How Pollution Threatens Life

Read topic:
Then my response:Pollutants introduce harmful substances into the air, water, or soil that threaten the life of both animals and humans. The contaminants affect the entire ecosystem complicating the lives of animals, plants, and humans. The children and the elderly are reported to be the most susceptible to harm. This is majorly attributed to the low immune levels. Exposure to pollution has a huge effect on the body of both animals and humans. Water is a necessary commodity for all living things. Animals and humans need water for them to survive. Human activities such as farming and industrial activities are the major source of water pollution. Harmful chemicals could be discharged into streams hindering water quality. Animals and human beings could get infected with waterborne diseases that may lead to deaths. Animals and human beings could inhale chemicals resulting to respiratory diseases or death.
Ecological balance is important for all organisms to thrive in an ecosystem. Elimination in an ecosystem only occurs through a natural selection process. Pollution destabilizes an ecosystem. Human activities such as deforestation disturb the soil ecology and water balance. This means with the fast pace of urbanization, humans will not be able to get enough supply of water to the cities and industries. Animals will not have habitats and food, resulting in their death. Air pollution results to poor air quality. With continued air pollution, the air quality in the future is threatened. There would be no trees to circulate the air and consume the nitrogen. This would thus result to increase in respiratory illness in the future.
Then 2 peer responses:
peer 1: Pollutants threaten life and health because they impact the things we need to survive, causing them to be impure. This includes things like the air we breathe and the water we drink. We need both to survive and if they are both contaminated, our bodies are taking in toxic chemicals that can do some serious damage over time. The ecosystem is the interrelationships between all living things (plants/Animals/Humans) and the environment, so when the environment is altered due to pollution of all kinds, the living things intertwined with it are ultimately harmed. As the book mentions, nature is not just something to be used at our disposal, but to be used responsibly because ultimately, our entire ecosystem can be thrown off balance and in return destroy our environment. I am certainly concerned about the future in reference to pollutants because we continue to produce so many products that harm the environment. We only have one earth and I think we have a responsibility to take care of it. Though there are many ways that society is working to better protect the environment, I think that it has to be a worldwide mission to be most effective.
Peer 2: Pollutants have always been an issue ever since our population began growing exponentially and since the industrial era. Over the decades we as the human race continue to put toxins into our earths soil, water, and air. Doing so has caused many changes in ecosystems and have depleted a number of species in marine habitats. In recent years, there has been a realization about all of the pollution that is going on and people, including politicians, are joining in to do something about it. Recycling, using green fuels, using organic cleaning supplies, using less pesticides or no pesticides on produce, and any other method to leave less of a footprint, are ways that we have begun going about preserving our planet and reducing the amount of pollutants that enter our ecosystems. If one thing is poisoned from pollution, we are all affected. It is the life cycle and just because we are at the top of the food chain does not mean that we are beyond the negative and harmful affects of pollution.