Syllabus Edition
First teaching 2015
Last exams 2025
Pollution Management
Written by: Alistair Marjot
Reviewed by: Bridgette Barrett
Pollution Management
Human activities, such as farming and industrial practices, urbanisation, development of transport, and energy production, are the major causes of pollution
The amount of material released into the environment determines the impact
There are three main stages leading to the impact of pollutants on the environment
Stage 1: Human activity producing the pollutant
Stage 2: Releasing of the pollutant into the environment
Stage 3: The impact of the pollutant on ecosystems
The main stages leading to the impact of pollutants
There are three strategies for managing the impacts of pollution (which relate to the stages of pollutant impact shown above):
Changing human activity
Regulating and reducing quantities of pollutants released at the point of emission
Cleaning up the pollutants and restoring the ecosystem after pollution has occurred
Modern technology can reduce the impact of pollution by managing these three stages of pollutant impacts, for example:
Stage 1 could be managed by introducing electric and hybrid cars that use less fossil fuel
Stage 2 could be managed by fitting catalytic converters to car exhaust systems or adding scrubbers to industrial chimneys to remove toxic chemicals and allow for their reuse
Stage 3 could be managed by using synthetic membranes to capture chemical spills (e.g. mats designed to capture and hold hydrocarbons)
The main strategies for managing the impacts of pollution
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