Pollution

Polluters

Nature

Put simply, pollution is the damage caused to any environment by harmful substances or waste. Most often pollution concerns the natural environment – water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, soil contamination, thermal pollution, light pollution, visual pollution, radioactive contamination, plastic pollution, and littering. Other types of pollution include mental pollution, genetic pollution, space pollution, etc.

Incidence

According to the World Health Organization, air pollution alone causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths annually, with 99% of the global population breathing air that exceeds WHO guideline limits. Major urban centers in countries such as India and China frequently report hazardous air quality levels, while water and soil pollution remain persistent issues in both developed and developing regions worldwide.
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico released approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the marine environment, causing extensive ecological damage and affecting coastal communities across five U.S. states.

Claim

Until the 16th century, the verb 'to pollute' and the noun 'pollution' were used mainly in relation to morals and religion, thus pollution was defined as ceremonial impurity or defilement, or as profanation of some thing or place held to be sacred.

Counter-claim

The term pollution is generally used to describe the presence of chemical substances produced by man's activities but not to describe the natural existence of even higher levels of the same substance. Thus, if a factory discharges lead into a river, even if it is diluted down to harmless levels, this is considered to pollute the river; but the lead naturally leached from rocks, even yielding high levels which can be dangerous to fish, is not considered to be a pollutant. Such loose usage of the term 'pollution' is biased and the word should be employed only when damage occurs.