1. Understanding Pollution
Topic 5: Pollution Management
Understanding Pollution

2. What is Pollution?
addition of a substance or agent to the biosphere through human activity, at a rate greater than at which it can be rendered harmless to the environment and organisms within it
sources can be varied
Fossil fuel emissions
Secondary atmospheric pollutants
Domestic waste
Agricultural waste

3. Sources of Pollution?
Major sources:
fossil fuel combustion
- CO2, SO2, nitrogen oxides
domestic waste
- organic waste (food & sewage)
- paper, plastics, glass, tin
industrial waste
- heavy metals
- flourides, lead, acids
- heat
agricultural waste
- organic waste
- nitrates, pesticides

4. Point Source vs Non-Point Source Pollution
release of pollutants from a single, identifiable source
factory chimney, sewage waste disposal pipe etc
Non-point Source (NPS) Pollution:
release of pollutants from numerous, widely spread sources
vehicle emissions, fertilisers etc

5. Point source pollution is easier to manage as it can be found more easily. It is also easier to see who is polluting – a factory or a house. Non-point source pollution may have many sources and it may be virtually impossible to detect exactly where it is coming from eg nitrate and phosphate fertilizers washing off fields into water courses and leading to eutrophication – difficult to know which fields it has come from.

6. Sources of Pollution in the Russian Arctic