Hi Five Future Pollution Ending Technologies
Pollution, the introduction of manmade contaminants into the natural environment, can be as simple as your neighbor's too-bright porch light shining into your bedroom window and interfering with your sleep. It can also occur on a massive scale, such as the introduction of fluorocarbons into the atmosphere, destroying the Earth's ozone layer and causing a global-warming effect. Uncontrolled pollution can result in the destruction of Earth's natural environment.
Pollution isn't just a modern problem. In the 12th century, King Edward I banned the selling of sea coal because the smoke from the soft coal combined with London's infamous fog to produce the first recorded incidences of "smog" [source: Urbinato]. The English didn't obey the rules, however, since few could afford the more expensive wood to fuel their fires. Three hundred years later, Shakespeare's witches in "Macbeth" chanted about the "fog and filthy air."
Pollution has been around for centuries, and researchers are continually looking for new, more efficient ways of trying to cope with it. Here, we'll learn about five types of pollution and the new technologies researchers are developing to combat them. Some require a fair amount of expertise and creativity, such as the "super trees" of Lima, Peru, while others are just basic common-sense approaches.
5. Water Pollution
Nearly one out of every three people in the world lacks a reliable source of clean drinking water [source: World Health Organization]. Water may be scarce due to a lack of rain or the means to transport it from the river or well to the settlement, or the water may be polluted. Drinking contaminated water can cause a variety of diseases, including cholera and dysentery.
Nanotechnology, which deals with matter on an atomic level, seems to hold promise in water purification. A company in South Africa, Marelize Botes, has developed a water filter that resembles a teabag. Instead of tea, however, active carbon granules fill the bag. The bag itself is made from nanofibers treated with biocide to kill bacteria [source: Poppendieck and Sinico].
LifeStraw, a portable water filter manufactured by the Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen, is an inexpensive purification method that thousands of people have adopted since its invention in 2005. LifeStraw costs around $3 per unit, and anyone old enough to use a straw -- usually about age 3 -- can use it [source: Vestergaard Frandsen].
4. Air Pollution
In 2009, scientists linked prenatal exposure to air pollution to lower IQ scores later in life [source: Tanner]. Children exposed to the most pollution before birth had IQ scores at age 5 that were, on average, five points lower than those of kids with lower levels of exposure. In China, the polluted coal that's burned for fuel daily is poisoning people and causing disease [source: American Institute of Physics]. While the simple answer to these problems, and the many others caused by air pollution, is to stop polluting, it's not that easy.
In heavily polluted Lima, Peru, a new filtration system, the Super Tree, has been installed in several locations around the city. This device mimics the respiration of a real tree, taking in carbon dioxide and expelling oxygen. The Super Tree, manufactured by Tierra Nuestra (Our Earth), cleans the air through a water filtration system, removing carbon dioxide as well as some bacteria. The Super Tree can purify up to 200,000 cubic meters of air per day -- approximately what six trees would accomplish -- at an initial cost of around $100,000 [source: Novey].
3. Land Pollution
One of the unfortunate consequences of our progress is the tons of garbage we generate each day. Allowed to pile up in landfills, this solid waste can break down and contaminate the soil and ground water or, perhaps worse, it won't break down and will hang around for centuries. Scientists are working with several new technologies to help manage waste.
At University College Dublin, researchers have discovered a bacterium that not only eats plastic foam, but can also convert it into a new form of useable plastic. First, the foam must be melted without the presence of oxygen and turned into styrene oil. Then, the bacteria eat it and excrete it as PHA, a biodegradable plastic [source: McNamara].
Other new technologies are helping us deal with the growing problem of electronic waste. Cell phones made of recycled materials are now on the market, and Chinese scientists have discovered ways to reuse glues and resins from old computer circuit boards to create things like fences and park benches [source: McNamara].
2. Light Pollution
For millennia, humans ceased all productive activity after nightfall. They gathered by the fire, ate a meal, maybe told a story or two, and then settled down to sleep. All that changed about a century ago. Suddenly, life could go on 24/7. While this has enabled us to increase our productivity and our recreation time, unnecessary light can cause great harm. Light pollution can interrupt our circadian rhythms, making it harder to get to sleep, and it may also disrupt ecosystems [source: International Dark-Sky Association]. In addition, manufactured light infuriates astronomers by competing with the light of the stars.
One promising solution for light pollution could be the widespread use of "smart lights," such as the BetaLED lights under development at the University of California-Davis's California Lighting Technology Center. Currently used in parking lots, these lights feature a bi-level switch that moves between low and high lighting levels, rather than simply turning on and off. Motion sensors turn the lights to a higher intensity when there's activity in the parking lot. This new technology has shown energy savings as much as 75 percent over conventional lights [source: California Lighting Technology Center].
1. Noise Pollution
It's Saturday morning, and you're sleeping in after a hard week at work. But just after dawn, as the birds are singing and you're snoozing, there comes a tremendous roar. You sit up, wide-awake. Is it an earthquake? Are we under attack? No, it's just your pesky neighbor, sweeping off his sidewalk with a gasoline-powered leaf blower rather than a nice, quiet broom.
So much for your lazy Saturday.
The leaf blower has become one of the main points of contention in the noise pollution battle. While new technologies are in the works to minimize its effects, most areas are more concerned with stopping it altogether. Cities from Beverly Hills, Calif., to Tuckahoe, N.Y., have banned its use in residential areas, citing studies that show that noise lessens the efficacy of work and increases aggression and frustration [source: Citizens for a Quieter Sacramento]. These effects carry on even after the noise has ceased, so your neighbor's yard work can ruin your whole weekend, not just your Saturday morning.
