Many pollutants go into the air from natural sources. These pollutants include dust, sea salt, volcanic ashes and gases, smoke from forest fires, pollen, and many other materials. In fact, there are many more natural pollutants than pollutants that humans make. However, humans and other living things have adapted to most of these natural pollutants.
Air pollution is usually described as either "primary pollutants" or "secondary pollutants".Primary pollutants are pollutants that are put directly into the air by humans or natural sources. Examples of primary pollutants are exhaust fumes (gas) from cars, soot from smoke, dust storms and ash from volcanic eruptions (as seen in the picture on the left).
Secondary pollutants are pollutants that are made from chemical reactions when pollutants mix with other primary pollutants or natural substances like water vapor. Many secondary pollutants are made when a primary pollutant reacts with sunlight. Ozone and smog are secondary pollutants. Ozone is a gas that stops harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. When it is near the ground, though, it can poison people and other organisms.
Human-made air pollution comes from many things. Most air pollution made by humans today is because of transportation. Automobiles , for instance, make about 60% of the human-made air pollution. The gases inside car exhaust, like nitrogen oxide, make smog and acid rain.
Farmlands and forests sometimes burn in wildfires producing soot (a black powder composed mainly of carbon, produced when coal, grasses, wood etc. is burned) from smoke. Soot can affect people and other life. People start many of those fires.
Many industrial power plants burn fossil fuels to get their energy. However, burning fossil fuels can make a lot of oxides (chemical compounds that have oxygen and other elements inside). In fact, the burning of fossil fuels makes 96% of the sulphur oxides in the atmosphere. Some industries also make chemicals that make poisonous fumes (smoke).
Air pollution is not only on the outside. Homes, schools, and buildings can also have air pollution. Sometimes the air inside a building is even worse than the air outside. Many things which humans use every day can pollute the air. Compounds inside carpets, paints, building materials and furniture also pollute the air, especially when they are new.
In buildings where the windows are tightly shut to stop air leaks, the air inside can be polluted more than the air outside.
Acid precipitation is precipitation, like rain, sleet, or snow, that contains acids from air pollution. When fossil fuels are burned, they let out oxides into the air. When these oxides mix with water in the atmosphere, they make acid, which fall as precipitation. Acid precipitation can kill living things like fish and trees, by making the place where they live too acidic. Acid rain can also damage buildings made of limestone and concrete.
A global concern is the hole in the ozone layer in the stratosphere. The Earth's ozone layer protects life from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, but in the 1970s, scientists found out that some chemicals let out into the atmosphere makes the ozone turn into oxygen. This lets more ultraviolet rays reach the Earth. During the 1980s, scientists found that the ozone layer above the South Pole had thinned by 50 to 98%.
On March 17, 1992, in Mexico City, all children under the age of 14 could not go to school because of air pollution. This does not often happen, but being exposed to air pollution every day can make people have many health problems. Children, elderly (old) people, and people with allergies especially, can have a lot of problems because of air pollution. Studies from the University of Birmingham showed that deaths because of pneumonia and air pollution from motor vehicles like cars are related.
The World Health Organization said that 2.4 million people died because of the direct problems of air pollution. Some of the problems include:
In India in 2014, it was reported that air pollution had cut crop yields in the most affected areas by almost half in 2010 when compared to 1980 levels. There can also be increased yield of crops due to some air quality conditions.
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was an admiral and navigator from France. In 1766 he was sent by his government to make a trip around the world, called "circumnavigation", which took from 1766 to 1769. He rediscovered (found again) the Solomon Islands in 1768 (the largest island is named for him). He also collected plants and made a trustworthy chart of some parts of the center of the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville saw a part of the Great Barier Reef, but could not find Australia.
Bougainville
Bougainville may refer to:
Gerardus Mercator
Gerardus Mercator, also called Gerhard Kremer, and born Gérard de Crémère (1512 – 1594), was a Flemish geographer and mathematician from Belgium. He explored Flanders and made globes about the earth and the sky. He became one of the best mapmakers of the 16th century. The Mercator projection that has his name is a flat map projection of the features of the surface of the earth that can be seen and made only mathematically. It was found to be excellent for navigating on oceans and is still used today. In 1585 he began a great atlas that was later finished by his son. His last years he used for studying theology.
Mercator was born in Rupelmonde and died in Duisburg.
Almond cake
Almond cake is a cake, made of butter, sugar, almond essence, eggs, ground almonds, and flour, with whole almonds for decoration.
Some types of almond cake are:
Countries of the United Kingdom
The number of countries that make up the United Kingdom is often the subject of debate. In decreasing order of area they are:
The United Nations and UK government says that the United Kingdom is officially made up of 2 countries (England and Scotland), one principality (Wales) and one province (Northern Ireland). However, Wales has not formally been a principality since the 16th century with the . In 2011 the International Organization for Standards Wales the status of country to clear ambiguity and avoid further confusion, thus the first statement may be corrected to 3 countries and 1 province.
Ante Starčević
Ante Starčević (23 May, 1823 - 28 February, 1896) was a Croatian politician and publisher.
Starčević was born in Žitnik near Gospić, a small town of the Military Frontiers, in what was then part of Austria-Hungary. He was the son of a Serb Orthodox mother and Catholic father. In 1845, he graduated from secondary school in Zagreb. He started his studies at the seminary (school where people can learn how to become a priest or minister) in Senj, but moved to Pest in the year of 1845 so he could go to a Roman Catholic theological (of the study of God or gods) seminary - which he finished in 1848. After passing a number of philosophy and free sciences classes, he earned a honoris causa degree in the year of 1846. Starčević quickly returned to Croatia and continued studying theology in Senj. Instead of becoming a priest, he chose to get involved in secular pursuits and started working in the law firm of Ladislav Šram in Zagreb.
He then tried to get an academic post with the University of Zagreb. As he was unsuccessful, he stayed in Šram's office until 1861 even though he was no longer allowed to practice law since 1857. He was also a member of the committee of Matica ilirska, a Croatian cultural society, in the Historical Society and in the editorial board of "Neven", a literary magazine.
In 1861, he was appointed the chief notary of the Fiume county. That same year, he was elected to the Croatian Parliament as the representative of Fiume and started the Croatian Party of Rights with Eugen Kvaternik. Starčević would be reelected to the parliament in 1865, 1871, and from 1878 to his death.