Thermal pollution is the change in
the temperature of water due to the addition of warmer water into a source of
cooler water. This is often the result of industrial plants and factories,
typically plans the generate electricity, pumping the water used to cool down
their machinery into a near by body of water. Increases in the temperature of
the water also occur in streams where shading vegetation along the banks has
been removed or where turned up sediments have made the water cloudier. Both
the addition of the hot water, lack of shading vegetation, and turned up bottom
sediments, makes the water absorb more sunlight, also heating the water.
The
most thermally efficient machines are the one where their input water
temperature and the output water temperature vary drastically. To do this cool
water from a surrounding area is pumped into a factory or plant. Half the water
is left at the normal temperature and the other half is heated so the two
temperatures vary greatly. When the water is done being used it is all pumped
back into the original water source. Over time, the heated water will change
the temperature of the body of water.
Effects
of thermal pollution are thermal shock, changes in dissolved oxygen, and the
redistribution of organisms in the body of water being used. Stenothermic
organisms adapt to the water temperature and even small changes can ruin the
metabolic processes, as well as their reproductive systems, and kill them.
One
of the ways to avoid this is gradually adding the warmer water to a water
source. This give the organisms time to either adapt of move away from the
source of the heat.
This was quite an informative blog post. I really appreciate the well thought out and concise facts on thermal pollution. I feel this is overlooked often when dealing with global issues.
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