CTT DE LOS ANDES

(RIOBAMBA)

STUDENT´S NAME: JOSE MIGUEL LLERENA

TEACHER´S NAME: DIANA ALVAREZ

TOPIC: POLLUTION

ACADEMIC TERM: OCTOBER 2017 – 2018

LEVEL: TWO
Introduction
The environmental problem today has a global dimension, that is, it involves the entire planet.
For its characterization it is enough to think about the permanent communication bombardment
that we received through television, internet, radio and written press, which have installed
environmental problems in the consciousness of millions of human beings. There is a constant
talk of "global warming", "deforestation", "acid rain", "thinning of the ozone layer", "smog",
"greenhouse effect", "extinction of species", "noise pollution", etc. But are these concepts
internalized in the collective consciousness in the perspective of generating changes that mean
saving humanity from the negative effects that the action of industrial and demographic activity
implies, in order to offer our children and the children of our children an acceptable future,
breathable, with quality of life? the answer is evidently NO, if we continue in this highly
predatory rhythm of our land.

Obviously the prevailing economic system is a leading cause of the severe environmental and
social problems that we have to live. If we add to this the effects caused by natural phenomena,
which in recent years have had a strong impact on human communities around the world, the
situation becomes much more complex and serious, I mean the Tsunamis or " tsunamis ", such
as the one suffered in the Indian Ocean and just one year ago in Japan, which caused the direct
death of hundreds of thousands of people in Sumatra, India, Sry-Lanka and countless Islands of
the Region; tropical storms, hurricanes, cyclones, frontal systems, earthquakes, volcanic activity;
the "Niño" phenomenon that affects the entire Pacific Ocean including the Chilean territorial
sea, all causing death, desolation, damage to the environment and people. There are scientists
who have raised the hypothesis that these natural phenomena have increased their activity from
the intervention of man through his irresponsible actions.

The ozone layer and its degradation

The world has changed ostensibly since researchers from the most diverse areas gave the alarm
signal to the environmental debacle that the uncontrolled activity of man was creating. First was
the verification of the fact that ecosystems were being seriously affected by industrial, nuclear
and residential waste and that the use of fossil fuels was degrading the quality of life of the
inhabitants of large cities. Finally, as a corollary to all the above, it is discovered that one of the
"pillars" of the comfort and modernity of our era, that is, the use of refrigerants, aerosols, plastic
foams and fire prevention systems, were the main causes of the destruction of the planet's
ozone layer. Definitely, after this announcement, the world could not be the same as before. It
is that the importance of this, until recently unknown ozone, is that it protects the entire life
chain of the planet, since its structure allows to absorb the dangerous ultraviolet rays (UVB)
from the sun. Thus, the fear of losing life on earth was threatened by many causes, including the
CFC.

CFC is a derivative of saturated hydrocarbons that is obtained by replacing hydrogen atoms with
chlorine and fluorine atoms and is in the form of a gas. Its use is prohibited or limited in many
countries, because they reduce the amount of ozone in the stratosphere.
Applications

Fluorine compounds have many applications. Chlorofluorocarbons, certain odorless and non-
poisonous liquids or gases, such as freon, are used as dispersing agents in aerosol vaporizers and
as a coolant. However, in 1974, some scientists suggested that these chemicals reached the
stratosphere and were destroying Earth's ozone layer. With the confirmation of these
discoveries in the late 1980s, the manufacture of these chemicals began to be phased out.

Thus, the aerosol is a container provided with a valve, designed to provide a wide variety of
substances in powdered form, foam or liquid jet. The product, which may be for example paint,
cosmetics or insecticide, is mixed with a propellant gas which is sealed under pressure in the
container.

Some propellants, such as nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide, remain in the form of gas in the
aerosol even when they are under pressure. Others, such as chlorofluorocarbons, liquefy. There
are two-phase systems in which the product is mixed with the propellant liquid, which when
released becomes gas and expands, dividing the product into tiny droplets. The three-phase
systems consist of a layer of the product between layers of liquefied propellant (at the bottom)
and propellant gases (at the top). In both systems, by pressing the valve button, the product
goes up a tube and exits through it. The liquefied gas from the bottom of the aerosol vaporizes
to maintain constant pressure.

