Where there are humans, pollution
appears, a curse for the earth?
The human
being occupies the planet, conquers and subdues it, uses it for its benefit,
but in every action there is a secondary and negative effect that expands as
greed grows and the desire to extract even the last resort to satisfy their
greed and foolishness The pollution that grows without stopping and is in the
most unsuspected places.
In recent
decades, humans have thrown millions of tons of plastic waste into the
environment. Plastics, derived from petroleum, take thousands of years to
decompose; meanwhile, they pollute waters, intoxicate animals and enter the
food chain.
In the North
Pacific Ocean, there is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, larger than the state
of Texas, with 696,241 km2. There are garbage patches in other oceans, Indian
and Atlantic. For the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
they are not "garbage islands", homogenous masses, but something
dispersed like a galaxy. Actually, if they were islands, it would be enough to
lift the dough and remove it. SES scientists calculated that there are 580,000
pieces of plastic per square kilometer in the Atlantic.
The plastic
that enters the ocean comes from ships and platforms that are on the high seas
(20%); the rest comes from garbage thrown into the sea, collected by the tides
on the beach, and garbage thrown intentionally.
Plastics do
not biodegrade, they break into small pieces that are consumed by fish and
marine mammals. When the polystyrene foam breaks into smaller parts, the
components sink into the ocean, thus the pollutant spreads throughout the sea.
The direct toxicity of plastics comes from lead, cadmium and mercury. These
toxins have been found in many fish and are dangerous for humans. Diethylhexyl
phthalate (DEHP) is a toxic carcinogen. Other effects, in addition to the
cancers, are revealed in birth defects, immune system errors and problems of
child development. Other toxic plastics, BPA or bisphenol-A, used in plastic
bottles and food packaging materials interfere with human hormonal function.
The seas are
not the only landfills for polluting garbage. The basins of rivers, lakes,
cities and surroundings, even outer space are affected. Cities are
"natural garbage dumps," but, What happens
in places far from cities? No one would think that Everest is a garbage dump as
dangerous as garbage dumps in polluted cities and beaches.
Mount
Everest, at 8,848 meters above sea level, was the loneliest place on Earth, and
perhaps the cleanest; until May 29, 1953, when Edmund Hillary and the guide
Tenzing Norgay conquered its summit. Now, this mountain suffers the attacks of
a human being without environmental conscience that fills trash and excrement
all its slopes.
In May 2018,
the Chinese newspaper Global Times reported on an expedition of 30 people who
aimed to clean the hill in the middle of the ascent season, with sad results:
Only between April and May they collected 8.5 tons of waste (tents, bottles of
oxygen, gas cylinders, kilometers of ropes, cans of food and abandoned
corpses). Of the total waste collected, 2.3 tons corresponded only to frozen
human excrement, which indicates that Everest is a latrine in the heights.
In the base
camp (5,350 meters high), the remains are collected and transferred to a low
area where they are processed properly; at the furthest bases people dig in the
snow to hide feces and urine. According to The Washington Post, by season
mountaineers generate 12 tons of human excrement, which are "stored"
under the snow. The melting of the mountain takes the excrement to the base
camps, putting at risk the health of the climbers who melt the ice to consume
it as water. In 2012, the contamination of water sources was already warned; In
2013, a well-known journalist and mountaineer said that the climbers themselves
avoided boiling the snow to drink the water for fear of getting an infection.
Now, the authorities are looking for real solutions to the problem. The idea is
to burn biodegradable waste in the vicinity of Everest and the rest take them
to Kathmandu (capital of Nepal) to make souvenirs. A more complex project, the
Biogas Project of Monte Everest, aims to create a bioreactor to convert the
excrement into compost material; It is expected to work by 2019.
Is space
free? No, it is also a less visible landfill, sooner or later the effects will
be felt.
References
Estas son las islas de plástico que
contaminan mares y océanos
31 enero, 20192 Vistas5 Min. de lectura
Al monte Everest lo enferman: se está
convirtiendo en una letrina Manuel Herrera. 15 junio, 2018
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