Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Chapter 1 Understanding pollution
- Chapter 2 Reducing pollution
- Chapter 3 Chemical toxicity
- Chapter 4 Chemical exposures and risk assessment
- Chapter 5 Air pollution
- Chapter 6 Acidic deposition
- Chapter 7 Global climate change
- Chapter 8 Stratospheric-ozone depletion
- Chapter 9 Water pollution
- Chapter 10 Drinking-water pollution
- Chapter 11 Solid waste
- Chapter 12 Hazardous waste
- Chapter 13 Energy
- Chapter 14 Persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic
- Chapter 15 Metals
- Chapter 16 Pesticides
- Chapter 17 Pollution at home
- Chapter 18 Zero waste, zero emissions
- Index
- References
Chapter 1 - Understanding pollution
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Chapter 1 Understanding pollution
- Chapter 2 Reducing pollution
- Chapter 3 Chemical toxicity
- Chapter 4 Chemical exposures and risk assessment
- Chapter 5 Air pollution
- Chapter 6 Acidic deposition
- Chapter 7 Global climate change
- Chapter 8 Stratospheric-ozone depletion
- Chapter 9 Water pollution
- Chapter 10 Drinking-water pollution
- Chapter 11 Solid waste
- Chapter 12 Hazardous waste
- Chapter 13 Energy
- Chapter 14 Persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic
- Chapter 15 Metals
- Chapter 16 Pesticides
- Chapter 17 Pollution at home
- Chapter 18 Zero waste, zero emissions
- Index
- References
Summary
“The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. All economic activity is dependent upon that environment with its underlying resource base.”
US Senator Gaylord Nelson on first Earth Day, 1970What is pollution and why is it important? Why does pollution occur, and is it harmful at all levels? What happens to pollutants in the environment? What are the root causes of pollution? These are among the questions that Chapter 1 will examine. Section I introduces the major impacts that humans exert on Earth's natural systems while also emphasizing our profound dependence on the services provided by those systems. Section II examines why pollution happens, what substances are pollutants, and their sources. Traveling pollutants are described, and the effects they sometimes exert at great distances from their origin. In turn the environment modifies pollutants too, often lessening their harm, especially if levels are not too high. A catastrophic instance of pollution, an explosion at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India is presented. The opposite extreme, the risk of pollutants in the environment at very low levels is examined too. Section III moves into impoverished parts of the world where pollution sometimes devastates human health. Section IV looks at root causes of pollution, in particular population growth, consumption, and large-scale technology. Finally, Section V comes home to each of us, pointing out that our actions have environmental consequences, sometimes in ways we don't suspect.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Understanding Environmental PollutionA Primer, pp. 1 - 29Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004