Environmental pollution, pollutants and endangered species
Environmental pollution, in the classic concept, occurs when certain elements causing harmful effects accumulate in amounts that nature cannot recycle.
A pollutant is a substance found in a medium to which it does not belong or which does so at levels that can cause adverse effects.
A species is in danger of extinction when its existence is globally compromised.
Humans, in a short time, have turned the Earth into a kind of market where we can supply ourselves with everything we need, including the spaces to build our towns, cities, mining camps, agricultural and livestock lands. We have snatched huge areas that recently belonged to the other species, without much regard to the damage we have caused them.
Without realizing it, we have a wide catalog of methods with which we have intervened on the planet. Such is the variety of harmful products that we emit, so diverse the means that we contaminate and so many species that we endanger, that it is arduous to inventory and fully understand the multiplicity of means and factors that intervene in the damage. Even more difficult, if not impossible, to predict the impact that the sum of its effects will have on the Earth and its inhabitants in terms of 50 or 100 years.
To understand the varied and massive human intervention of the environment, which affects most of the planet's biological diversity, we have devised a method of analysis to simplify the understanding of the problem.
First, we affect our environment in three ways: by injection, by extraction, and by invasion.
Secondly, there are three media that we pollute or affect: air, soil and water.
We have, then, mathematically, nine different ways or categories to contaminate or affect our environment.
Anthropogenic effect on soil, air and water
Injection
In soils we inject all kinds of substances that can be very toxic and dangerous. We introduce fertilizers, pesticides, pesticides, solid residues, heavy metals, radioactive contaminants. Acid rains inject toxic substances into the soil, harmful products in the lands of towns and cities. We inject pollutants into agricultural and livestock soils, mining camps, in plains, mountains, forests, beaches, glaciers or deserts and even in our small gardens. There are few spaces in the planet's soils that still remain virgin, that is, with their surfaces free of contamination.
We inject massive amounts of gases and particles into the air. In the lower layers of the atmosphere, injections of carbon dioxide and methane are modifying the natural greenhouse effect, causing progressive increases in temperature on the planet. Global warming results in climate change. If the objectives and actions contained in the Paris Agreement are not achieved, we can expect serious damage to Earth, according to most scientists.
We also inject carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide and trioxide, nitric and nitrous oxides, nitrogen dioxide. The particles come from dusts, fumes, mists and aerosols that ascend to the atmosphere. Some remain in the air for years and others return to earth through acid rain. Industrial powders contain heavy metals such as iron, zinc, and lead. Other pollutants come from eroded soils that release mineral particles, animal waste, and dried vegetables. Fumes and mists are sets of gases that carry various particles with them.
Aerosols inject liquid or solid corpuscles that remain suspended in the atmosphere. We must point out that the injection of chlorofluorocarbons, causing ozone holes, which have decreased dramatically since this gas was replaced by others used in aerosols and refrigeration.
We have even begun to contaminate the exosphere by cosmic junk from decommissioned artifacts, to which we must add waste from capsules and spaceships.
In the waters. The injections span oceans, seas, lakes, ponds, rivers, and ponds. Pollutants comprise all kinds of substances and materials. Throwing a plastic bag into the sea is an injection, just like a can of soda into a river. Many cities inject large volumes of fecal material, pathogenic microorganisms, detergents, insoluble gases, all kinds of trash, debris, glass, microplastics, and single-use plastic objects into rivers and seas.
The wastewater from industrial landfills contains oils, phosphates, nitrates, fluorides, lead, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, manganese, mercury and even radioactive substances. Another type of very lethal injections are oil spills. Many of these pollutants can take hundreds and even thousands of years to be recycled by nature.
The injection of plastics into the oceans is so serious that objects of this material have been found in depths until recently unimaginable. Using robots, a British team recently located the Mariana Trench and the Kermadec Trench, both in the Pacific Ocean, but separated by about 7,000 kilometers, plastic sinks in the most remote and hostile habitats. A plastic bag was found in the Mariana Trench, at 10,898 meters, close to the maximum marine depth on Earth. Humans have reached the most unthinkable levels with our waste. The aggravating factor is that these plastic objects are for single use and take centuries to degrade.
