Plants are very important for life on the earth by releasing oxygen in the atmosphere, absorb carbon dioxide, regulate or maintains the water cycle and provide habitat or food for humans and animals. The role of plants in the environment is discussed below – Plants help in maintaining the right levels of carbon dioxide and…

Introduction – Carbon dioxide gas is an important constituent of air. The main sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide such as volcanic activities, respiration, the decay of living organisms, and combustion of fuels. During the eruption of volcanoes, carbon dioxide is released from the interior of the earth which goes into the atmosphere.  Animals and plants…

Carbon monoxide – Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless and odorless gas and is produced mainly by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels such as petrol, diesel, kerosene, and coal. It is also produced by the incomplete combustion of wood. The amount of carbon monoxide in the exhaust fumes of some of the inefficient motor…

Air contains a large number of particulates. A small fraction of the particulates present in the air is metallic particles. The metallic particles are present in the air of mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, beryllium, aluminum metals, nickel, arsenic, vanadium, zinc, iron, and tin. All the metallic particles are poisonous to some extent to all living…

A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice and forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation for several years or may be centuries. The term ‘’glacier’’ comes from the French word ‘’glace’’ that means ice. The glacier is also known as the ‘’river of ice’’. Most of the glaciers are made up…

Oxygen is essential for combustion (burning), corrosion, and respiration. If the amount of oxygen is increased in the air then the processes such as combustion, corrosion, and metabolism will become very fast and lead to harmful results. It can be explained as below If the amount of oxygen is increased in the air then the…

Acidic gases in the air – These gases which combine with water to form acids are called acidic gases. There are some of the acidic gases are nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. The sulphur dioxide gas is present as a polluted air forms sulphuric acid whereas the nitrogen dioxide gas is found in a polluted…

Introduction – Radioactivity is a phenomenon in which the nuclei of atoms of certain unstable elements undergo spontaneous disintegration and emit alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. The gamma rays emitted by radioactive substances are a kind of electromagnetic radiation having very high energy and they are extremely harmful to living organisms. The pollution…

Air – It is mainly a mixture of two gases – Nitrogen and Oxygen which is colorless, tasteless, and invisible. Air is an extremely important natural resource, which is essential for all living things due to all the living things breathe in air and exists life on the earth. If the air is polluted with…

The earth’s atmosphere has been keeping a sort of balance between its various constituents over the past billions of years. But the modern human activities such as large scale industrialization, rapid transport systems, changing life styles, and habits like smoking, burning of fossil fuels, and blind deforestation are upsetting the balance of atmosphere. The major…