Air Pollution And Water Pollution

Air Pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulates, biological materials, or other harmful materials into the Earth's atmosphere, possibly causing disease, death to humans, damage to other living organisms such as food crops, or the natural or built environment. The atmosphere is a complex natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems. Indoor air pollution (see Airlog) and urban air quality are listed as two of the worlds worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 Blacksmith InstituteWorld's Worst Polluted Places report.[1]

Pollutants
An air pollutant is a substance in the air that can have adverse effects on humans and the ecosystem. The substance can be solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. A pollutant can be of natural origin or man-made. Pollutants are classified as primary or secondary. Primary pollutants are usually produced from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption. Other examples include carbon monoxide gas from motor vehicle exhaust, or the sulfur dioxide released from factories. Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly. Rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants react or interact.Ground level ozone is a prominent example of a secondary pollutant. Some pollutants may be both primary and secondary: they are both emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants.

Sources
There are various locations, activities or factors which are responsible for releasing pollutants into the atmosphere. These sources can be classified into two major categories. Anthropogenic (man-made) sources: These are mostly related to the burning of multiple types of fuel. Stationary Sources include smoke stacks of power plants, manufacturing facilities (factories) and waste incinerators, as well as furnaces and other types of fuel-burning heating devices. In developing and poor countries, traditional biomass burning is the major source of air pollutants; traditional biomass includes wood, crop waste and dung.[5][6] Mobile Sources include motor vehicles, marine vessels, and aircraft. Chemicals, dust and controlled burn practices in agriculture and forest management. Controlled or prescribed burning is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for foresters. Controlled burning stimulates the germination of some desirable forest trees, thus renewing the forest.

Fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and other solvents Waste deposition in landfills, which generate methane. Methane is highly flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air. Methane is also anasphyxiant and may displace oxygen in an enclosed space. Asphyxia or suffocation may result if the oxygen concentration is reduced to below 19.5% by displacement. Military resources, such as nuclear weapons, toxic gases, germ warfare and rocketry

Health Effects
Air pollution is a significant risk factor for multiple health conditions including respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer, according to the WHO. The health effects caused by air pollution may include difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing, asthma and aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. These effects can result in increased medication use, increased doctor or emergency room visits, more hospital admissions and premature death. The human health effects of poor air quality are far reaching, but principally affect the body's respiratory system and the cardiovascular system. Individual reactions to air pollutants depend on the type of pollutant a person is exposed to, the degree of exposure, the individual's health status and genetics.[13] The most common sources of air pollution include particulates, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. Both indoor and outdoor air pollution have caused approximately 3.3 million deaths worldwide. Children aged less than five years that live in developing countries are the most vulnerable population in terms of total deaths attributable to indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Water Pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). Water pollution occurs whenpollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds. Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities.

Category
Surface water and groundwater have often been studied and managed as separate resources, although they are interrelated. Surface water seeps through the soil and becomes groundwater. Conversely, groundwater can also feed surface water sources. Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two categories based on their origin.

Point sources
Point source water pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway from a single, identifiable source, such as a pipe or ditch. Examples of sources in this category include discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) defines point source for regulatory enforcement purposes. The CWA definition of point source was amended in 1987 to include municipal storm sewer systems, as well as industrial stormwater, such as from construction sites.

Nonpoint sources
Nonpoint source pollution refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from a single discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area. A common example is the leaching out of nitrogen compounds from fertilized agricultural lands. Nutrient runoff in stormwater from "sheet flow" over an agricultural field or a forest are also cited as examples of NPS pollution. Contaminated storm water washed off of parking lots, roads and highways, called urban runoff, is sometimes included under the category of NPS pollution. However, this runoff is typically channeled into storm drain systems and discharged through pipes to local surface waters, and is a point source.

