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Theory behinds the research how industrial activities affect the ecosystem?
Since the first human was born hundreds of thousands of years ago, they started to
exploit their surroundings for resources in order to survive. At the beginning, the population
numbers were kept low because the difficulty of finding food. Humans only hunted and
gathered just enough food to stay alive (BBC, 2016, para 2). Nonetheless, soon after humans
started to develop the idea of agriculture and industrial revolution, the population increase
drastically. As a result, increasing in demand and consumption has led to the industrial
revolution in the late eighteenth century. Human started moving towards the modernized
world. For this reason, forests were damaged, rivers were contaminated, the air was polluted,
and the ecosystem were destroyed. This essay will mainly focus on the secondary industries
as it produce the greatest amount of waste to our world and discuss on the how the industrial
activities affect the ecosystem as a whole.
I.

Industrial revolution the beginning of polluted world

Pollution problems first started during the industrial revolution (Pollution issues,

2016, para 1). Since the steam engine and other technological advances were introduced to
our society, it then consequently led to the pollution problem (contaminated air and water).
The increasing of the use of artificially produced power (such as coal) that replaced the
natural power of fast-running rivers has created a huge pollution problem and it began to
widespread throughout England and Europe during that time (Pollution issues, 2016, para 4).
There are some evidence of pollution during the early Industrial Revolution in South Wales.
It was described by Adam Markham in A Brief History of Pollution (1994) as a "veritable
witches cauldron of industrial pollution." In addition to that point, Markham also found that
the samples of hair from historical figures who live in that time show the presence of
antimony and mercury at toxic levels not normally found in human hair (Pollution issues,
2016, para 5).

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The industry can be categorized into three main groups. Primary industries, secondary
industries, and tertiary industries. These industries are all contributing in polluting our world,
however, secondary industries are the major cause. Secondary industries are the
manufacturing sector that take raw materials and convert them into a products consumed by
individuals. For example, automobile manufacturing, and steel production
(Businessdictionary, 2016).
According to the China Water Risk team, the 2011 established non-profit initiative
dedicated to highlighting water risks, have done a research on 10 most polluting industrial
sectors. They found out that the most polluted industry is Papermaking & Stationary, follow
by Textile, Chemical, Food, Metallurgical, Electric power, Coal, Petroleum, Equipment
manufacturing, and Non-metallic mines industries respectively (Tan, 2014).
Polluted world is threatening all of us. How serious is the problem? According to the
environmental campaign organization WWF: "Pollution from toxic chemicals threatens life
on this planet. Every ocean and every continent, from the tropics to the once-pristine polar
regions, is contaminated." (De Sawal, 2016). So, in my opinion, it is very important to
understand how much human activities, especially in industrial scale, affect the environment
and fix it before it is too late.
II.

What is water pollution?

Water pollution usually refers to the water containing one or more substances that can

cause harmful problems for animals or people. It may contains chemical waste, oil waste,
organic waste, or radioactive waste. Generally, polluted water is any kind of water sources
that could possibly affect the health of all species whose lives depend on that water sources
(Woodford, 2016, para 4). There are two main types of water pollution, surface waters
pollution and groundwater pollution. The surface water is the most obvious one, as it refers to

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the main water resources on Earth such as oceans, lakes, and rivers. Surface water pollution
typically relate to an oil spill and chemical contamination. Groundwater pollution, on the
other hand, were relate to contamination of water with weed killers, mining, quarrying, and
fracking.
III.

How industries pollute the water?

The researchers found out that most water pollution does not begin in the water itself,

it actually enters the water resources from the land. Industries are the main actor in polluting
our environment (Woodford, 2016, para 15). Chemicals released by smokestacks can enter
the atmosphere and fall back to the earth as rain, entering major water resources on our planet
and causing water pollution (Woodford, 2016, para 11). In addition, if the factories do not
have a proper way to retreat the water before releasing it back to the river, it can cause
harmful consequences.
There are several ways that the industries can pollute the water with inappropriate
water treatment, here are some major one
Improper water temperature
Temperature is a major influence on biological activity and growth. When the
temperatures get too far above or below this proper range, the number of individuals of the
species decreases until finally there are none (Perlman, 2016, para 2). Most industries are
involve in machinery, and almost all machinery produces heat, so the industries use water to
cool down the machine. As the consequences, unless the water is treated properly, the
temperature of the water in the river is risen when mixed with the hot water released from the
factory. The problem is that warm water holds less dissolved oxygen than cool water, and
may not contain enough dissolved oxygen for the survival of different species of aquatic life

