Pesticicides in the Environment essay
Does it ever cross your mind what is happening to the environment from pesticides going into unintended places?
Over the years pesticides have been used on crops but the pesticides
don't just go away after a while, they stay there and seep into the soil and
groundwater, contaminating it and making it hazardous to plant and
animal life. Pesticides have been found in several streams and rivers throughout America and the pesticides are getting into drinking water and causing it to be toxic to us. This is a very serious topic because it can, in some cases, cause sickness or even death. Throughout this essay I am going to be explaining the harmful effects of pesticides in our environment. Our environment is starting to become contaminated with chemicals that are potentially harmful because of pesticides seeping into the land. There are many environmental risks that come from the usage of
pesticides in the world. The use of pesticides can cause several chemicals to seep into the ground a start to contaminate anything that they can get into, whether that be our food or water it can start to do harm to our bodies and could potentially cause sickness in some people. Even
though some pesticides are not all that harmful they can still trouble
people through the food that they eat or the water that they drink. Most
pesticides, after being sprayed, will stay in the ground for many years
even if they were sprayed a long time ago. The pesticides that stay in the
ground and continue to contaminate anything that grows there or any river
or stream that is nearby. If pesticides seep into water sources it will cause the water to become undrinkable for humans and will cause any pesticides that get into rivers and streams can cause any life form that is in the water or mud to take in the pesticides possibly harming the life form. Pesticides also seep into some drinking water and affect anything that consumes the water, be that animals, humans or plants. The environmental impact of pesticides is often greater than what is intended by those who use them. Just about 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides end up going into a different location other than where it is intended to go including non target species whether it be air, water, bottom sediments or food or all of those things. Through getting into our food sources and water sources the pesticides can get into our bodies and do quite the amount of damage to our system. Though there can be benefits to using pesticides, misuse of the pesticides can usually increase pest resistance and kill the natural enemies of pests by causing the pests to eventually develop resistances to the pesticides that may be being sprayed upon them. If the natural enemies of the pests are killed off and the pests themselves develop a resistance to pesticides, then the pesticides will cease to be of any use against them. Many users are wrongly informed about potential short and long-term risks of pesticides and are not always told that pesticides can actually stay in the sprayed location for long amounts of time and the necessary precautions in the correct application of such toxic chemicals are not always made meaning that the pesticides can cause even more harm because they are not used properly. Usually most pesticides have to be approved for usage by the EPA and until then cannot be used. Pesticide sprays "encourage life threatening bacteria to grow on crops," according to Canadian researcher Greg Blank in an article in the New Scientist. Pesticides can contaminate unintended land and water when they are sprayed from above planes, allowing it to possibly drain or drift off into fields or water sources that could possibly be used by people when they escape from production sites and storage tanks or are inappropriately discarded. When the pesticides are disposed of they are not usually properly discarded and can continue seeping into the land. The amount of pesticide that migrates from the intended application area is influenced by the particular chemical's properties such as its propensity for sticking into soil, its vapor level, its water clarity, and its possible resistance to being broken down over time, if a pesticide is particularly light it will usually drift off from its intended location and get into unintended places, causing it to contaminate other places and making them unsafe as well. Factors in the soil, such as its texture, its ability to keep water within and the amount of organic matter contained in it could also potentially affect the amount of pesticide that could leave the area. Some pesticides even contribute to global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer. In an article published by the Organic Trade Association it stated that "Pesticides are presumably contaminating groundwater on almost every inhabited continent and endangering the world’s most valuable supplies of freshwater." If the worlds source of freshwater eventually becomes contaminated with pesticides and chemicals then it will no longer be able to be consumed by people, according to a WorldWatch paper.
Author Payal Sampat called for a "systematic overhaul" of
manufacturing and industrial agriculture. He noted that "since 1998,
farmers in China’s Yunnan Province have eliminated their use of
fungicides while doubling rice yields by planting more diverse varieties of
the grain thus eliminating the harmful effects of pesticides in food."
Measurable Effects of Pesticides on the Environment,
-Organic Trade Association
Meanwhile, multiple water utilities in Germany now actually pay farmers to switch to organic farming because moving farmers to organic practices costs less than removing farm chemicals from water supplies. This is a much better way of handling the pesticide problem rather than trying to manually remove the pesticides or just let them sit there and continue to contaminate the surrounding environment. Throughout the United States pesticides have been found to be in almost every stream and 90 percent of wells that were tested in a study conducted by the US Geological Survey. This means the the water in the wells and streams has become contaminated and is no longer safe for water life to live in or for us to consume. Many families throughout America rely on wells near their houses to drink from and if pesticides get into the water then it could harm the family. Just to remove pesticides from the water costs a ton of money that most people don't have.Pesticides have even been found in rain water and ground water that was tested by groups of scientists. A lot of the chemicals that are used in pesticides have also started showing up in soil as well. The use of pesticides decreases the general biodiversity of the soil, if pesticides were not used on soil it would result in the soil having much higher quality and it would have a larger amount of nutrients for growing plants an also probably a lot more life within the dirt. Nitrogen fixation, which is required for most plant to grow, is canceled out by pesticides in the soil. Pesticides can also kill off bees and are a large reason for pollinator decline. Pesticides are one of the only toxic substances that are intentionally released into the environment meant to kill off certain living things. Many of these include substances that are meant to kill weeds, insects, fungus, rodents and others. Often times pesticides will remain in the environment that they are put in for many years and will continue to effect ecosystems long after the pesticide is sprayed.
