Pollution

My project is about how pollution affects the world.
Aabish Rana
Grade 7

Presentation

No video provided

Hypothesis

Water: I think the water will become dirty because of the pollution I put in. I think it will also be green or brown because the pollution will change the colour of the water. If the pollution in the water makes the water become toxic and unsuitable then I think the water would have dead bugs in it because bugs are attracted to dirty things (mostly fruit flies).

 

Soil: I think the soil will become dry and crusty because I think the pollution I put in might have spread all over and inside the soil. I think this would also make the soil toxic and unhealthy because now it has dirty and toxic things spreading inside of it. If the soil becomes dry and poor then I don’t think things can grow out of it nor live inside of it.

 

 

Research

Pollution affects water in many ways. Some ways it can affect water is making the water unsuitable for drinking, cooking, cleaning and other water related activities. You can’t do these things if there’s pollution in them because the toxic bacteria and unhealthy chemicals the pollution holds makes the water dirty and toxic which can make you sick, and in some cases, lead to death. 

Pollution affects soil in different types of ways. Some ways it can affect soil can be changing the soil’s biodiversity, decreasing soil organic matter and making the soil’s volume act like a strain/filter. Soil pollution also causes contamination of soil. 

Pollution affects air in different ways. Some ways can be: acid rain, agriculture, greenhouse gas pollution, and harm of many forests. 

Pollution is a handful of toxic gases and chemicals. These things are actually called “Pollutants”. Pollutants are what makes up pollution. Pollutants can just be natural things such as volcanic ash, some pollutants can also be man made, some man made pollutants are trash or runoff from factories. Pollution can also come from transportation methods because vehicles are usually loud and because of that, noise pollution is made. All living things from one-celled microbes all the way to whales depend on water and air but because these things are threatened by pollution, because of this every living thing is in extreme danger. Water, air and even soil carry pollutants which makes the life for animals and even humans very difficult. Pollution can travel in many ways, two ways are through air patterns and air circulation. Human activity is actually the main cause of pollution spreading and also the reason for how pollution is so populated and such a huge matter. Chemicals in pollution such as Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide, and Sulphur Dioxide pollutants from China have easily made their way to the west coast of the United States. Looking at a map, you can see that it could have spread into other countries on its way to the United States. The three main pollutants are water, air and land pollution (I'm doing water, air and soil pollution). 

Water pollution is when chemicals are getting suspended in rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and more bodies of water. Water pollution can make water unstable for multiple things, some examples are cooking, drinking, cleaning, swimming and other water related activities. Water pollution can affect many things, but not just us humans, water pollution can have an affect on plants and animals too. . 

There are many causes of water pollution, some examples are global warming, deforestation, the act of spilling fuel, livestock farming and much more. Along with causes, there come consequences and effects to water pollution, some are agriculture, diseases, food chain disruption, economic impacts and many more. Since water pollution is so populated, 80% of diseases in a lot of countries around the globe are related to water pollution as long as water pollution is one of these diseases. Water pollution has gotten so bad, every year more people die from the unsafe water that water pollution causes compared to all deaths caused from forms of action including war. The population of water pollution has increased so much that there’s only 3% of fresh water left in the world and only 1.2% of that can be used as drinking water. 

 

Air Pollution is when solid or liquid substances and many different types of gases drift away in the environment and make the air around us unhealthy and dangerous to breathe and just be in. There are many things that make up and cause Air Pollution some examples of these things are: the burning of fossil fuels, indoor air pollution, wildfires and open burning of garbage waste, these are only some of many things that can cause air pollution. Air pollution can damage many things harshly, some examples are crops and trees. The reason for this damage is because air pollution reduces the growth and survivability of trees. The trees can also get a disease because of the air pollution which is painful for trees. 

Air pollution is also one of the most harmful types of pollutants, the reason being health threats and many other things it can do to humans, plants, animals and the environment.

Air pollution is everywhere around us, mostly in polluted areas, this is because it is in the air and air is everywhere around us. Air Pollution can affect everyone including animals, this is because it’s one of 3 major types of pollution known to mankind which makes it even more dangerous and a huger threat. Since air pollution is such a dangerous thing and everyone is inhaling it, it is the cause of 7 million deaths every year. The main materials of air pollution that are affecting the most health are nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and ozone. This is because these substances go into your lungs as you breathe which causes a health hazard. 

 

Soil pollution is when toxic chemicals and substances get drawn into the soil and occur harmfully to it. There’s many causes of soil pollution and how its population has gotten so big, some examples are climate change, deforestation, industrial waste and loss of soil fertility. Soil pollution can affect various things, some examples are human health, soil biodiversity, ecosystem health, people, plants, and animals. Soil pollution has gotten so overpopulated and intense that the planet loses 24 billion tonnes of topsoil every year just because of soil pollution. Since soil pollution is everywhere, it can affect people by inhalation, the reason being is that when the soil goes into the air, it becomes a type of dust and when you inhale it, the dust particles irritate your lungs which can then lead to puncturing your lungs. 

