Why does thermal pollution occur?

Answer 1

Discharge of warmed water from power plants and other industrial plants, into rivers and lakes. Discharge of hot combustion gases into the atmosphere. Vehicle exhausts and aircon discharges in cities. More roads and buildings absorbing heat and passing it to the air, mainly in cities.

Answer 2

Thermal pollution, or overheated water, is often associated with industrial discharges, but also includes the more pervasive problem of stream overheating due to inadequate stormwater management in developed areas. When rainfall generates surface runoff in the summertime, it becomes heated due to its flow over hot surfaces (think of summer thunderstorms falling on asphalt-paved parking lots). If such water flows into streams, they will become much hotter than they were prior to development. Other effects of inadequate stormwater management are excessive streambank erosion which causes loss of tree cover and allows the sun to heat streams, and the loss of groundwater recharge between rainstorms, reducing flow and magnifying the effects of solar heating. Higher water temperatures are directly harmful to most organisms, and also drive off dissolved oxygen, which remains deficient even when the water cools.

Answer 3

When fuels are used to produce electricity, to heat a building, or to drive vehicles, there is always low quality heat energy rejected in the process. Think about the heat coming out of your car exhaust or radiator for instance. All this heat goes into the environment. Overall the earth's heat balance can accommodate this, but in local areas like large cities it can accumulate and affect the micro-climate in that area.

Answer 4

if thermal pollution didn't occur, then there would be to many fish and not enough food for the fish, so the fish would go hungry and die, and the fishing industry would collapse and there would never be any fish for people to eat.

Answer 5

Thermal pollution is characterized by the increase or decrease in water temperature within streams, rivers and any natural bodies of water. The causes of thermal pollution are the removal of trees from the area that would normally provide shade and from factories or power plants that may dump the waste of hot water produced into the natural bodies of water.

Answer 6

Thermal pollution comes from the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel that causes emission of green house gases that result in global warming. Also it comes from the waste heat from power plants that is removed in rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans resulting in increasing the water temperatures unless precautions were used to prevent it.

Answer 7

Thermal pollution is the degrading of water by the increase of water temperature. There are several sources including industrial factories and electric power plants.

Answer 8

Thermal pollution has become a recently increasing problem. This is because it is warming up the atmosphere and melting glaciers.

Answer 9

the main cause of thermal pollution is the emission of green house gases.