Research performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s environmental sciences division revealed that hypoxia, a condition that affects thousands of fish, shrimp, and shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico each year, is partly the result of pesticide run-off from usage of chemicals and such in the Mississippi basin. The run-off, along with the temperature differences created when the warm water from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers come into contact with the cold Gulf waters, forms a deadly combination where algae will grow, die, decompose and use up the oxygen that a lot of the animals and plants in the Gulf need for survival.
Measurable Effects of Pesticides on the Environment
-Organic Trade Association
This creates a very serious and deadly cycle of animals and plants dying off very fast over and over again because the chemicals are poisoning the algae and killing it, causing it to use up necessary oxygen for other plants and animals. To cope with this problem, and reduce phosphorus production, which has also been seen as a slight factor in the rise of hypoxia, many researchers and scientists have proposed increasing the use of "environmentally sustainable biofuel", improving nutrient management and restoring wetlands in the affected areas and try to get rid of the pesticides from the badly affected areas. On another note, a pesticide plant in Waco, Texas has recently exploded due to the pesticides in the facility catching fire and causing them to explode and causing harm to many people and even killing and estimated 7 to 10 people. This just goes to show that pesticides, in some cases, can be extremely harmful even from just catching fire. The factory in Texas catching fire practically turned it from a pesticide factory to a flame factory in a just a small amount of seconds. Each year it is a fact that over 110,000 pesticide poisonings are reported each year. Out of the 110,000 poisonings that occur most of them are children, from that about 20 children die each year from pesticides. People apply over 78 million pounds of pesticides each year alone making it a lot more hazardous for humans. Pesticides can enter the body in almost any way and can cause problems like sickness very fast.
The overall use of pesticides in the environment is slowly but
surely contaminating many parts of our environment creating a world that is dangerous to us and to other forms of life.
Over the years pesticides have been used on crops but the pesticides
don't just go away after a while, they stay there and seep into the soil and
groundwater, contaminating it and making it hazardous to plant and
animal life. Pesticides have been found in several streams and rivers throughout America and the pesticides are getting into drinking water and causing it to be toxic to us. This is a very serious topic because it can, in some cases, cause sickness or even death. Throughout this essay I am going to be explaining the harmful effects of pesticides in our environment. Our environment is starting to become contaminated with chemicals that are potentially harmful because of pesticides seeping into the land. There are many environmental risks that come from the usage of
pesticides in the world. The use of pesticides can cause several chemicals to seep into the ground a start to contaminate anything that they can get into, whether that be our food or water it can start to do harm to our bodies and could potentially cause sickness in some people. Even
though some pesticides are not all that harmful they can still trouble
people through the food that they eat or the water that they drink. Most
pesticides, after being sprayed, will stay in the ground for many years
even if they were sprayed a long time ago. The pesticides that stay in the
ground and continue to contaminate anything that grows there or any river
or stream that is nearby. If pesticides seep into water sources it will cause the water to become undrinkable for humans and will cause any pesticides that get into rivers and streams can cause any life form that is in the water or mud to take in the pesticides possibly harming the life form. Pesticides also seep into some drinking water and affect anything that consumes the water, be that animals, humans or plants. The environmental impact of pesticides is often greater than what is intended by those who use them. Just about 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides end up going into a different location other than where it is intended to go including non target species whether it be air, water, bottom sediments or food or all of those things. Through getting into our food sources and water sources the pesticides can get into our bodies and do quite the amount of damage to our system. Though there can be benefits to using pesticides, misuse of the pesticides can usually increase pest resistance and kill the natural enemies of pests by causing the pests to eventually develop resistances to the pesticides that may be being sprayed upon them. If the natural enemies of the pests are killed off and the pests themselves develop a resistance to pesticides, then the pesticides will cease to be of any use against them. Many users are wrongly informed about potential short and long-term risks of pesticides and are not always told that pesticides can actually stay in the sprayed location for long amounts of time and the necessary precautions in the correct application of such toxic chemicals are not always made meaning that the pesticides can cause even more harm because they are not used properly. Usually most pesticides have to be approved for usage by the EPA and until then cannot be used. Pesticide sprays "encourage life threatening bacteria to grow on crops," according to Canadian researcher Greg Blank in an article in the New Scientist. Pesticides can contaminate unintended land and water when they are sprayed from above planes, allowing it to possibly drain or drift off into fields or water sources that could possibly be used by people when they escape from production sites and storage tanks or are inappropriately discarded. When the pesticides are disposed of they are not usually properly discarded and can continue seeping into the land. The amount of pesticide that migrates from the intended application area is influenced by the particular chemical's properties such as its propensity for sticking into soil, its vapor level, its water clarity, and its possible resistance to being broken down over time, if a pesticide is particularly light it will usually drift off from its intended location and get into unintended places, causing it to contaminate other places and making them unsafe as well. Factors in the soil, such as its texture, its ability to keep water within and the amount of organic matter contained in it could also potentially affect the amount of pesticide that could leave the area. Some pesticides even contribute to global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer. In an article published by the Organic Trade Association it stated that "Pesticides are presumably contaminating groundwater on almost every inhabited continent and endangering the world’s most valuable supplies of freshwater." If the worlds source of freshwater eventually becomes contaminated with pesticides and chemicals then it will no longer be able to be consumed by people, according to a WorldWatch paper.
