Pollution - Air pollution in eastern Europe is caused because of some of the world's most largest industrialized countries are in Europe. Factories and power plants pump loads of pollutants into Europe's atmosphere.In the past majority of the smoke was from excessive amounts of coal use. Today air pollution is caused by exhaust from cars and buses. The constant air pollution that is being let out into the atmosphere affects the citizens health. The pollution causes the respiratory systems function to decrease because of the loads of smoke that has been consumed. Asthma and pneumonia is linked to the to the vehicle emissions.Overall air pollution endangers human life, and causes harm wildlife. Acid rain- Acid rain is rainfall made sufficiently acidic by atmospheric pollution that it causes environmental harm. The pollution gets into the rain and this is how rain gets to be acidic. Main source of acid rain is smoked produced from factories . Acid rain falls into bodies of water and causes the PH level to decrease leaving aquatic plant life and animals a less chance of survival. Acid rain also and get into forest which affects the trees. This causes the trees to be very vulnerable to disease, extreme weather, and insects by destroying their leaves, damaging the bark and arresting their growth. Majority of the forest damage is in Poland and Czech Republic. Aral sea - The Aral sea has shrunk by nearly ninety percent in the last few decades. This is happening because farmers are using the rivers that feed into the the sea for irrigation. More water fields means less making it to the sea. Using toxic pesticides that deposit into the sea. The Aral sea life began to die fishing industries collapsed. Drought ( not as much water to evaporate). . Deforestation - Deforestation is the clearing of trees, transforming a forest into cleared land. In Europe deforestation got worse and large quantities of the stripped and salinated soil, vulnerable to eolian erosion, were blown by the prevailing winds onto arable land in neighboring regions, which in turn rapidly deteriorated. Many reasons for deforestation is that trees are cut down to be used or sold as fuel or timber, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities and settlements. Nuclear Disasters - Last but not least the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant . The Chernobyl exploded on April 26 . 1986 causing an extreme nuclear disaster in Europe. 200.000 people evacuated to decrease exposure of radiation. There was a 30 kilometer or 18 mile evacuation. Prevailing winds which is a wind from the direction that is predominant at a particular place or season carried the radioactive material around the world. The radiation levels were 15,000 times higher than a normal person exposure a year. Buildings had to be drenched in special chemicals and roofs had to be replaced. Trees that were near the explosion had to be cut down and buried into concrete pits. An official exclusion zone around the plant remains in contact extending for 30 kilometers. This area is considered the most radioactive area on Earth. |