A DYING EARTH

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow

it from our Children."

Ancient Native Indian Proverb

Tom McMillan

For 200 years we've been conquering Nature.  Now we're beating it to death. 

What is land pollution?

Land pollution is the degradation of earth's land surfaces often caused by human activities and their

misuse of land resources.

EFFECTS OF LAND POLLUTION1.Effects on Climate- Land pollution can affect the general environment of the Earth. Land pollutions leads to loss in the forest cover of Earth. This is in turn going to affect the amount of rain. Less rains mean lesser vegetation.

2.Extinction of Species- Habitat fragmentation is the fragmentation of the natural habitat of an organism

3. Biomagnification- Biomagnification is the process in which certain non-biodegradable substances go on accumulating in the food-chain

4. Effects on Biodiversity- Species extinction and biomagnification is going to overthrow the balance of nature very significantly.

“The living sinners on deadly ground.” ― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

Causes of Land Pollution

1.Degenerative Actions encompass a lot of human actions, including - deforestation, overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, desertification, mining, inefficient and / or inadequate waste treatment, landfill, litter, etc.

2. Misuse of Land mainly refers to felling of trees to clear land for agriculture, as well as processes like desertification and land conversion.

3. Inefficient Use of Land amounts to wastage, and hence shortage of land; and it is precisely during such conditions that man has to resort to measure such as deforestation and others to meet his needs.

4. Soil Pollution is when the top-most 'soil' layer of land is destroyed or polluted.

5. Land Conversion is the process whereby a piece of land is converted from its indigenous form to a form used for either agriculture or infrastructure.

Causes of Land Pollution

Reason for Misuse of Natural Resources

a)Commercial interests like trading in products out of natural resources.

b) Ignorance on necessity to preserve natural resources.

c) Deliberate negligence on destruction of natural resource.

d) Entertainment / recreational / aesthetic interest.

e) Extreme population pressure.

f) Self interest of human beings over the interest to retain natural resources.

g) International trade and commitments.

h) Misuse of legislation. ….contd

i) Loop holes of provisions of law.

j) Protracted legal process.

k) Food interest

l) Luxuries required for man.

m) Increased industrial requirement.

n) Improvement of standard of living, GDP, per capita income and purchasing power.

o) Expectations of instantaneous returns.

The human race will be the cancer of the

planet.Julian Huxley

 

What can be done?

1.Reduce toxic materials

Waste materials that are disposed of should have minimal toxic materials. This can be done by treating the waste materials with various chemicals to make them less toxic. Once the waste is treated, it can be disposed of using responsible methods. Harmful chemicals can also be replaced with less toxic, biodegradable materials.

2.Recycle waste materials

As explained by the Stanford Recycling Center, each American throws away 7 1/2 lbs. of garbage. Garbage requires land fills, which takes up large amounts of land.

3. Use organics products

Buy organics products, especially organic cleaners, pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers. The advantage of using organic products is that they are biodegradable and friendly to the environment.

4.Proper Waste Management

• Excessive littering is one of most common reasons for land pollution.• Take initiative to inform others about the harmful effects of littering.• Organic wastes must be disposed of in areas that are far from human or

animal habitation. Waste like plastic, metals, glass and paper must be recycled and reused.

• Find land far away from natural environments to dump wastes that cannot be disposed of and are essential to industrial processes.

5.Improve fertility of the land by reforesting

Soil in forested lands are far more fertile than soil without trees, suggesting that trees have the ability to fertilize land.

6.Compost garden and kitchen waste

When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves. David Orr

References

1. Polluted Earth:The Dying Home World by Robert Adrian Dizon

2. Causes and Effects of Land Pollution by Prabhakar Pillai

3. How to Prevent Land Pollution by Charles Pearson

4. USDA NRCS [Inherent Land Quality Map]

5. Graphics and images are the sole property of their respective authors.