What Causes Air Pollution?

Air pollution can be defined as any harmful material that is present in the earths
atmosphere. The causes of air pollution, therefore, are many and highly varied. Some sources
are natural, such as volcanism or forest fires started by lightning, while others are brought
about by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. While the earth does have builtin mechanisms for getting rid of air pollution, it is usually better for all living things to reduce
the amount of pollutants released into the air to begin with.
The most well-known and pervasive causes of air pollution are man-made. The
burning of petroleum products is a very common cause of air pollution, especially in
metropolitan areas. This pollution comes from chemical factors present when these fuels
combust. When hydrocarbons such as gasoline are burned, they produce carbon dioxide and
water vapor. Incomplete combustion leads to carbon monoxide also being created as a
byproduct.
Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are both considered to be pollutants. Also, no
fossil fuel is perfectly pure and no engine is perfectly efficient, so small particles of soot are
also released into the atmosphere, along with trace amounts of other undesirable substances.
Other man-made causes of air pollution include smokestack emissions from factories and
power plants. The substances emitted at these sources can include sulphur dioxide and
nitrogen dioxide, which are responsible for the formation of acid rain.
While man-made air pollution does present health hazards, natural sources of air
pollution can be equally dangerous at times. These sources include dust picked up by wind
erosion, the emission of methane by livestock, and smoke from wildfires. Volcanic eruptions
are perhaps the largest single source of air pollution, natural or man-made, that humans have
ever dealt with. These can produce clouds of abrasive volcanic ash and other harmful
substances such as chlorine and sulphur.
Most notably, the eruption of Indonesias Mount Tambora in 1815 sent such a huge
amount of noxious gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere, that much solar energy
was effectively blocked from reaching the earths surface. As a result, widespread famines
were suffered worldwide in 1816. Brown and red snows were also seen in Europe, due to the
presence of volcanic ash in the atmosphere. A killing frost in July of 1816 also led to massive
crop failures in the northeastern United States, leading to colloquial references to 1816 as
The Year Without a Summer, and Eighteen Hundred And Froze To Death.

Article Details

Written By: Adam Hill

Edited By: Bronwyn Harris

Copyright Protected:
2003-2012 Conjecture Corporation

Main Idea
Causes of air pollution

Summary
The causes of air pollution are the burning of fossil fuels and petroleum
products. Incomplete combustion leads to produce carbon monoxide and
it can cause air pollution. Moreover, the burning of fossil fuel produces
carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide which causes air pollution too.
Besides, small particles of soot are also released from burning of fossil
fuel into the atmosphere causes air pollution. Sulphur dioxide and
nitrogen dioxide, which are responsible for the formation of acid rain
cause pollution. In addition, the eruption of Indonesias Mount Tambora
in 1815 produced noxious gases and particulate matter into the
atmosphere and it caused air pollution happened.

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