If you imagine an Earth with oceans without plastics and air without pollution, where we can all live in peace.

It seems like a utopia, but it is an objective that we must strive for in every action we take if we want to live in a better environment and that future generations can enjoy our planet and all its wealth.

 

Climate change, which we talk about so much because of its importance, refers to changes in the Earth's climate due to natural causes and also to the action of man. Its consequences are serious: sea level rise, temperature rise, extreme weather events. One of the ways in which man intervenes in this whole process is pollution.



What is contamination?

Contamination involves the introduction of substances or other physical elements into a medium that make it unsafe and unsuitable for use.

The environment can be an ecosystem, a physical environment or a living being and the contaminating substance can be a chemical substance, sound, heat, light or radioactivity.


What types of pollution exist?

As can be seen based on the definition of pollution, it can be of various types:

Air pollution. It involves the release of substances into the atmosphere that alter its composition and make it harmful to man, animals or plants.


Some of the most polluting substances are: 

carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide.

Water contamination.

 It occurs when contaminants are released into the water carried by rivers, the sea or groundwater. 

An example of this is the plastics that end up in the sea or the oil spills that have occurred in seas and oceans.

Land pollution.

It occurs when certain chemicals seep above or below ground. 

It usually happens with oil and heavy metals. 

Other chemicals that also pollute the land are herbicides and pesticides used in agriculture.

Thermal pollution.

It occurs when the temperature of the water increases, for example, and produces negative effects on living beings.

Noise pollution.

Anyone who has lived in a big city has suffered from it: planes, helicopters, ambulances, cars, large crowds of people...

7 ideas to avoid contamination

Stopping pollution of all kinds is in the hands of each one of us. It is about modifying habits little by little to help reduce what we pollute. We propose some ideas:

Use public transportation.

 We have become accustomed to using the car for everything, but it is time to think about the planet and our future and to use more sustainable and environmentally friendly means of transport. 

Public transport is a good solution, cheaper and less polluting than the car.


Buy local products. 


One of the things that pollutes the most are vehicles. 

If we buy local products, we prevent what we buy in the supermarket from being transported from distant places, with the expense of fuel and the pollution that this entails.

Consume organic products. For the production of ecological products, the use of chemical elements that can harm the environment is avoided.

You can not only find them in food, but also in cleaning , fashion And cosmetics Etc.

Recycle. 

We are usually clear about where to dispose of containers or glass, but in many other cases we do not know where to dispose of waste and the first rule for recycling is to separate. For example, in the organic waste container we can throw: food, ash, dirty paper, cotton swabs, etc.

Reduce the consumption of plastics. 

We use a lot of plastic and most of it is single use like that.

 It is estimated that the average use time of a plastic bag is 10 minutes and it takes about 400 years to degrade. As a consequence of the above, it is essential to avoid the consumption of plastic and to achieve this you can do several things:

Use recyclable bags when you go shopping.

Avoid products packaged in plastic and opt for those that are packaged in paper, cardboard or glass.

Buy bulk products such as legumes, nuts, soaps, etc.

Reduces the use of water and electricity. Water is a resource that can be depleted, so it is essential to take care of its use. We can achieve this with small gestures such as turning off the tap when you brush your teeth, taking a shower instead of bathing, recycling water. In the case of electricity, it is essential to reduce its use by opting for low-consumption appliances, using LED-type bulbs, turning off the lights at home when we are not there or avoiding electrical appliances on standby.

Choose renewable energies.

 Renewable energies are those that are obtained from natural sources that produce energy in an inexhaustible way, such as the sun, the air or the sea. In addition to being inexhaustible, they have no impact on the environment.To use them, you can place solar panels in your house, so that you receive electricity to heat water and your home, for example.

In short, it is about raising awareness about the importance of caring for our environment and teaching the smallest of the house so that they also do so in a way that we live in safer and pollution-free environments.