Pollution in Halifax and preventive measures

Week 3: Pollution in Halifax and preventative measures.

Did you know that the best way to prevent pollution is to reduce it at its source?

By doing so, not only does pollution prevention become more effective, but also less expensive than having to collect, treat and dispose of the pollutants.

In other words, if you want to contribute to the community and help prevent pollution, you should start by doing so in your household first.

Here are a few tips you can use:

• When purchasing cleaning chemicals, look for the less toxic ones. Cleaning your dishes can be done by using natural lemon. It's non toxic and perfectly natural. Soap is also a great way to clean. A good soap example is the Olive Oil Soap (65% olive oil component). It apparently has a great fragrance.
• Medications that are no longer being used should be returned to your pharmacy, and not disposed of in the drains.
• Paints and vehicle fluids should not be eliminated through the storm drains. Instead, these wastes can be taken to the Household Hazardous Waste Depot located at 50 Chain Lake Drive, Bayers Lake Business Park.
• Many residents have pets in Halifax. When you take them out on a walk, make sure to clean after them. Their excrement contains countless bacteria that can find their way through the sewers and ultimately into our rivers and lakes.

We've given you above some advice about what can be done in your household to help prevent chemical pollution. However, chemicals are not the worst pollutants on our planet.

Therefore, we'd like to bring to your attention another matter: carbon emission.

Carbon dioxyde, also known as CO2, is the primary gas responsible for the greenhouse effect. It's not the most effective greenhouse gas, since methane is stronger, but it's still the most abundant one.

Some of you may not be aware that the Greenhouse effect is a natural geological process. In fact, without it, the average temperature of our planet would be - 17°C. Today, the average temperature is about 15°C, and we owe it to the Greenhouse effect.

Here is a brief explanation of how greenhouse gases work.

Earth's atmosphere plays a crucial role in controlling the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface of our planet.
When solar rays reach Earth's atmosphere, a large amount is deflected back into space. The remaining solar energy manages to pass through the atmosphere and hit the earth's surface. Again, at this point, some of the light is reflected from the surface, while the rest is absorbed by the surface. This causes a release of heat in the form of infrared radiations (IR) from the surface of the earth. Most of these radiations are then trapped by the greenhouse gases (mainly CO2) that are present in the lower atmosphere. This whole process allows our planet to acquire energy from the sun, convert it into heat and then trap it within the lower atmosphere.

When the planet's temperature rises, carbon dioxyde that is initially dissolved in the oceans is released into the atmosphere. This increases the amount of greenhouse gases in the air which in turn heats up the planet even more. At the same time, glaciers melt, causing more solar energy to be absorbed by the surface, and hence more heat to be generated into the lower atmosphere. More CO2 in the atmosphere and less snow cause an increase of the planet's temperature,
Vice versa, when the planet's temperature decreases, CO2 from the atmosphere is dissolved in the oceans, thus lowering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, glaciers become more massive, cover the earth's surface in snow and cause light to be reflected. Therefore, less energy is absorbed by the surface and consequently less heat is generated by the surface. Less CO2 in the atmosphere and more snow cause a decrease of the planet's temperature.

What this means is that the slightest variation of the planet's temperature can cause a chain reaction: If the planet's temperature rises slightly, the greenhouse effect will cause it to rise even more. If the planet's temperature is slighlty lowered, the greenhouse effect will cool the planet even more.

This finally brings us to the following question: why worry about global warming?

Day by day, we are constantly producing an excessive amount of greenhouse gases, especially CO2. As a consequence, our planet is getting ever warmer.
This global warming of Earth could very likely cause the climate and the biosphere to undergo changes beyond repair. Some main concerns and possible scenarios are:

• The complete submergence of some countries such as the Netherlands and Bangladesh. Note that today, the Netherlands would at least partly be underwater if not for the dykes.
• The desertification of the European continent could be a result of rising temperatures.
• The melting of polar glaciers or ice caps would cause the water levels to rise.
• The extinction of some species such as the polar bear (already on the brink of extinction because the ice caps are receding).

Finally, the most important part of this post is what can be done to prevent or limit global warming. To reduce global warming, it is important to reduce carbon dioxyde emissions.
Here are a few things you can do by yourself:

• If you have a bicycle, use it, especially if you live close to your destination. On nice and sunny days, you can take a walk or ride your bicycle instead of driving your car around town. Halifax is a relatively small city, so cars aren't that needed. Also, if you consider your health and fitness, walking or riding a bike forces you to stay in shape.