Destruction of ozone

In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists began to discover that human activity was having a negative
impact on the ozone layer, a region of the atmosphere that protects the planet from harmful
ultraviolet rays. If there was no gaseous layer, which is about 40 km above sea level, life would
be impossible on our planet. Studies showed that the ozone layer was being affected by the
increasing use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, fluorine compounds), which are used in
refrigeration, air conditioning, cleaning solvents, packaging materials and aerosols. Chlorine, a
secondary chemical product of CFCs, attacks ozone, which is formed by three oxygen atoms,
snatching one of them to form chlorine monoxide. It then reacts with oxygen atoms to form
oxygen molecules, releasing chlorine molecules that break down more ozone molecules.

At first it was believed that the ozone layer was reducing homogeneously throughout the planet.
In 1985, however, subsequent investigations revealed the existence of a large hole centered on
Antarctica; 50% or more of the ozone located on this area disappeared seasonally (as of
October). The thinning of the ozone layer exposes terrestrial life to an excess of ultraviolet
radiation, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts, reduce the response of the immune
system, interfere with the photosynthesis process of plants and affect the growth of
phytoplankton. oceanic. Due to the growing threat posed by these dangerous effects on the
environment, many countries are working on the project to phase out the manufacture and use
of CFCs by the year 2000. However, CFCs can remain in the atmosphere for more than 100 years.
Years so the destruction of ozone will continue to pose a threat for decades.
Greenhouse effect

What is the greenhouse effect?

The Greenhouse Effect is what keeps us warm on Earth. If you have ever been in a car or a
greenhouse on a sunny day you can appreciate how well it works. The sun's rays enter the
greenhouse or the car through the window and part of that light is converted into heat rays that
are retained inside.

The Earth is like a greenhouse because sunlight penetrates the atmospheric layer where it
encounters greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (C02), methane, nitrous oxide and ozone.
The sun's rays are then converted into heat rays and are retained in the atmosphere by the
different greenhouse gases.

Most greenhouse gases, such as CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, are normally present in the
atmosphere due to natural processes. With an adequate amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, the
Earth remains in equilibrium. However, many human activities, such as the combustion of
hydrocarbons and the clearing of forests, have increased the levels of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. In addition, humans have artificially created powerful greenhouse gases called
"CFCs". All these excessive greenhouse gases retain more and more heat. Most scientists believe
that as a result, the temperature on Earth will increase.

Consequences of the greenhouse effect

Scientists generally agree that the greenhouse effect is producing the largest and fastest climate
change in the history of civilization. Which would have enormous consequences for all living
beings on earth.

Carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere act like the glass of a greenhouse: they absorb
the infrared radiation that tries to escape from the surface of the Earth and, therefore, a part of
it does not return to space but is remitted from new to the earth's surface.

Natural levels of carbon dioxide make life possible: without it the average temperature of the
planet would be 30 ° C less. If the presence of certain atmospheric gases increases, as happens
today due to the action of the human being, the radiation returned to the surface of the planet
is greater. As a result of this, the warming is greater, with the corresponding damages for all
living beings.

Apparently small changes can have dramatic effects. An increase of 2 ° C would produce
unregistered temperatures on the planet for 125,000 years. An increase of 3 ° C would make the
world warmer than it has been for the past 2 million years.
The level of the oceans would rise when the planet warms up, since the heat would melt the ice
and increase the amount of water in them. The sea level is expected to rise a meter or more
over the next century.

For some countries this may seem desirable. However, a small increase in temperature could
melt the ice at the North and South poles, raising the level of the oceans and flooding coastal
cities. A temperature increase of five percent could totally melt the Arctic ice sheet.

Even worse, small changes in the normal temperature could also cause significant changes in
the world's ecosystems. What would happen if the meadow that now produces food becomes
too dry and inhospitable? Changes in ecosystems such as the boreal forest could also harm other
natural species.

