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Posted

Hello World, I'm doing a little research on the pollution sources and how big is their impact on our and environments' health.

 

Can some please mention some NATURAL sources of pollution? Please also mention how they pollute the environment and how big their impact is.

 

P.S: The more the better :)

Posted

What do you define as pollution? Is carbon dioxide and water vapor that is exhaled by animals pollution? Is carbon monoxide released from volcanoes pollution?

 

It might also help to research natural 'anti-polluters' such as plants, that remove/counteract the pollution in the atmosphere.

Posted

naturally, i think of how volcanic eruptions pollute both air and oceans. :read:

 

  usgs said:
...The volcanic gases that pose the greatest potential hazard to people, animals, agriculture, and property are sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen fluoride. Locally, sulfur dioxide gas can lead to acid rain and air pollution downwind from a volcano. Globally, large explosive eruptions that inject a tremendous volume of sulfur aerosols into the stratosphere can lead to lower surface temperatures and promote depletion of the Earth's ozone layer. Because carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air, the gas may flow into in low-lying areas and collect in the soil. The concentration of carbon dioxide gas in these areas can be lethal to people, animals, and vegetation. A few historic eruptions have released sufficient fluorine-compounds to deform or kill animals that grazed on vegetation coated with volcanic ash; fluorine compounds tend to become concentrated on fine-grained ash particles, which can be ingested by animals.

...

more at >> volcanic gasses and their effects @usgs

Posted
  On 6/8/2011 at 11:12 PM, Turtle said:

naturally, i think of how volcanic eruptions pollute both air and oceans. :read:

 

 

more at >> volcanic gasses and their effects @usgs

 

 

Me taking a dump is pollution.. If I took a dump into a stream, it could pollute it with bad bacteria.

 

Everybody has excrement.. thats the big Natural pollution problem. Turn excrement into a fuel source and keep it out of waterways

Posted

But how can you have a natural source of pollution? Then it is just nature, no?

 

I mean take methan farted from cows and other grazing animals for instance. Methan is way worse for the atmosphere than CO_2 and it is a big contribution factor in global warming now. But then the quantities of cows & friends on earth today is way higher than it would be naturally, so this methan can no more be counted as a natural source of pollution....

 

As to volcanos it is really dependant on how you define pollution...I always saw pollution only as man-induced effect.

Posted

Polymath, actually I'm more interested in natural sources which give almost human like damage to nature.

 

Yes, I know it's a hard subject to think of, even I couldn't get anything after volcanoes.

Posted
  sanctus said:
...As to volcanos it is really dependant on how you define pollution...I always saw pollution only as man-induced effect.

 

 

  dictionary said:
pollution: The contamination of air, water, or soil by substances that are harmful to living organisms. Pollution can occur naturally, for example through volcanic eruptions, or as the result of human activities, such as the spilling of oil or disposal of industrial waste...
define pollution

 

natural oil seeps. :read:

 

  livescience said:
...There is effectively an oil spill every day at Coal Oil Point (COP), the natural seeps off Santa Barbara where 20 to 25 tons of oil have leaked from the seafloor each day for the last several hundred thousand years. The oil from natural seeps and from man-made spills are both formed from the decay of buried fossil remains that are transformed over millions of years through exposure to heat and pressure.

 

...

 

Natural Oil 'Spills': Surprising Amount Seeps into the Sea

Posted

Ok with this definition you have many more: volcanos, forest fires (started by lightning...but then some seeds open only if the are burnt, so for those trees forest fire is beneficial but not for other living beings), meteor impacts (I guess similar effect as volcanos but other causes), earthquakes/landslides liberating some gases in the ground, some sea-quacke liberating compressed methan on the ground of the sea (=one of the explanations of the Bermuda triangle),...

Posted

I think we need to define pollution a bit more narrowly, what is pollution to one species can be food or energy to another. The only real pollution would be something no other life form can use to it's own benefit. Some fungi actually use gamma rays to "photosynthesize" food so pollution is a bit of a relative term.

Posted
  On 6/9/2011 at 7:35 PM, Moontanman said:

I think we need to define pollution a bit more narrowly, what is pollution to one species can be food or energy to another. The only real pollution would be something no other life form can use to it's own benefit. Some fungi actually use gamma rays to "photosynthesize" food so pollution is a bit of a relative term.

 

the definition is fine. we simply need to broaden understanding. while we have found an increasing number of extremophiles they are the exceptions to the norm; ergo extremo-. since it is we humans who have defined pollution, the questions about pollution most necessarily concern its effects on humans & the normal life they associate with.

 

so for example, ranchers -at risk of death- recently in Iceland had to round up their sheep & put them in barns to protect them from volcanic ash (pollution) and, presumably, pnuemononoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis if not outright asphyxiation. :lightning: :omg: :rip:

 

back on oil seeps, there is the famous la brea tar pits in california. mmm...erh...well....Pollution! :lol:

 

la brea tar pits @ wiki

  Quote
The La Brea Tar Pits (or Rancho La Brea Tar Pits) are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar (brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water. Over many centuries, animals that came to drink the water fell in, sank in the tar, and were preserved as bones. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. ...

 

then we can look into pollution of water by mineral deposits, i.e. water harmful to us & most life. :sherlock: who want's to do this one? :turtle: :hal_skeleton:

 

edit: ps

in a word, eutrophication.

  dictionary said:
Having waters rich in mineral and organic nutrients that promote a proliferation of plant life, especially algae, which reduces the dissolved oxygen content and often causes the extinction of other organisms. Used of a lake or pond.
Posted
  On 6/9/2011 at 4:57 PM, Alpine said:

Polymath, actually I'm more interested in natural sources which give almost human like damage to nature.

 

As has been mentioned, what is negative to (damages) one part of nature may be crucial to another. And what is meant by "human-like damage to nature"? Could you clarify/reword it?

Posted
  On 6/10/2011 at 2:28 PM, The Polymath said:

As has been mentioned, what is negative to (damages) one part of nature may be crucial to another. And what is meant by "human-like damage to nature"? Could you clarify/reword it?

 

By human-like damage, I meant that normally the damage we humans do to the nature has long term consequences. Something like a volcanic eruption can cause long term damage to environment and hence, for me, it is a natural source of pollution which can cause "human-like damage".

 

Forgive me, I'm only 16 so my vocabulary and knowledge is a little limited right now. :(

Posted
  On 6/8/2011 at 6:30 PM, Alpine said:

Hello World, I'm doing a little research on the pollution sources and how big is their impact on our and environments' health.

 

Can some please mention some NATURAL sources of pollution? Please also mention how they pollute the environment and how big their impact is.

 

P.S: The more the better :)

Sounds like a can of worms to me.

Define pollution?

How can you separate environmental damage from human activity?

Pollution seems to occur when normal feedback loops fail

Posted
  On 6/11/2011 at 1:55 AM, Michaelangelica said:

Sounds like a can of worms to me.

Define pollution?

How can you separate environmental damage from human activity?

Pollution seems to occur when normal feedback loops fail

 

:doh: i just gave a dictionary definition in post #10. the other michael didn't want to use it either. good grief boys!! if you can't breath it or drink it or eat it or your kitty can't drink it or breathe it or eat it or your flowers can't breath it or drink it or eat it, then it's polluted. there is natural pollution and we have given numerous examples to that issue. who's to say what pollution is? we are. i am. we're trying to scientifically inform an inquisitive student here, not trot out personal issues. use some common sense people. :soapbox:

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