Many people support and promote the change for ocean pollution but not many actually know what pollution really is. Allow me to explain what pollution is and how it relates to ocean pollution and the other different types of pollution. 

Pollution is defined as the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects. Some of the main types of pollution are land pollution, air pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution.

Land pollution is harm done to the earth’s land surfaces which are directly and indirectly caused by human activities. Specifically, soil pollution is increasing quickly and is due to energy production, food production, and transportation. The EPA has now recently found that most waste is oversaturated with electronics due to our need for newer and newer products.

Air pollution is usually a mixture of gases or air particles that get into the air and Earth’s atmosphere through sources such as: car emissions, contaminants from factories, and other biological substances. Air pollution is also most commonly referred to as “smog”.

Noise pollution is a little less harmful and is defined as annoying levels of noise from certain industries, airplanes, and traffic.

Water pollution is the contamination of bodies of water as a result of human activity.  Almost 80% of ocean pollution originates on land from chemicals, nutrients, and heavy metals that are carried from farms, factories, and cities by streams and rivers into our bays and estuaries; from there they travel out to sea. Factories are a huge reason why water pollution is such a big problem. The factories produce contaminants that are extremely harmful to people and the environment.

Pollutants from industrial sources include: asbestos, mercury, lead, phosphates, nitrates, sulphur, oils, and even petrochemicals. These contaminants all greatly affect the health of marine animals. Check out this video on carbon pollution and its effect on the sea.

Now that you have a better idea of what pollution is, I hope you can navigate your way to some easy solutions to combat it.