Causes and other contaminants

Contaminants may include organic and inorganic substances. Organic water pollutants include:

Detergents Disinfection by-products found in chemically disinfected drinking water, such as chloroform Food processing waste, which can include oxygen-demanding substances, fats and grease Insecticides and herbicides, a huge range of organohalides and other chemical compounds

Petroleum hydrocarbons, including fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuels, and fuel oil) and lubricants (motor oil), and fuel combustion byproducts, from stormwater runoff[16] Tree and bush debris from logging operations Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as industrial solvents, from improper storage. Chlorinated solvents, which are dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs), may fall to the bottom of reservoirs, since they don't mix well with water and are denser. Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) Trichloroethylene Perchlorate Various chemical compounds found in personal hygiene and cosmetic products Drug pollution involving pharmaceutical drugs and their metabolites

Energy transformation
Energy transformation or energy conversion is the process of changing one form of energy to another. In physics, the term energy describes the capacity to produce certain changes within a system, without regard to limitations in transformation imposed by Entropy. Changes in total energy of systems can only be accomplished by adding or removing energy from them, as energy is a quantity which is conserved (unchanging), as stated by the first law of thermodynamics.Mass-energy equivalence, which arose from special relativity, says that changes in the energy of systems will also coincide with changes (often small in practice) in the system's mass, and the mass of a system is a measure of its energy content. Energy in its various forms may be used in natural processes, or to provide some service to society such as heating, refrigeration, light, or performing mechanical work to operate machines. For example, an internal combustion engine converts the potential chemical energy in gasoline and oxygen into thermal energy which, by causing pressure and performing work on the pistons, is transformed into the mechanical energy that accelerates the vehicle (increasing its kinetic energy) and that pushes it up hills (increasing its gravitational potential energy)no its not. A solar cell converts the radiant energy ofsunlight into electrical energy that can then be used to light a bulb or power a computer. The generic name for a device which converts energy from one form to another, is a transducer. Conversions to thermal energy (thus raising the temperature) from other forms of energy, may occur with essentially 100% efficiency[citation needed] (many types of friction do this). Conversion among non-thermal forms of energy may occur with fairly high efficiency, though there is always some energy dissipated thermally due to friction and similar processes. Sometimes the efficiency is close to 100%, such as when potential energy is converted to kinetic energy as an object falls in vacuum, or when an object orbits nearer or farther from another object, in space. On the other hand, conversion of thermal energy to other forms, thus reducing the temperature of a system, has strict limitations, often keeping its efficiency much less than 100% (even when energy is not allowed to escape from the system). This is because thermal energy has already been partly spread out among many available states of a collection of microscopic particles constituting the system, which can have enormous numbers of possible combinations of momentum and position (these combinations are said to form a phase space). In such circumstances, a measure called entropy, or evening-out of energy distributions, dictates that future states of an isolated system must be of at least equal evenness in energy distribution. In other words, there is no way to concentrate energy without spreading out energy somewhere else. Thermal energy in equilibrium at a given temperature already represents the maximal eveningout of energy between all possible states. Such energy is sometimes considered "degraded energy," because it is not entirely convertible a "useful" form, i.e. one that can do more than just affect temperature. The second law of thermodynamics is a way of stating that, for this reason, thermal energy in a system may be converted to other kinds of energy with efficiencies approaching 100%, only if the entropy (even-ness or disorder) of the universe is increased by other means, to compensate for the decrease in entropy associated with the disappearance of the thermal energy and its entropy content. Otherwise, only a part of thermal energy may be converted to other kinds of energy (and thus, useful work), since the remainder of the heat must be reserved to be transferred to a thermal reservoir at a lower temperature, in such a way that the increase in Entropy for this process more than compensates for the entropy decrease associated with transformation of the rest of the heat into other types of energy.

Wildlife
Wildlife traditionally refers to non-domesticated animal species, but has come to include all plants, fungi and other organisms which grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans.[1] Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Deserts, forests, rain forests, plains, grasslands, and other areas including the most developed urbansites, all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, [2] most scientists agree that wildlife around is affected by human activities. Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. Some animals, however, have adapted to suburban environments. This includes such animals as domesticated cats, dogs, mice, and gerbils. Religions have often declared certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times concern for the natural environment has provoked activists to protest the exploitation of wildlife for human benefit or entertainment.

Food, pets, and traditional medicines

Anthropologists believe that the Stone Age people and hunter-gatherers relied on wildlife, both plants and animals, for their food. In fact, some species may have been hunted to extinction by early human hunters. Today, hunting, fishing, and gathering wildlife is still a significant food source in some parts of the world. In other areas, hunting and non-commercial fishing are mainly seen as a sport or recreation, with the edible meat as mostly a side benefit.[citation needed] Meat sourced from wildlife that is not traditionally regarded as game is known as bush meat. The increasing demand for wildlife as a source of traditional food in East Asia is decimating populations of sharks, primates, pangolins and other animals, which they believe have aphrodisiac properties. In November 2008, almost 900 plucked and "oven-ready" owls and other protected wildlife species were confiscated by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Malaysia, according toTRAFFIC. The animals were believed to be bound for China, to be sold in wild meat restaurants. Most are listed in CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which prohibits or restricts such trade.