Global warming could cause changing climates such as tornadoes, droughts, floods and
hurricanes. It could also sustain and stimulate insect pests and make the survival of some species
difficult.

The real problem is that we do not know the magnitude of the damage caused by the increase
in temperature of the Earth due to the greenhouse effect. It's a huge experiment and a lot of
people are afraid of the idea!

We can avoid these effects by avoiding the creation of greenhouse gases such as CO2.

Gases of the atmosphere

The atmosphere is composed of several gases, among the most important are: oxygen, which is
necessary for the metabolism of living beings, the nitrogen from which the essential compounds
are formed for the growth of plants, the dioxide carbon for photosynthesis, and water, whose
atmospheric cycle determines the different climates.

The scarce components of the atmosphere and some anthropogenic substances can alter the
natural composition of the atmosphere and therefore affect the delicate balance between it and
the biosphere. The ozone layer located around 30 kilometers high absorbs most of the
ultraviolet radiation from the sun that is dangerous to life. On the other hand, the presence of
only 0.2 parts per million of ozone produced by polluting gases in the troposphere increases the
formation of smog.
The load of pollutants that is discarded on the surface of the planet and in the atmosphere is
increasingly alarming. The causes of all this are: the growing use of energy sources, the increase
in population, the uncontrollable production of material goods, deforestation and the need to
produce more food.

The emissions of gases into the atmosphere, as a result of industrial, agricultural, livestock,
domestic and mobile sources, bring about changes in the climate, through the greenhouse effect
and effects on the ozone layer. This causes the disappearance of many species of plants and
animals and also, effects on the health of the human being. The alarming thing about all this is
the speed with which these processes are taking place, in contrast to our indifference.

It must be understood that the right to manipulate nature must not be conditioned to the
unrestricted production of consumer goods and that sustainable development must prevail,
guaranteeing our future generations a planet that can be inhabited.

Acid rain

Acid rain is produced mainly by the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2).
These gases and the acidic compounds formed from them pass from air to clouds by solubilizing
in the water the drops that form the clouds.

Then, through various mechanisms such as rain, snow, fog and dry deposits, acidification of
water and soil occurs.

Clean rainwater can be considered naturally acid, since it has an approximate pH of 5.6. This is
due to the carbon dioxide (CO2) of the atmosphere that is absorbed by the water droplets of
the clouds forming a weakly acid solution of carbonic acid.

Meanwhile, acid rain has a pH between 4.5 and 5.6, although pH has been observed. The main
compounds found in acid rain are:

Sulfuric acid: generated mainly by the anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and the natural ones of
hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S).

Nitric acid: generated by anthropogenic NOx emissions.

Carbonic acid: generated from CO2 that is mostly of natural origin although part comes from
the combustion of fossil fuels.
Organic acids: they are mainly: acetic, originated in petrochemical processes; and the formic,
which comes from the decomposition of complex hydrocarbons.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity derives from the expression "biological diversity" and alludes to the variety of the
biological world. In its broadest sense, biodiversity is almost synonymous with "life on earth."

Three hierarchical levels of biodiversity that affect men in particular are considered:

Genes

Species.

Ecosystems

But it is important to know that this is one of the ways of evaluating biodiversity and that there
is no exact definition of the term or how to measure biodiversity. The biological world is
organized at levels that go from less to more complex, at one extreme are the most important
molecules for life and at the other the communities of species that live within the ecosystems.
There are manifestations of biological diversity at all levels. As biodiversity encompasses a broad
range of concepts and can be considered at different levels and scales, it is not possible to reduce
it to a single measure. In practice, species diversity is a central aspect to assess the diversity of
the other levels and constitutes the point of reference for all biodiversity studies.

Nuclear energy pollution

Nuclear energy is cheaper than thermal, but it produces harmful waste. This radioactive waste,
which can take centuries to become inert, is transported to its garbage dumps for very long
journeys. Although many precautions are taken, the potential for accidents exists and the
consequences are often very serious, both for life and for their habitat. The recent disaster at
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, caused the deaths of more than thirty people, the
evacuation of thousands and the loss of animals and crops, but their future effects can be even
worse.