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(Perlman, 2016, para 2). Therefore, when aquatic species die, bacteria grows exponentially
because they have more food. As the result, river started to become smelly and contaminated.
Heavy metals contaminated
Lead, cadmium, and mercury are the most common metals found in the water
resources near the industrial site. Lead is used in gasoline industry while mercury and
cadmium are used in batteries (Woodford, 2016, para 22). Those heavy metals may seem
harmless when they are used in the product. Nevertheless, when released into the water
sources, such as ocean, they contaminate fish stocks which will then be eaten by human.
IV.

Literature review
According to the water ministry of China ("Water Resources of China", 2016), river

survey in the north and east in 2015 were of poor quality. More than thirty percent were grade
IV quality (suitable for industrial and agricultural use) and nearly fifty percent were grade V
(unfit for human consumption of any type). On 5th June 2015, the MEP 2014 State of
Environment Report issued says that the overall environmental quality in China was average.
However, they also found that the water quality from most river have deteriorated, especially
for the rivers that are located in the eastern region of China. Yangtze, Huai, and Liao, for
example, are the rivers that close to the industrial area in the eastern region and are all
reported of deteriorated water quality throughout the past decades. Generally speaking, water
that is unfit for human touch have risen gradually over just a few years, and most of them
are the rivers that located very close to the industrial site.
Mr. Brian Oram, Professional Geologist and the founder of the Water Research
Center, have run a stream monitoring programs for more than 25 years. His job is to compare
and contrast the pH and chemical components of the water from many different places. He
found out that there are 3 factors that affect the pH of the water (Oram, 2014, para 3-7). A

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first factor is the bed rock and soil composition through which the water moves. In general,
some rock can affect the pH of the water due to its unique chemical composition. A second
factor is the amount of plant growth and organic material within the water. Basically when
those material decomposes, carbon will be released back to the environment in form of
carbon dioxide gas. Therefore, when combine with water, produces a carbonic acid which
lower the pH consequently. A third factor is the most significant one. We have been
discussing about this factor throughout this essay, which is the story about industrial and
human activities. Industries can affect the pH in many ways. Firstly, through the water
released from the factories. Due to the fact that some companies have an improper way to
retreat the water before releasing it back to nature, some alkaline or acidic chemicals can be
sent out to the nature as well. Secondly, through the precipitation. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur
dioxide released from the burning process in the factories can combine with the water vapor
in the air and finally form the acid precipitation. Lastly, the stems from coal mine drainage
can also affect the pH of the river. Iron sulfide, a mineral found in and around coal seams,
when combines with water will form a sulfuric acid and lowered the pH of some stream water
as well.
Normal pH range of stream water is around 5.8 7.9 and the optimum pH is around
7.4 (Rogue Valley Council of Governments, 2003). Sea water, on the other hand, can goes up
to 8.0-8.5. Normal range of precipitation is expected to be around 5.0 6.5, pH that is lower
than 5.0 will be considered as an acid rain ("Weather Information", 2016).
The previous research on pH of precipitation was done by the National Atmospheric
Deposition Program of the United States in 2002. They found out that the pH of water bodies
vary widely across the United States, and what most determine the pH of those water are
human processes. So far, they has developed maps (figure below) showing pH patterns of
precipitation in every states of America.

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This figure above is a great evidence of how industrial activities have such an
enormous impact on water bodies and precipitation. You can see that the area in orange (pH
less than 4.3) are mostly located on the east side of the country, where, more than half of
them, are the leading US manufacturing prosperity.
In summary, I believe that my experiment will show the same trend as what other
researchers have found. River that located closer to the industrial site will be more likely to
contain chemical that affect the pH of the water, while the river that isnt near the industrial
site will have the normal pH range.

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V.

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