Extraction
From the soils we extract large amounts of resources for our food, protection and comfort. The felling of a tree in the Amazon jungle is the extraction of a unit that has been removed from our largest plant lung. From the jungle of Borneo, until recently considered the lung of Southeast Asia, we have extracted two thirds of the trees, with serious changes in weather patterns as a consequence. Its effects have been felt even in very remote areas.
The killings of elephants, rhinos, lions, foxes and bears, to name just a few examples, correspond to the extraction category. Extractions of animals or plants carried out on species in a medium can have effects on fauna and vegetation located in remote areas. The decline in salmon decimates the bear population. This is known as imbalances in the food chains.
Del aire extraemos la fauna alada. Cada ejemplar volador abatido por humanos corresponde a una unidad de extracción del aire. Derribamos aves con distintas finalidades: especies comestibles, aves exóticas como trofeos de cacería, aves depredadoras con fines defensivos de la agricultura, la cría de ganado y animales de granja. También los matamos por efectos colaterales, como la contaminación atmosférica o la fumigación de sembradíos. El exterminio puede provenir de la extinción o disminución poblacional de su presa, o la destrucción de los hábitats o los sitios de reproducción de las aves.
Of the waters. The extraction of aquatic species by humans has acquired dramatic volumes. Many fish can no longer reproduce at the speed with which they are caught. They are fished before they can reach their final size. We massively extract snappers, groupers, tuna, anchovies, hake, smooth, sole, trout, salmon, carp, sardines, catfish, dogfish, sharks, cod, sea bass, shrimp, prawns, lobsters, crabs, octopus, squid and many others. A separate chapter deserves the whale. The huge cetacean has become one of the icons of our depredations, despite the fact that hunting on most of the planet is prohibited.
Invasion
Of the terrestrial spaces. The most widespread invasion method is the movement of plants and animals from their terrestrial habitats by humans. We invaded forests and jungles, valleys and mountains, pampas and plains, islands and beaches, taigas and tundras to build towns, cities, vacation camps, mining fields, agricultural and livestock lands, that previously belonged to other species.
We have invaded millions of square kilometers of ecosystems and destroyed ancient habitats to make way for agricultural land and savannas to raise livestock to produce food for almost eight billion humans, so enormous that they are lost in infinity.
Many animals fall into destroyed or ruined habitats. Others flee looking for new accommodations. Some succeed, but the most unfortunate are isolated in ecosystems with no future, where they perish by not being able to adapt. Trees and other plants succumb hopelessly under state-of-the-art machine saws. Each contraption has the ability to cut, clear, and load hundreds of logs onto trucks, all in one operation, with a single operator, in a matter of hours.
Of airspaces. The areas of flying species we invade with the construction of tall buildings, skyscrapers, electric towers and antennas in our cities or in high mountains. We also displace them with pollution from car traffic and factory smoke. With all this we divert birds from their natural routes. We also invade their airspace with planes, rockets, and missiles. However, the air invasion is not comparable to what we do at ground level.
Of the aquatic spaces . We invade the waters with large landfills to gain spaces in order to build ports, roads, airports and expand urbanizations. It is a fairly common practice that affects biomes located on marine, oceanic and lake coasts and beaches. We also invade and divert rivers to build hydroelectric dams. However, these invasions of the waters affect the environment much less than the injections of pollutants or the extraction of fauna from rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.
Conclusions. We have created this simple classification system considering that its simplicity can help people to remember and raise awareness of our performance on the planet. Our proposal amounts to a kind of “catalog index” to list the nine ways how we affect our environment. It is very easy to remember the three means: soil, air and water, combined with the three methods of contamination or impact on the planet: injection, extraction and invasion. But this is only the beginning, a very simplified basis to start understanding the problem. The catalog needs to be developed.
The issue of climate, in all its areas, is so important and urgent that it should be incorporated into elementary and secondary school education programs worldwide. Topics such as climate change, environment, energy, forests, sustainable development, extinction of species, etc., should be studied at each school level from the first grade of primary school to the last year of high school. Climate awareness is essential from an early age.
The UN, through its Climate Action program, is incorporating children, adolescents and youth in different areas. The more people who know about these issues, the easier it will be to fix the planet. There are already many institutions and organizations that are working hard to stop climate change.
Some countries have understood the problem and are modifying their energy patterns in addition to implementing other measures. It is worth mentioning the efforts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, among others.
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