Concentrations of ozone in the stratosphere protect from the ultraviolet rays of the Sun. During
the last decades, however, a decrease has been detected, especially in the Antarctic polar zone,
which has been attributed to the use of chlorofluorocarbons and could cause damage to the
crops, marine plankton and the tissues of living beings.
Water contamination

It is the action or the effect of adding to the water some material or condition, directly or
indirectly, that imply an unfavorable alteration of its quality in relation to its later uses or its
environmental services.

Water pollution can come from natural sources or from human activities. At present the most
important is undoubtedly caused by man. The development and the industrialization suppose a
greater use of water, a great generation of waste many of which go to stop to the water and the
use of means of fluvial and maritime transport that in many occasions, are cause of
contamination of waters. Surface waters are generally more vulnerable to pollution of
anthropogenic origin than groundwater, because of their direct exposure to human activity. On
the other hand, a surface source can be restored more quickly than an underground source
through seasonal runoff cycles. The effects on quality will be different for lakes and reservoirs
than for rivers, and different for rock or sand and gravel aquifers.

Soil pollution and destruction

It usually appears when there is a rupture of underground storage tanks, application of

pesticides, leaks from sanitary landfills or direct accumulation of industrial products, which
produces a drop in the environment as the soil becomes infertile. A soil can degrade when
substances accumulate in it at levels that negatively affect the behavior of soils. Substances, at
those levels of concentration, become toxic to soil organisms. It is therefore a chemical
degradation that causes the partial or total loss of soil productivity.

The most common chemicals include petroleum products, solvents, pesticides and other heavy
metals. This phenomenon is closely related to the degree of industrialization and intensity of
the use of chemical products.

Regarding soil contamination, its risk is primarily health, directly and when in contact with
sources of drinking water. The delimitation of contaminated areas and the resulting cleanup of
these are tasks that consume a lot of time and money, requiring extensive skills in geology,
hydrography, chemistry and computer models.

Pollutants and soil destroyers

The main agents are: insecticides, glass, plastic, organic matter, solvents, pesticides, or
radioactive substances, etc.
Insecticides

They are used to exterminate insect pests. They act on larvae, eggs or adult insects. One of the
most used insecticides was DDT, which is characterized by being very fast. It works by contact
and is absorbed by the cuticle of insects, causing death. This insecticide can be maintained for
10 years or more in soils and does not decompose.

Herbicides

They are a type of chemical compound that destroys the vegetation, since they prevent the
growth of the vegetables in their juvenile stage or they exert an action on the metabolism of the
adult vegetables. This means that the birds that feed on the vegetation sprayed with these
herbicides fall contaminated and die.

Fungicides

They are pesticides that are used to combat the development of fungi (phytoparasites). They
contain the metals sulfur and copper.

Mining activity

The presence of contaminants in a soil supposes the existence of potential harmful effects for
man, fauna in general and vegetation. These toxic effects will depend on the toxicological
characteristics of each pollutant and its concentration. The enormous variety of existing
polluting substances implies a wide spectrum of toxicological conditions whose description is
not the subject of this work.
CONCLUTIONS
Humanity, after a great technological advance, has fallen into an environmental crisis,
which is just about to begin. And it is due to the misuse of natural resources and the
production of pollutants of different types that have destroyed much of our
environment. Fortunately, many are aware of this situation and are acting to counteract
it, even if there are damages that need many years to be healed.
All in one way or another contribute to the pollution of our world, from what we eat to
what we throw away, implies a benefit or damage to the environment.
That is why the destiny of the human race depends on what we do today to put a stop
to the contamination, because otherwise, within a few hundred years, the land will
continue to exist, but perhaps without those that now we inhabit

Bibliography
mariomendezallendes.blogspot.com/.../los-problemas-ambientales-en..
html.rincondelvago.com/problemas-ambientales-actuales.html
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminación_del_suelo
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminación_hídrica
PICTURES