Soil pollution can also be caused by farmers using fertilisers and pesticides which is a high threat for farmers because they usually put fertiliser in their soil since it is made of perfect nutrients that will help the crop.

 

Pollution has been discovered for a long time and has been increasing since the mid 19 century. Throughout the increase of pollution, humans were one of the reasons for how much pollution has escalated between years. 

Since pollution has increased so much, people have came up with ways to minimise and stop pollution, these are some examples, decrease the use of ballone, when you're fishing double check that you don’t leave any fish nets or lines in the water, always keep your eyes peeled and look for trash from the beach and pick it up, use reusable water bottles, participating in community clean ups, switch to non plastic resources, decrease the amount of plastic you use in your life, avoid items with “pesticides”, try using sustainable transportation choices when possible (ones that aren’t too loud and expose less smoke),considering a electric vehicle, always turn of light when you are n using them, taking out plugs that are not in use (energy saving), grow your own fruits and vegetables, try to buy food from local markets and buy reusable resources. 

Firstly, what are rural and urban areas? Rural areas are the population living in towns and villages outside of the scaled down zone of larger urban areas/centres. Urban areas are mostly places with a population of 5,000. Rural areas are usually towns and villages and urban areas are places like the suburbs, cities and towns. Now that we know what rural areas and urban areas are, let’s take a look at the pollution’s impact on them. Pollution’s impact on rural areas can be pretty harsh, things like hay fever, iration on the eye, iration on the nose, iration in the throat, asthma and other allergy related diseases, these are the effects of the pollution spread in rural areas. Pollution’s effect on urban areas are things like the risk of heart stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory diseases and asthma. Pollution makes a bigger impact on urban areas than rural areas because urban areas are more populated and pollution spreads aggressively in populated areas more than it can in minor populated areas. This is a huge risk for the environment and especially for urban areas because pollution has a brutal impact for harshly populated areas.

In “dead” zones there is a huge shortage for oxygen and all marine life lives and struggles in these zones. Since there is so much unwanted plastic/garbage, 1.3% million ends up in the ocean and other bodies of water with causes marine life to suffer in ways that they get tangled up in the plastic, ingest it and suffocate because of it which threatens the population. Most of the deaths are caused because of humans, some examples are habitat destruction, oil spills, overfishing and littering. This pollution can brutally harm the marine food chain in which can result in harming human health too. Since pollution has gotten so absurd, water has slowly became acidic and more CO2 has been sucked into the ocean then usual. Since pollution has gotten so bad in the ocean, we have over 500 “dead” zones where no marine life can live because it’s way too polluted and dangerous. Marine life can be affected by various things but 1 million marine life has been lost because of pollution per year. It is also currently measured that there is 100 million tons of plastic all throughout the world. 

 

 

Variables

  • Manipulated: level of pollution
  • Responding: The pollution made the water and soil contaminated.
  • Controlled: amount of water & soil in containers. 

Procedure

Step 1. Collect garbage, litter, dirt, plastic, leaves etc.. 

Step 2. Collect water and soil. 

Step 3. Put water, soil and garbage (litter, dirty things; leaves, dirt, plastic etc..) in 2 separate containers. I will put all 3 containers outside for a more realistic experiment. 

Step 4. Observe every day for one week on a piece of paper using a data chart.

 

Observations

 

POLLUTION

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

Did anything change? (yes/very less/no)

very less

    yes

     no   

     no   

     yes     

     yes     

If it did change how?

The water has only changed a tiny bit, it has become brown & dirty after the snow melted (polluted).

The water became a little grey and it looks clear, the dirty particles have also reached the bottom. On the soil it only looks like there was steam on the sides of the container.

There was no difference.

There was no difference.

The water looks more clear. The soil’s compost has blended in the soil and it isn’t quite visible anymore. 

The water looked like normal water (cleaned) but you can see the dirt on the bottom (a layer of dirt). The soil has started to grow mould and fungus. 

Analysis

This experiment highlights that maybe all the water in the world thrat is polluted will spread to other bodies of water and maybe soon there wont' be fresh water anymore, becasue of the pollution and microplastics. This project also states that maybe all the soil in the world can grow fungus and mould in maybe 2050 and that is terrible because because can't have oxegyn; this is because → soil provides trees and if we can't have healthy soil, their won't be "living" trees.

Conclusion

Every kind of pollution leaves a brutal impact on our environment, people and animals. As a society, we must take steps to help reduce pollution because it’s only getting worse and worse throughout the years. Pollution is a great topic and that’s why I decided to continue it. 

My hypothesis was half right, I wasn’t right about the water having bugs or turning brown because it was clear and only the bottom was brown because it had filtered the dirt out. For the soil I was correct because it did become crusty and toxic but it also had fungus and mould. For my experiment, I think I could've done an air experiment too, to have a better and improved experiment but overall I think my experiment was good and better than my last year’s.


 

 

Application

This project can help in the daily life because, we can reflect of my experiment and see how we can help out.

Sources Of Error

My error was that I was gonna do an air experiment too since i was doing water, soil AND air. This went wrong because the air kept escaping the container and it just wouldn't have logically worked because I underestimated it and didn't think it through.

