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.

Background

Pollution emerged as a recognized global concern during the Industrial Revolution, when urbanization and mechanized production led to visible air and water contamination. Landmark events such as London’s Great Smog of 1952 and the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969 heightened public and scientific awareness. International attention intensified in the 1970s, with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (1972) marking a pivotal moment in acknowledging pollution’s transboundary and persistent impacts.

Incidence

Pollution affects every region of the world, with air, water, and soil contamination posing severe risks to human health, ecosystems, and economies. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution alone causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths annually, while plastic waste and chemical runoff threaten marine and terrestrial environments on a global scale. Urbanization, industrialization, and inadequate waste management have intensified pollution in both developed and developing countries.
In 2023, New Delhi, India, experienced hazardous air quality levels, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) exceeding 450 in November due to crop burning and vehicular emissions, prompting school closures and public health warnings.

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.