How do pollution affect animals

Water pollution is detrimental to wildlife. Frogs species are in decline. Water bodies polluted with nutrients are causing massive growths of toxic algae that are eaten by animals, resulting in diseases and deaths. Mining operations result in weathering waste rock and ore deposits, creating "acid mine drainage. Monumental amounts of toxic metals are released into the air by industries and automobiles.

These toxins settle to the ground and are then transported by fallen rain, along with pesticides. It is one of the largest sources of toxic water pollution. Oil spills result in the deaths of countless wild animals. Oil coats animal fur and feathers reducing their insulating properties, and exposes animals to deadly toxins. The long-term effects of oil spills are more subtle, but just as detrimental. Toxic chemicals on beaches, in the water, and in the food web results in anemia, decreased disease resistance, impaired reproduction, cancers, birth defects and neurological damage.

In coastal belts where human habitation concentration has grown the most in the past few decades, wanton garbage disposal, especially of plastic, has almost completely wiped out marine ecosystems within miles of the shores.

Spectacular creatures such as whales and dolphins, that were once a common sight for beach goers, have been driven from their natural habitat into deep seas — having lost their centuries-old feeding grounds to pollutants.

In closeted water bodies like lakes, pollutants like oil, detergents, nitrogen and phosphate can create havoc in its ecosystems by stimulating growth of unwanted plants and choking the water of oxygen so essential to the survival of fish. Pollution is not always physical. Sound waves from oil rigs, ships and sonar travel for miles disrupting communication, hunting, migration, and reproduction of aquatic animals.

Noise pollution from gas and oil explorations are causing mass strandings and chronic stress. Pollution from animal agricultural is one of the biggest threats to wildlife. Pesticide usage in agriculture has jumped fold in the last 50 years causing serious consequences for the environment. Lakes, streams, drains and groundwater have been contaminated to an extent that not only are they not fit for use, entire ecosystems around them have perished.

Chemical runoff leaches into streams, waterways and groundwater. Fertilizers alter nutrient systems in waterways, creating explosive growths of algae that deplete oxygen in the water.

Around dead zones have already been created as a result. Animal agriculture produces significantly more greenhouse gases than all of the traffic in the world combined. Spouting out huge percentages of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, the industry is leaving behind pollutants known to remain in the atmosphere for more than years. Animal waste also produces toxic levels of methane and ammonia, which leads to climate change as well as acid rain.

Cows alone produce approximately lbs of manure per day, resulting in about billion gallons of methane each day. Unmanageable amounts of animal waste is collected in cesspools and is either sprayed on fields or left to sit. The toxic fumes from the pools are emitted into the air and harm the environment. Pesticides not only harm wild animals through long-term exposure via the food web; direct exposure also kills wild animals.

Pesticides drift, decimating mammal, bird and fish populations. Littering causes the deaths of many wild animals. Toxic trash can be fatal. Entanglement in litter is a common threat. Tons of plastic litter finds its way into the oceans, washed off streets and blown from landfills.

Animals often mistake litter for food and attempt to eat the litter, resulting in fatalities. Litter accumulates in giant patches. Some is transported by currents and washed onto shore. Trillions of other pieces of decomposing plastic create gigantic swirling garbage patches in the ocean. Many households products contain toxic metals. Household waste-water often transports toxic metals into aquatic environments. Often, they are released far upstream.

Many of these pollutants collect at the ocean's depths, where they are consumed by small marine organisms and introduced into the global food chain. Solid waste like bags, foam, and other items dumped into the oceans from land or by ships at sea are frequently mistaken for prey and consumed by marine mammals, fish, and birds, often with fatal effects.

Discarded fishing nets drift for years, ensnaring fish and mammals, leading to exhaustion, starvation, and slow death. Other Forms of Pollution Common man-made physical pollutants that reach the ocean include pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, discarded fishing gear and other solid debris. As plastic production continues to grow, some scientists predict that it will be found in the digestive system of 99 per cent of all seabird species by For many fish, certain microplastics look similar to their food sources, such as phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish eggs.

A study conducted in found plastic in every single fish tested in the Great Lakes. Plastic is harming human health at every single stage of its life cycle, from extraction and production to consumer use and end of life.

It is making its way into our food, water and air. Everything from salt to honey to beer to seafood has been found to contain microplastics. It is undeniable that we are eating and drinking plastic, but just how it is impacting our health is still unclear. Scientists continue to study what our plastic consumption may be doing to our bodies.

Recent polling has shown that the vast majority of Canadians want a future without plastic pollution. Canada has an opportunity to show strong global leadership in the face of the plastic disaster and join other countries in creating a plastic-free future. Join Oceana Canada to lend your support and sign the petition here , urging the Canadian government to fulfill its commitment to ban unnecessary single-use plastics that are choking the oceans and devastating marine life by Whales Plastic has been found in almost every species of whale in our oceans.