Let's Reflect, Shall We?

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that causes adverse change. Pollution can take several different forms, such as noise, water, air, soil, light and thermal pollution to name a few. It's classified as either point-source or non-point source pollution, where the sources of the pollution are identifiable and unidentifiable respectively. 

In my third post entitled "A Painful Drainful", where I spoke about the causes and adverse effects of water pollution, I mentioned several ways in which we contribute to our water being contaminated, one of which was the ignorant and inconsiderate dumping of garbage into our city's waterways. However one of the most prominent consequences of such an action, particularly in our capital city, which had slipped my mind in mentioning was the real problem of flooding. It's a good thing my colleague Ryan picked up on that issue where I fell short. His picture depicts a very painful drain full of garbage which he explained would cause a build up of surface runoff, one saturated with contaminants heading to the sea. When torrential rains fall during the rainy season and flood out the city in several feet of water, what this flowing water does is pick up these pieces and chunks of human trash and carry them all to sea. For lodged articles of garbage as depicted in Ryan's photo, what the water instead would do is simply collect the contaminants from these bits of garbage in suspension and take them directly to the sea (and not a treatment facility). You can find his blog post here: 

http://urbanpollutiontt.blogspot.com/2014/04/urban-drainage.html

I headed over to Kelitas' blog when she told me that she was exploring the same topic as I; she must have posts which were very similar to mine, and indeed she did. In our "Noise Pollution" and  "Pipe Down Will you?!" posts we both talked about mostly the same points, specifically how noise pollution specifically affects us as Trinbagonians. However our Siamese posts detached when I expatiated on noise at social events while she focused on noise pollution caused by urbanization. When I saw that her opening line stated such, my initial reaction was, "Noise pollution and urbanization? Where could she be going with that?" But as I read on I began to see the connection (albeit obvious after I read it all). She said that greater urbanization would mean more construction sites for the building of houses, and we already established that construction sites can be quite noisy. More sites would also lead to more dust particles, allergens and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's). From this she brought forward the thesis that noise and air pollution are linked. Not bad, I wouldn't have thought of that at all. Good job Kelita! You can read her entire blog here:

http://urbanpollutionintrinidad.blogspot.com/

Faheem, another colleague of mine, touched on a topic that Kelita spoke about, one that i second. Faheem talks about the presence of urban sprawl and how it and what it means for the community of Princes Town. Included in his analysis is the fact that greater urbanization will lead to greater pollution and environmental degradation, which is true. This will cause in increase in almost all types of pollution. 

More urban dwellers means more cars, which means greater noise and air pollution. 

More urban dwellers means more light, water, thermal pollution as concrete houses, sidewalks and drains are erected.

More urban dwellers means the potential for more personal and visual pollution all concentrated into one area. This realization wouldn't have hit me if it weren't for Faheem bringing up this point. You're an intelligent chap, Faheem. If you want, you can view the intelligent chap's blog here:

http://urbanenviropollution.blogspot.com/

Before I started my line of posts I came thinking I knew a lot about pollution, but as I got deeper into the analyses and investigating I realized there were so many things that I never knew, had misconceptions about, and so many things left to discover. For instance, who knew that thermal pollution actually has to do with the change of water temperatures due to human intervention which affects marine ecosystems? Certainly not me. I thought it was somehow linked to global warming and the heating effect that air pollution causes. I could have told anyone that and be confident. The more you know, right? I would say that now at the end of my chain of posts, I've learned so much about the various types of pollution that exist which affect the city of Port-of-Spain and by extension the rest of the country and world, and steps to reduce many of them. In addition to that I'd like to say a BIG thanks to my lecturer Dr. Kissoon for giving me this opportunity to really delve into a topic that in my opinion, lets my inner genius gallivant itself. Kudos to you Dr. K!