, there are programs made by organizations such as the United Nations for example:
National Programmes of Action (NPAs) for pollution prevention promote integrated approaches to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment from land based activities and sources of pollution. They support the goals of the UN Environment's Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the protection of the coastal and marine environment.
The objectives of an NPA are to:
Implement a long-term planning process to address pollution by integrating required actions into national development plans and strategies;
Improve the effectiveness of existing pollution action plans and planning processes;
Mobilize political and financial support for the implementation of the long-term programme;
Demonstrate that land-based activities can be addressed using alternative, realistic and country-driven approaches;
Raise awareness and understanding of the value, benefits and vulnerability of coastal and marine environments.
https://www.unep.org/cep/national-programmes-action-pollution-prevention
I hope that people open their eyes and realize that without Earth we can't have any type of advances and progress.
By Nashla Puerta, Step 11