Author Payal Sampat called for a "systematic overhaul" of
manufacturing and industrial agriculture. He noted that "since 1998,
farmers in China’s Yunnan Province have eliminated their use of
fungicides while doubling rice yields by planting more diverse varieties of
the grain thus eliminating the harmful effects of pesticides in food."
Measurable Effects of Pesticides on the Environment,
-Organic Trade Association
Meanwhile, multiple water utilities in Germany now actually pay farmers to switch to organic farming because moving farmers to organic practices costs less than removing farm chemicals from water supplies. This is a much better way of handling the pesticide problem rather than trying to manually remove the pesticides or just let them sit there and continue to contaminate the surrounding environment. Throughout the United States pesticides have been found to be in almost every stream and 90 percent of wells that were tested in a study conducted by the US Geological Survey. This means the the water in the wells and streams has become contaminated and is no longer safe for water life to live in or for us to consume. Many families throughout America rely on wells near their houses to drink from and if pesticides get into the water then it could harm the family. Just to remove pesticides from the water costs a ton of money that most people don't have.Pesticides have even been found in rain water and ground water that was tested by groups of scientists. A lot of the chemicals that are used in pesticides have also started showing up in soil as well. The use of pesticides decreases the general biodiversity of the soil, if pesticides were not used on soil it would result in the soil having much higher quality and it would have a larger amount of nutrients for growing plants an also probably a lot more life within the dirt. Nitrogen fixation, which is required for most plant to grow, is canceled out by pesticides in the soil. Pesticides can also kill off bees and are a large reason for pollinator decline. Pesticides are one of the only toxic substances that are intentionally released into the environment meant to kill off certain living things. Many of these include substances that are meant to kill weeds, insects, fungus, rodents and others. Often times pesticides will remain in the environment that they are put in for many years and will continue to effect ecosystems long after the pesticide is sprayed.
Research performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s environmental sciences division revealed that hypoxia, a condition that affects thousands of fish, shrimp, and shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico each year, is partly the result of pesticide run-off from usage of chemicals and such in the Mississippi basin. The run-off, along with the temperature differences created when the warm water from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers come into contact with the cold Gulf waters, forms a deadly combination where algae will grow, die, decompose and use up the oxygen that a lot of the animals and plants in the Gulf need for survival.
Measurable Effects of Pesticides on the Environment
-Organic Trade Association
This creates a very serious and deadly cycle of animals and plants dying off very fast over and over again because the chemicals are poisoning the algae and killing it, causing it to use up necessary oxygen for other plants and animals. To cope with this problem, and reduce phosphorus production, which has also been seen as a slight factor in the rise of hypoxia, many researchers and scientists have proposed increasing the use of "environmentally sustainable biofuel", improving nutrient management and restoring wetlands in the affected areas and try to get rid of the pesticides from the badly affected areas. On another note, a pesticide plant in Waco, Texas has recently exploded due to the pesticides in the facility catching fire and causing them to explode and causing harm to many people and even killing and estimated 7 to 10 people. This just goes to show that pesticides, in some cases, can be extremely harmful even from just catching fire. The factory in Texas catching fire practically turned it from a pesticide factory to a flame factory in a just a small amount of seconds. Each year it is a fact that over 110,000 pesticide poisonings are reported each year. Out of the 110,000 poisonings that occur most of them are children, from that about 20 children die each year from pesticides. People apply over 78 million pounds of pesticides each year alone making it a lot more hazardous for humans. Pesticides can enter the body in almost any way and can cause problems like sickness very fast.
The overall use of pesticides in the environment is slowly but
surely contaminating many parts of our environment creating a world that is dangerous to us and to other forms of life.
Shakespeare Project
The Shakespeare project overall was a really fun experience for me because i got to learn a lot about Shakespeare and the plays that he wrote and we even got to do our own shadow puppet version of Macbeth. I think that this was a very god