The widespread prevalence of environmental pollution began with the birth of industrialization and has not slowed down since. Human-caused pollution from activities like waste generation, industrial processes, and unsustainable agricultural practices causes devastating
. Pollution can take several forms, such as light and noise, but the three major types are air, land, and water pollution, all of which pose existential threats to humanity.
Air pollution
Around the world, billions of people are
exposed to unsafe concentrations of harmful pollutants like fine particulate matter (PM2.5). And while poor air quality impacts people in all corners of the globe, it is those in developing countries that are typically the most at risk. For example,
hazardous concentrations of air pollution impact more than 90 percent of the population in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. There are many sources of air pollution, but fossil fuel combustion from activities like power generation and transportation are significant polluters. In fact, almost two-thirds of the more than eight million
annual deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution are linked to fossil fuel use. Some of the main causes of air pollution-related deaths include heart disease and strokes.
Land pollution
Land pollution refers to the deterioration of the earth's surfaces through direct or indirect human activities. There are many forms of land pollution, including agricultural fertilizer and pesticide use, littering and waste disposal at landfill sites, and deforestation for farming, construction, and mining purposes. Land pollution can negatively impact wildlife and human health, and also result in land degradation.
Global land degradation is now believed to be advancing at a rate faster than can be restored, affecting food and water security for millions of people. Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced one of the fastest rates of deterioration in recent years, with the proportion of land degraded there increasing by almost eight percent between 2015 and 2019.
Water pollution
Human activities on land are the most common causes of pollution in water bodies. For example, agricultural pesticide run-off is the
main source of nitrate contamination in groundwater, while untreated sewage released into waterways exposes millions of people to drinking water contaminated with diseases like cholera and dysentery. Solid waste is also an ever-growing source of water pollution. Plastic waste, in particular, has gained considerable notoriety in recent years due to the sheer
volume of plastic objects that have accumulated in rivers, lakes, and the ocean over the decades. Oil spillage is another devastating form of water pollution. One of the
largest oil spills in recent history occurred in 2010, when an explosion at BP's Deepwater Horizon rig caused millions of gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, killing thousands of animals and destroying their habitats. The impacts of this catastrophic environmental disaster are still not fully known more than a decade later.
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