Environmental pollution: greenhouse effect, air quality, and water contamination

Environment Will Get You

Theme -- Environmental Psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the way humans and their surroundings interact. The environment is a broad term in this case, and encompasses nature, social settings, urban environments, learning environments and informational environments.

The environment is everything that surrounds us -- both good and bad

Air-quality -- Outdoor

The Greenhouse Effect is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the environment caused by pollution and an eroding of the ozone layer -- this allows the sun's rays in, but not out, and causes a buildup of heat

Some believe that this is also caused by natural phenomenon like volcanoes, earthquakes and the amount of precipitation that occurs naturally

Pollution into the air is nothing new; but since the Industrial Revolution, CO2 has increased in the atmosphere, at least 15% in the last century.

The so-called Ozone Hole was discovered in 1986 in Antarctica; this changes the way the earth "respirates" and has also been known to cause ozone poisoning to people who travel into high levels of ozone through airline travel

Automobile pollution is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect because when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxidize in sunlight, they combine to form harmful oxidants. These oxidants are largely responsible for "smog" or the brown haze over many cities.

Lead was a major pollutant in gasoline until it was reduced to the point at which 1% or less is now mandated in U.S. gasoline.

There are a number of pollutants that arise from industry, mostly sulfur from energy plants -- especially coal, which is one of the most serious pollution sources

Natural gas, however, is one of the cleaner forms of energy and requires less volatile production to refine.

Air Quality -- Indoor

The most common indoor pollutants are cigarette smoke, asbestos, radon, and formaldehyde. Natural contaminants are dust mites, fungus, and bacteria.

Smoking is hazardous to health -- whether by ingesting or second-hand. The medical effects of tobacco use are well-documented, and include heart and lung disease, organ failure, and a host of other respiratory maladies.

Asbestos, radon and formaldehyde come from artificial insulation and/or construction materials -- most now banned in new construction. Radon is the most prominent pollutant, widely found in rocks and soils.

Noise pollution is also a serious indoor problem. From music to jets to urban noise, particularly at the volume levels people now use, are hazardous to hearing. This is also problematic in factories and construction sites and should be mitigated by wearing protective gear.

OSHA estimates that noise and other indoor pollutants have increased tenfold in the last 20 years.

The Land

Chemical Dumps have been part of the hazardous waste problem for decades, with almost 80,000 landfills in the U.S. alone -- also contributing to groundwater pollution as toxins are washed into the soil from trash dumps

In a random sample of 39 U.S. cities, the most common pollutant in groundwater was trichloronethylene, a product of industrial and home wastes placed in landfills

Landfills have an extraordinarily high level (almost 60%) of non-compliance with EPA rules; septic tanks and cesspools are the largest polluters of land and the most frequent source of fecal, toxic, and poison contamination

Insecticides and herbicides do not magically disappear once they are used, but leech into the ground water and are taken up by plants and animals and sometimes remaining toxic for decades.

Source:

Bechtel, R. (1997). Environment and Behavior: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Publications.