Soil Pollution Essay
Soil Pollution Essay 10 Lines (100 - 150 Words)
1) Soil is an important natural resource necessary for human survival.
2) The mixing of toxic substances into the soil is referred to as soil pollution.
3) Soil pollution is harmful to nature as well as to all living organisms.
4) It can be caused due to natural means or due to human interventions.
5) Soil pollution can lead to harmful diseases in humans.
6) It also affects the fertility and quality of the soil.
7) Chemicals from industries and agriculture are the major source of soil pollution.
8) It can be controlled by minimizing chemical fertilizers.
9) Industries should treat chemicals before disposing of them in the soil.
10) Preventing soil pollution will help to live happily on Earth.
Soil Pollution Essay (150 words)
Polluted soil is the low-quality soil by various actions of man and natural processes which makes soil unfit for crop production. The increasing human population and advancement of the human lives is causing soil pollution to a great extent. The main cause of the soil pollution are excessive soil erosion, forest fires, and use of chemical fertilizers to improve crop production, pesticides (insecticides and herbicides), biocides (malathion, D.D.T., dieldrin, endrin, aldrin, lindane) to get control over insects, urban and industrial wastes, leaching, drought, untreated industrial water irrigation, water logging, over-irrigation, deforestation, etc. It is increasing day by day at a faster rate in the rural and urban areas of the country.
According to the statistics, it is noted that consumption of chemical fertilizers by the farmers has been increased by 5.5 million tons from 1980-81 and by 18.07 million tons from 1999-2000 in order to increase crop production. Such toxic chemicals enter the human body through food chain and harm by causing physical deformities, and neural tube defects in newborn babies.
Soil Pollution Essay (250 words)
Soil pollution is the contamination of the soil of fertile land which is gradually increasing day by day mainly because of the use of fertilizers and industrialization. Soil pollution has become a major challenge to the whole human fraternity in modern time. Soil is the most important natural resource highly required to maintain the healthy life here. It is the home for many small animals, it is the life of plants and used by the human beings to produce variety of crops to continue life cycle here. However, increasing human population increases the need of crops production and other technological resources to live life comfortably. There are many highly effective fertilizers available in the market proving their best to improve crop production however getting more toxic and polluting the whole fertile soil when sprinkled over crops.
Varieties of other pesticides (like insecticides, fungicides, etc) are also getting used by the farmers to save their crops from the insects and fungus. Such type of pesticides are also very toxic and spreading their side effects to the environment by polluting the land and air. Other ways of soil pollution are acidification, agrochemical pollution, salinization, and contamination by metalliferous wastes. Acidification is a common natural cause associated with long term leaching and microbial respiration which gradually decomposes the organic materials of soil (like humic and fulvic acids) which again stimulates leaching. Use of inorganic fertilizers on the fertile lands has increased the level of soil pollution by decreasing the soil fertility at a faster rate.
Soil Pollution Essay (500 Words)
Soil is a thin layer made up of organic as well as inorganic materials. These materials cover the rocky surfaces of Earth. Also, the organic portion, which is derived from the decayed remains of animals and plants. While the inorganic portion is made up of rock fragments. This portion was formed over a thousand years of chemical and physical weathering of bedrock. Productive soils are useful for agriculture in order to supply the world with the required food. So, the essay on soil pollution is guided to factors causing soil pollution and the adverse effects of soil pollution.
How does Soil Get Polluted?
Soil pollution can be defined as the persistence of chemicals, salts, toxic compounds, and radioactive materials, that have adverse effects on animal health and plant growth. There are many ways through which soils can get polluted. These are:
- Discharge of industrial waste into the Earth surfaces.
- Seepage through a landfill.
- Underground storage tanks getting ruptured.
- Formation of contaminated water into the soil.
- Solid waste seepage.
- Chemicals like heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, solvents, and pesticides.
Causes of Soil Pollution
A soil pollutant is a factor that is used for the deterioration of soil due to the texture, mineral, or quality content of soil being reduced. Also, this disturbs the biological balance of the organisms dependent on the soil. Additionally, there are adverse effects of soil pollution on the growth of plants. Usually, soil pollution is caused due to the presence of man-made applications like percolation of contaminated surface water, pesticides, fuel dumping, oil dumping, etc.
Additionally, there are other activities like the leaching of wastes from landfills, direct discharge of industrial wastes into the soil, etc. Also, the most common chemicals involved here are solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons, lead, pesticides, and various heavy metals. So, the phenomena occurring have a high correlation with the intensity and industrialization of chemical usage.
Some of the main causes of soil pollution are:
- Increasing use of fertilizers
- Indiscriminate use of insecticides, herbicides, and pesticides
- Dumping of solid wastes
- Deforestation
Effects of Soil Pollution
Some radioactive pollutants from sources such as nuclear reactors, explosions, hospitals, science labs, etc. go very deep into the soil, stay there for a long time and cause soil pollution.
False agricultural practices using advanced agro-technology mean the use of enormous amounts of toxic fertilizers including herbicides, weedicides, pesticides, etc. increases soil fertility but gradually decreases soil physio-chemical and biological properties. Municipal trash heaps, food processing waste, mining methods, and many more are other sources of soil pollution.
Because toxic chemicals enter the body through the food chain and disturb the entire inner body system, soil pollution is very dangerous to health. In order to decrease and limit soil pollution, individuals particularly industrialists should follow all efficient control measures including environmental protection laws. People should promote the recycling and reuse of solid waste and maximum feasible tree plantation.