Religion
Many animal species have spiritual significance in different cultures around the world, and they and their products may be used as sacred objects in religious rituals. For example, eagles, hawks and their feathers have great cultural and spiritual value to Native Americans as religious objects. In Hinduism the cow is regarded sacred.[5]

Tourism
Many countries have established their tourism sector around their natural wildlife. South Africa has, for example, many opportunities for tourists to see the country's wildlife in its National Parks, such as the Kruger Park.In South India the Periar Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park and Mudamalai Wildlife Sanctuary are situated around and in forests.

Petroleum products
Petroleum products are useful materials derived from crude oil (petroleum) as it is processed in oil refineries. Unlike petrochemicals, which are a collection of well-defined usually pure chemical compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. The majority of petroleum is converted to petroleum products, which includes several classes of fuels.[1] According to the composition of the crude oil and depending on the demands of the market, refineries can produce different shares of petroleum products. The largest share of oil products is used as "energy carriers", i.e. various grades of fuel oil and gasoline. These fuels include or can be blended to give gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, heating oil, and heavier fuel oils. Heavier (less volatile) fractions can also be used to produce asphalt, tar,paraffin wax, lubricating and other heavy oils. Refineries also produce other chemicals, some of which are used in chemical processes to produceplastics and other useful materials. Since petroleum often contains a few percent sulfur-containing molecules, elemental sulfur is also often produced as a petroleum product. Carbon, in the form of petroleum coke, and hydrogen may also be produced as petroleum products. The hydrogen produced is often used as an intermediate product for other oil refinery processes such as hydrocracking and hydrodesulfurization.

Major products of oil refineries

Asphalt Diesel fuel Fuel oils Gasoline Jet fuel Kerosene

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Lubricating oils Paraffin wax Tar Petrochemicals

Specialty end products

Oil refineries will blend various feedstocks, mix appropriate additives, provide short term storage, and prepare for bulk loading to trucks, barges, product ships, and railcars.

Gaseous fuels such as propane, stored and shipped in liquid form under pressure in specialized railcars to distributors. Liquid fuels blending (producing automotive and aviation grades of gasoline, kerosene, various aviation turbine fuels, and diesel fuels, adding dyes, detergents, antiknock additives, oxygenates, and anti-fungal compounds as required). Shipped by barge, rail, and tanker ship. May be shipped regionally in dedicated pipelines to point consumers, particularly aviation jet fuel to major airports, or piped to distributors in multi-product pipelines using product separators called pipeline inspection gauges ("pigs"). Lubricants (produces light machine oils, motor oils, and greases, adding viscosity stabilizers as required), usually shipped in bulk to an offsite packaging plant. Paraffin wax, used in the packaging of frozen foods, among others. May be shipped in bulk to a site to prepare as packaged blocks. Slack wax, a raw refinery output comprising a mixture of oil and wax used as a precursor for scale wax and paraffin wax and as-is in non-food products such as wax emulsions, construction board, matches, candles, rust protection, and vapor barriers.

Sulfur, byproduct of sulfur removal from petroleum, which contain percent of organosulfur compounds. Bulk tar shipping for offsite unit packaging for use in tar-and-gravel roofing or similar uses. Asphalt - used as a binder for gravel to form asphalt concrete, which is used for paving roads, lots, etc. An asphalt unit prepares bulk asphalt for shipment. Petroleum coke, used in specialty carbon products such as certain types of electrodes, or as solid fuel. Petrochemicals or petrochemical feedstocks. Petrochemical are organic compounds that are the ingredients for the chemical industry, ranging from polymers and pharmaceuticals. Representative petrochemicals are ethylene and benzene-toluene-xylenes ("BTX").

Petroleum By-products
Over 6000 items are made from petroleum waste by-products including: Fertilizer, Linoleum, Perfume, Insecticide, Petroleum Jelly, Soap, Vitamin Capsules. See link to partial list of 144 byproducts listed by Ranken Energy