POLLUTION

POLLUTION

Here in South Africa, and everywhere on Earth, we have problems with pollution and litter. They kill animals, plants, destroy the ecosystem, ruin peoples' livliehoods and damage the planet itself.

Well, we've had enough.

Litter is easier to deal with than pollution, as it can easily be cleaned up in litter clean-ups among other things, but pollution can be harder to deal with. Some of it is toxic and cannot safely be handled, and some is in the air itself, and impossible to clean up by hand.

We've already outlined litter in BEACHES, but we haven't spoken that much about pollution, so we have put together a list of some of the types of pollution and also what they do and how they can be stopped.

TYPE	CAUSE	EFFECTS	PREVENTION

AIR POLLUTION	Gas, liquid or solid wastes are dumped and damage the atmosphere.	Harm human health and plant life and animals.	Try to use more eco-friendly fuels.

WATER POLLUTION	Sewage or industrial and chemical wastes pollute water when dumped into rivers or the sea.	Kills fish and plants and can harm humans if the water is drunk.	Ensure the authorities are strict about chemical dumping in the ocean and rivers.

TRAFFIC POLLUTION	A form of air pollution. Traffic pollution is caused by large amounts of exhaust fumes from cars being pumped into the air.	Same as Air Pollution.	Same as Air Pollution.

LAND POLLUTION	Dumping of garbage and hazardous wastes.	Can harm humans, plants, animals and contaminate the land itself.	Avoid having your garbage taken to a landfill site, and either compst it, recycle it, or send it to an incinerator.

This hopefully gives you a better idea of the more basic types of pollution, what causes them and how to prevent them.