Pollution is a substance that is harmful to the environment or makes it less attractive. Pollution can occur naturally but it is usually those substances that humans are in control of that are of most concern. AIR POLLUTION Air pollution from human sources is produced by engine, burning and factory exhaust. The most abundant pollutants are Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides and Sulfur Oxides. These are waste products of fuels used in transportation, industrial processes and general combustion. METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS FOR AIR POLLUTION PROBLEM There are several meteorological factors that when combined together make air pollution worse over a particular location. Air pollution increasingly becomes a greater problem as the concentration of pollutants increases over a particular area. Meteorological factors that increase air pollution include: light wind, high pressure (stable lower troposphere) and persistence of the previous two factors. When the atmosphere is stable the air near the surface does not mix with the air higher aloft. This traps pollutants close to the earth's surface. Light wind keeps the pollutants over the same area. Over time the concentration of pollutants will increase. HUMAN FACTORS FOR AIR POLLUTION PROBLEM Air pollution tends to be of greatest concern for locations in industrialized urban areas and areas down wind from these same areas. This is because the concentration of cars, burning and industries emit a large amount of pollution over a small area. THE FUTURE OF AIR POLLUTION The future of air pollution has a good and bad side. Cleaner air standards have lessened the amount of pollution emitted from particular sources. However, as earth's population increases and industrialization booms in currently underdeveloped nations, air pollution will be a problem for several more decades. The problem of air pollution should be much less of a problem in a couple of centuries from now. At that time, fuel sources that emit harmful air pollutants will be basically eliminated entirely. This assumes human innovation and progress toward solving environmental problems continues. |