The Effects Of Pollution On Human's Life, Agriculture and The Economy Of A Nation

The land that fed our ancestors sufficiently has denied us food and the fertility of mother earth has decreased immensely. If our ancestors could jump back to life, they would without hesitation rush to their graves because their barns would be a waste of land and a house for lizards. Our fathers who married many wives, had many children and still feed abundantly would surely be displeasured to exist in this present age where soil needs artificial manure(fertilizer) to produce what it naturally produced in their own days of living, some lands cannot even produce after supplying it with fertilizer. In the days of our father, even the poor could feed more than enough, their small portion of land could work miracles; even those without possession of land could purchase any eatable they wanted abundantly with their means of exchange then. In those heaven-on-earth days, the rivers possess a great multitude of fishes that could serve a whole community; every fishing hook thrown into the river was a catch.
Their days was like the heaven this generation hopes for, where who planted his seed, was sure of abundant harvest and who casted his fishing hook into the river was sure of a catch.
However, today, the reverse has been the case. Farm produce does not correspond with the input, to make the matter more terrible, some pests would still attack and infect the not-enough farm produce harvested. Also, fishes in the rivers have reduced due to water pollution.

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of foreign materials or contaminants into the environment; this causes alteration in the natural phenomenon of the environment. Pollution can be in the air, water or land. Pollution can be caused by hydrocarbons, plastics, animals and human activities . All forms of pollution have effect on human's life, fertility of the soil and the quantity of farm produce which subsequently has an effect on the economy of a nation.

Effect Of Pollution On Human's Life

The pollution that majorly affects man is air pollution. Air pollution is the introduction of harmful gaseous substance into the atmosphere and is usually caused mainly by the combustion of hydrocarbons ranging from combustion of carbon compounds by vehicles for transportation to the combustion of hydrocarbons for electricity generation which is essential for day-to-day activities.
When these hydrocarbons get to the atmosphere, it contaminates the air human breaths, thereby, making it impure. Breathing of contaminated air is dangerous to humans' health: it triggers cancer, it increases the risk of respiratory diseases and asthma, it damages the immune system, endocrines and reproductive system_this could be the reason the rate of infertility is increasing. Inhaling polluted air for 6-hours decreases the potency of the lungs, respiratory inflammation, pains in the eyes, and severe cough among others. All these sicknesses would eventually lead to death.


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Drilling, refining, fracking of natural gas and disposal of waste water without proper protective measures can lead to water pollution. Also volatile organic gases can contaminate underground water sources near natural oil and gas blocks if the blocks are inadequately constructed. Finally, humans would drink this contaminated water and become exposed to diseases such as typhoid, amoebiasis, hookworm and dysentery among others. All these sicknesses would eventually lead to increased death rate. So, the peak consequence of pollution to human is death.

Effect Of Pollution On Agriculture

Both air pollution, land pollution and water pollution have negative effects on Agriculture.
Air pollution causes global warming. When the globe is very hot, plants stand at a higher risk of dying. Some plants require moderate temperature to germinate and bear fruit.
Land pollution has the most negative effect on planting and harvesting. This pollution is caused by oil spill(an unintentional release of liquid petroleum on the surface of the earth due to human activities, natural disaster or lack of maintenance in oil pipes and storage).

The effect of this oil spill includes soil erosion, brownish vegetation and decrease in the fertility of soil which would consequently make less land available for cultivation, the available plants unhealthy and the soil unable to give abundant farm produce due to insufficient nutrient respectively. Eleme, a community in Rivers state, Nigeria, known for agriculture has lost the fertility of their soils due to increased oil spill
On fish farming and aquatic animal rearing, water pollution also caused mainly by oil spills makes aquatic habitation dangerous for aquatic animals. This reduces the population of aquatic habitats, hence, making fewer animals available to aquatic farmers. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled about 10.8 million gallons of oil near Alaska's shoreline, thousands of aquatic animals were endangered by this oil spill.

The Effect Of Pollution On The Economy Of A Nation

Pollution can cause instability on the economy of a nation. Pollution causes sickness and increased death rate of humans and animals, deficient crops among others.
In a state, filled with sick people, the workforce and human resources decreases because sick people cannot work. Most people on sick bed depend on healthy people for survival that is why beggars exist in the street. A man in hospital bed is liability to a nation as he depends on the work of others to get his bills and feeding catered for. Hence, the total number of dependent people outshines that of the independent, and this is savage to economy of a nation.

Even the healthy ones that choose to farm, would not see enough farmland due to erosion of the soil caused be pollution. Yet, the little lands available for farming would not produce abundantly due to infertility of the soil also caused by pollution. Fishers would not harvest enough fish because the population of aquatic animals would reduce due to oil spill, cows available for milking would reduce also. All these would make a nation depend on imported goods for survival. Economically, when a nation's import is more than her export, her economy begins to crumble; this has been the problem with Nigeria decades ago till now.

Finally, pollution has solution that can mitigate it. If public transportation is encouraged, the volume of fossils fuel being burnt will reduce, hence mitigating air pollution. If proper maintenance of pipelines and oil wells are carried, oil spills would be mitigated , this would increase the availability of land for agricultural purposes.

Conclusion

Pollution can lead to sickness, poverty, death and instability of the economy of a nation. Pollution has solutions that even though would not eliminate pollution completely, would significantly reduce it. You as a #stemng publisher, can ensure proper disposal of waste water and always carry out maintenance on your generator and discourage oil pipe vandalism.

Thanks for your ample time

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Refrences

• Oil and natural gas pollution
• Understanding Air pollution
• Pollution in general
• The effect of oil spillage
• The effect of air pollution on humans health
• How Pollution affects agriculture
• Air pollution and economic development