Ask The Scientist
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How Can I Help You?
Hello I'm the scientist.
I'm here to help you with some background info on pollution and the bad
happenings that it causes. So why don't
we get started.
Background Information
Each year literally tons and tons of dangerous chemicals are
being legally deposited into our rivers, lakes, bays etc. Because of this we have less and less fish
to eat because they can't come from these polluted waterways. From 1995 to 1996 there were a total of 2193
advisories, which prevented us from eating fish that came from these polluted
places. Right now the Great Lakes and
all of the rivers and canals connecting them are under those advisories.
These chemicals cannot only make us unhealthy but they can
kill off the wildlife too. It can kill
them directly or indirectly. It can
kill them indirectly like this: lets take the fish idea, the fish in the
intoxicated water gets infected, then a raccoon eats that fish and gets sick as
well. After that a bear or fox can eat
the infected raccoon, which ate the poisoned fish and get sick and die. The direct way is the poisonous water can be
used as drinking water by an animal and then kill it.
Oil spills are very dangerous. They often
cause a lot of damage to the wildlife. Animals can get stuck in it like ducks and fish and so
on. You may know that on March 24, 1989
there was a huge oil spill in Alaska.
The ship Exxon Valdez was damaged in a reef that was part of the Prince
William Sound. It was an environmental
catastrophe. Eleven million tons of
crude oil seeped out of the Exxon Valdez' ruptured hull. Cleaning the giant mess up took over three
years and $2.1 million. Not all cleanups
are as expensive as that one but all of them are time consuming.
Well I hope that this helped you
on your mission and taught you about the damage pollution can cause.
Visit one of my favorite science sites at: http://www.waterw.com/~science/
Visit one of the other experts for more background
information: