Land Pollution
Land pollution is nothing else but the direct consequence of improper soil use within human activities, regardless of whether we are talking about farming or resource exploitation. Land pollution actually implies the careless disposal of the industrial wastes, incorrect agricultural practices and excessive mining. Moreover, it is part of a more complex pressure level that the whole of our civilization is putting on the the environment. The beginning of land pollution and the deterioration of the natural living conditions on earth is to be found in the very Industrial Revolution of the 17th century that changed the balanced between the human habitat and the natural world.
Take for instance the extraction of coal and metal ores; in some parts of the world the industrial past is still present despite the efforts of keeping the phenomenon under control. Unfortunately this kind of land pollution covers a wider specter particularly if we think about the many quarries that have been turned into boating lochs or landfill waste sites. A visitor through the Scottish Midlands would be surprised to still see the slag heaps that are visible in the landscape, a speaking proof of a mining past that has deeply scarred the environment and the inhabitants of those lands.
The increase in food demand has led to excessive farming: the size of the fields had to be adapted to the new data to the detriment of wild life. This type of land pollution caused thousands of animals to lose their habitat; moreover, intensive agriculture has also left the soil very poor in minerals and nutrients making agriculture even more difficult. Farmers are making desperate attempts to repair the damage by adding chemicals as nutrients, thus intensifying the land pollution level even further. Last but not least the herbicides, the insecticides and other chemicals meant to protect the crops from predators, pass not only in the food we eat but in the soil too, remaining trapped inside.
Humans are another factor of land pollution that cannot pass ignored: thousands of plastic bags lie about the countryside, dropped by holiday makers, campers and hikers. Pastures, rivers and forests are thus given a heavy blow, being hindered from maintaining the fragile balance that they are still fighting to keep. We are all responsible for land pollution each time we drop litter; proper education in this respect so as to increase the awareness level in the population is the only advantageous solution to preserve and protect the already precarious soil condition.
