What
is pollution?
Mostly
it's smoke and gases which come from burning fuels to make energy. But
it isn’t always obvious.
Some of
the polluting gases stink
- yuk! That's obvious!
Some pollution
is clouds of black soot particles.
Some pollutants
are deadly poisonous and can kill people.
But the
main pollution is that colourless heavy gas which just about everyone
has heard of: carbon dioxide (often shortened to
CO2). This gas has no smell and people use it to put the fizz in
fizzy drinks. It is also a 'greenhouse' gas... and that spells trouble
for the planet's climate. Most CO2 comes from people burning fossil fuels
and destroying forests.
What is greenhouse gas?Some gases in the air act like the panes of glass in a greenhouse. They let the heat of the sun IN but they stop it going OUT. So the greenhouse gets hot. This is happening in the Earth's atmosphere because people are adding vast amounts of extra greenhouse gases which mostly come from burning fossil fuels.
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For
more about pollution, see