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Renewable Resources & Pollutants

Renewable resources are those that are used by humans and replaced by the natural processes of the Earth. Theoretically, renewable resources can provide an endless supply of power or nutrients, but these resources can be negatively impacted by the pollution released from human activities. In a vicious cycle, these pollutants can not only harm those they come in contact with but also interfere with the valuable natural processes that create the resources.

Wind
- Wind is a major carrier of pollution between areas.
  
  Wind is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can be harnessed to generate electricity. Turbines that are turned by wind power feed generators, making it possible for humans to harness the power of the wind.
  
  Air pollution is a serious problem not only in cities but in rural areas as well. As human activity releases more and more pollutants into the air, the wind carries these foreign particles well out of range of the area they were released into. Cities produce smog, which is a black, smoky-like substance that is produced by the chemical reaction between pollutants from industrial factories, cars and commercial buildings. This smog is carried wherever the wind takes it, where it can be dropped in the form of acid rain.
Water
- Water can collect pollution both visible and microscopic from a number of sources.
  
  Water is a renewable resource. It is consumed by animals, plants and humans alike; returned to the environment where it can exist in rivers and lakes or evaporate into the air before returning to a liquid state.
  
  Pollution is making a large amount of this resource unusable, or interfering with the natural recycling process. When rain falls, it picks up contaminants in the air such as chemical compounds; when it falls, it picks up other contaminants in the soil including inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. This is then filtered into groundwater, bodies of water or reservoirs, where it joins other water pollution such as garbage, sewage, bacteria and other disease-carrying organisms and even residential pollution such as cleaning chemicals.
Soil
- Livestock farms with unhealthy animals can result in bacterial or viral infection of the soil.
  
  Soil is quite literally one of the basic building blocks of life on Earth. Nutrients are needed in soil in order for it to support plant life; these nutrients are constantly renewed by the decay of plant and animal matter, the return of naturally occurring waste products such as manure and can even be contained in water.
  
  Nutrients can be sapped and soil made unfit to support plant life by the presence of chemicals such as insecticides and pesticides, as well as inorganic fertilizers with components that do not decay. Water carries runoff from sources including industrial complexes, farms and sewers. The bacteria contained in improperly treated human waste products and the waste of ill animals can remain in the soil to contaminate others.
Solar
- Sunlight is reflected from particles in the air.
  
  Without the sun, there would be no life on Earth. Plants harness the sun's energy to make energy, which is then passed on to every other living thing on the planet. In relatively recent history, scientists have discovered new ways of harnessing solar energy in order to create a reusable energy source.
  
  Air pollution is having a drastic effect on the availability of solar rays and the brightness of the sun. In a process called global dimming, the production of air pollution has several different effects. Clouds are formed from water vapor that contains pollutants, making them more dense and more likely to reflect sunlight away from the planet. Darker skies clouded with smog are also reducing the sunlight available to plants and animals.

Nature