Citations

HOW POLLUTION AFFECTS WATER: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ehep/82-2/#:~:text=Water%20pollution%20is%20the%20contamination,make%20their%20way%20to%20water.

HOW POLLUTION AFFECTS SOIL: https://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1126974/#:~:text=Soil%20pollution%20causes%20a%20chain,an%20imbalance%20of%20soil%20nutrients. and - https://www.toppr.com/guides/chemistry/environmental-chemistry/soil-pollution/#:~:text=The%20incorrect%20way%20of%20chemical,dumping%20oil%20and%20fuel%2C%20etc.

HOW POLLUTION AFFECTS AIR: https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/air-quality/effects-air-pollution#:~:text=Air%20pollution%20affects%20all%20things,change%2C%20affects%20the%20entire%20planet.

WHAT IS POLLUTION?: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/pollution/# and https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF POLLUTION?: https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION?:  https://climatekids.nasa.gov/air-pollution/ & WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION - https://www.cdc.gov/air/pollutants.htm

WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION?: https://www.mass.gov/doc/health-environmental-effects-of-air-pollution/download

WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION?: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/pollution

WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION?: https://cdn.who.int/media/images/default-source/air-pollution/air-pollution-mix-of-outdoor-and-indoor-air-pollution.tmb-1920v.jpg?sfvrsn=b5fbc279_3%201920w

WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION?: https://unece.org/air-pollution-and-health

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?:  https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?:  https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ehep/82-2/

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?:  https://www.safewater.org/fact-sheets-1/2017/1/23/facts-and-statistics

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?:  https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/water-pollution

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?: https://www.envirotech-online.com/news/water-wastewater/9/breaking-news/6-effects-of-water-pollution/57707

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?:  https://www.seametrics.com/blog/water-pollution-facts/

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earths-fresh-water

WHAT IS SOIL POLLUTION?: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10064841/#:~:text=Airborne%20dust%20can%20impact%20human,or%200.1%20%C2%B5m%20in%20diameter.&text=Airborne%20dust%20may%20cause%20irritation,bronchitis%2C%20and%20even%20lung%20cancer.

WHAT IS SOIL POLLUTION?: https://www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/soil/

WHAT IS SOIL POLLUTION?: https://study.com/academy/lesson/soil-pollution-lesson-for-kids.html

WHAT IS SOIL POLLUTION?: https://www.permaculturenews.org/2017/04/03/38249/

WHAT IS SOIL POLLUTION?: https://www.rubbishplease.co.uk/blog/land-pollution-facts-statistics/#:~:text=The%20planet%20loses%2024%20billion,tonnes%20of%20oil%20being%20transported

HOW TO REDUCE/STOP POLLUTION?: https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/water-and-air-pollution#

HOW TO REDUCE/STOP POLLUTION?: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/nature/save-the-earth/article/13-ways-to-save-the-earth-from-pollution

HOW TO REDUCE/STOP POLLUTION?: https://www.unep.org/interactive/how-to-beat-pollution/

HOW TO REDUCE/STOP POLLUTION?: https://www.wikihow.com/Help-Stop-Pollution

POLLUTION'S IMPACT ON URBAN AND RURAL AREAS: https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/difference-between-urban-and-rural/

POLLUTION'S IMPACT ON URBAN AND RURAL AREAS: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/05/un-health-agency-warns-of-rise-in-urban-air-pollution-with-poorest-cities-most-at-risk/

POLLUTION'S IMPACT ON URBAN AND RURAL AREAS: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/21-006-x/21-006-x2001003-eng.pdf

POLLUTION'S IMPACT ON URBAN AND RURAL AREAS: https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/16341

HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE?: https://www.twinkl.com.au/teaching-wiki/ocean-pollution#:~:text=There%20are%20various%20dead%20zones,then%20eaten%20by%20larger%20animals.

HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE?: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/09/24/plastic-pollution-affects-sea-life-throughout-the-ocean#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20up,suffocation%2C%20starvation%2C%20and%20drowning.                                                                                                                                                              HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE? https://oceanconservationtrust.org/ocean-advocacy/think-ocean/ways-to-think-ocean/                                  HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE?: https://www.coursesidekick.com/health-science/2934448#:~:text=Plastics%20can%20release%20a%20variety,posing%20risks%20to%20human%20health. HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE?: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/kids-club/cool-kids/general-kids-club/plastic-in-the-ocean/#:~:text=The%20ocean%20has%20always%20sucked,coral%20to%20grow%20their%20shells. HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE?: https://www.condorferries.co.uk/marine-ocean-pollution-statistics-facts#:~:text=Almost%201%2C000%20species%20of%20marine,where%20marine%20life%20cannot%20exist. HOW DOES POLLUTION AFFECT MARINE LIFE?: https://conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-threats-marine-debris/#:~:text=The%20Problem%3A%20Over%201%20million,in%20oceans%20around%20the%20world.

 

 

Acknowledgement

I didn't have a partner so I have no acknowledgements.