POLLUTION OF AIR AND WATER

Air consists of various gases. By volume, about 78% is nitrogen,

21% is oxygen and 1% are gases like argon, carbon dioxide,
methane, ozone and water vapour.

When air is contaminated with unwanted substances which have a

harmful effect on both living and non-living, it is called as air
pollution. Substances which contaminate the air are called air
pollutants. There are two types of pollutants :-
 Natural pollutants:
 Smoke and Dust – Forest fires, volcanic eruptions.
 Human made pollutants:
 Vehicles - Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen
oxides, smoke.
 Petroleum refineries – Sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide
 Coal’s combustion – Sulphur dioxide
 Refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosol sprays –
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)

The trapping of sun’s rays to make the Earth warmer is called

greenhouse effect. It is possible due to some gases like carbon
dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapour because they absorb
the sun’s rays and don’t let them escape and therefore these gases
are termed as greenhouse gases.

The increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s

atmosphere is called global warming. The reasons for this are :-
 Increase in greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxide and water vapour is a main reason for global
warming because usually, the Earth absorb half of the rays of
the Sun and the other half is reflected back but greenhouse
 gases absorb some part of the reflected back rays and help
the Earth to stay warm. But when, these gases become
excessive in the atmosphere they trap more heat and make
the Earth become warmer.
 Causes of global warming :-
 Increase in number of industries release greenhouse
gases.
 Deforestation leads to increase in CO2 because trees use
CO2 but when these trees are cut CO2 becomes abundant
in the nature.
 Vehicles emit a large number of greenhouse gases due to
incomplete combustion of petrol and diesel.
 Burning of fossil fuels release also release greenhouse
gases.
 Refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol sprays
release CFC which is greenhouse gas and also destroys
ozone layer which saves us from harmful radiation of
Sun.
 Consequences or effects of global warming :-
 It can lead to melting of polar caps and glaciers which
leads to flood in areas having low sea level.
 It can lead to extreme or unpredictable weather
conditions which can lead to droughts as well as floods.
 It can lead to more number of patients of diseases
related to mosquito due to hot weather.
 How to control global warming :-
 We can use cleaner fuels like CNG, unleaded petrol and
LPG.
 We can do carpooling to reduce the number of emissions
from vehicles.
 We can reduce the usage of objects which emit gases
like CFC.
 We can make guidelines for industries to treat the
contaminants in the released air.
  We can plant trees to reduce the amount of CO2 in the
air.

Whenever harmful substances such as sewage, toxic chemicals,

silt, etc. get mixed with water, the water becomes polluted and it
is called water pollution. The substances that pollute water are
called water pollutants.
 Some water pollutants are fertilizers, detergent, leather,
food wastes, etc.
 Causes of water pollution :-
 Washing away of the residual fertilizers into water-
bodies by rain causes faster growth of algae. These
leads to the covering of the water body by algae. Such a
condition is called algem bloom. These weeds consume
most of the dissolved oxygen from the water of such
water-bodies. The deficiency of oxygen in the water may
cause death of aquatic animals. This loss of dissolved
oxygen from water in water-bodies is called
eutrophication.