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Air pollution can cause diseases, allergies, and even death; it can also cause harm to animals and crops and damage the natural environment (for example, climate change, ozone depletion or habitat degradation) or built environment (for example, acid rain). [3] Air pollution can occur naturally or be caused by human activities. [4]
Microplastics are an emerging source of atmospheric pollution, particularly fine plastic fibers that are light enough to be carried by the wind. [12] Microplastics traveling in the air cannot be traced back to their specific original sources, as the wind can blow the infinitesimal particles thousands of miles from where they were originally shed.
Sources of water pollution are either point sources or non-point sources. [155] Point sources have one identifiable cause, such as a storm drain, a wastewater treatment plant, or an oil spill. Non-point sources are more diffuse. An example is agricultural runoff. [156] Pollution is the result of the cumulative effect over time.
Ammonia seeps into aquatic ecosystem in many different ways from both anthropogenic (waste water, fertilizers, and industrial waste) and natural (Nitrogen fixation and air deposition) sources. [20] Ammonia is toxic to most aquatic life including fish, corals, and planktonic crustaceans. [21] Ammonia can have 2 different forms in water.
Soon after the EPA's founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture America's environmental problems in a photo project called Documerica.
The images show what various parts of the country looked like before the air and water protections that exist today. Vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what America looked like before ...
The industry memos acknowledge that automobiles "are by far the greatest sources of air pollution" and also that air pollution causes adverse health effects and lodges toxins, including carcinogens, "deep into the lungs which would otherwise be removed in the throat".
Examples of anthropogenic sources of nitrogen-rich pollution to coastal waters include sea cage fish farming and discharges of ammonia from the production of coke from coal. [55] In addition to runoff from land, wastes from fish farming and industrial ammonia discharges, atmospheric fixed nitrogen can be an important nutrient source in the open ...