What is Pollution?

The Nature of Pollution

"Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing
city!"
Bible: Zephaniah (probably late 7th century B.C.)
What is Pollution?
All organisms produce waste products and if these
accumulate they can serve as density dependent
limiting factors on the population of the organism, i.e.
all organisms have the potential to pollute.

Pollution The addition to an environment of a

substance or an agent (such as heat) by human activity,
at a rate greater than that at which it can be rendered
harmless by the environment, and which has an
appreciable effect on the organisms within it.
History of Pollution
 Even in prehistoric times pollution
can be identified
 "soot found on ceilings of prehistoric
caves provides ample evidence of
the high levels of pollution that was
associated with inadequate
ventilation of open fires."
 At lower population densities, the
environment could cope with waste
production
 At higher population densities, the
waste production may have
exceeded the assimilation rate and so
the local environment may have
become polluted.

Building Pollution
 Since these earliest hunter-gatherers,
humans have burned wood, then
charcoal and the burning of coal was
recorded by the Greek, Theophrastus
in the 4th century B.C.
 The Romans in Britain had coal
stores for fuelling their baths and for
smelting.
 The forging of metals appears to be a
key turning point in the creation of
significant air pollution levels
outside the home.
 Core samples of glaciers in
Greenland indicate increases in
pollution associated with Greek,
Roman and Chinese metal
production.
 "The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne;
But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834: 'Cologne' (1834)
"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to
create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But
up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer.
Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's
become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land
grows poorer and uglier every day."
Anton Chekhov 1860-1904: Uncle Vanya (1897)
Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution
brought large scale coal
mining and Great
Britain developed these
techniques from the late
18th century, driving
development into the
early 20th century, and
consequently large scale
local and international
pollution.
Environmental Viewpoints
The industrial revolution was mostly a cornucopian /
technocentric period in western development
Less concern was paid to environmental impact and
little thought to the possible limitations of resources.
As a country develops economically, monitoring of
pollution and legislation to control or eliminate the
pollution usually improves.
This could be argued to be a more environmental-
management-centric period of development although
economic development permits people more freedom
to hold ecocentric opinions.
IPAT
I = P x A x T
Env Impact = Number of People x Affluence per
person (measure of consumption pp) x env effects
(resources needed and wastes produced) of the
technology used
Reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/earth/21ti
er.html