Question

While waiting at an airport, Neil Campbell once overhead this claim: it’s paranoid and ignorant to worry about industry or agriculture contaminating the environment with their chemical wastes. After all, this stuff is just made of the same atoms that were already present in our environment.” Drawing on your knowledge of electron distribution, bonding and emergent properties (see Concept 1.1), write a short essay(100-150 words) countering this argument.

Short answer

Agricultural and industrial contaminants cause pollution in the environment. These contaminants are made of the atoms and elements present in the environment.

However,these contaminants become non-degradable due to the difference in bonding patterns, emergent properties, and electron distribution.

Step-by-step solution

Agricultural and industrial contaminants

The agricultural and industrial contaminants are produced due to an increase in anthropogenic activities.The industrial contaminants are metals, inorganic compounds, and other solvents.

The agricultural contaminants are fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemical fertilizers. It is challenging to degrade the pollutants from the environment.

Atoms and elements

Atoms are the basic units that comprise the element. Every chemical substance is made up of atoms. These atoms are attached to form the elements with the help of forming bonds. The contaminants are also made of atoms.

Reason for the non-degradable property of the chemical waste

The electron distribution is the presence of several electrons present within an atom. The electron distributions in the contaminants are different from the naturally available substances, leading to the stable electronic configuration in the atoms of the contaminants.

The bonding present in chemical waste substances is stronger than other substances. It becomes difficult to break the stronger bonds present between the atoms.

The eminent properties such as high reactivity, electronegativity, types of bonds, and distribution of electrons are different in the contaminants.

For example, polyethene is a substance used in plastic industries that is very difficult to degrade. It is due to the existence of the covalent bonds in between the monomeric units of polyethene.