Issue 3: Pollution What is it, and why is it important now?

Know these “key terms” 1. Cleaning "cycles" 2. Homeostasis 3. Unwanted By-Products of Wealth 4. Toxic Waste 5. Externalizing pollution 6. Polluter-Pays Principle 7. Transport elements 8. Effluent 9. Point Source 10. Non-Point-Source 11. "Zero Risk"

Some Questions Pollution: What is it? Why are we worrying now? Pollution: “To make foul or unclean, to defile, to soil.” But what is, and is not—Pollution? Does it exist in Nature?

What do WE mean by it? Pollution is a word that we tend to use in relation to the human environment. In other words, a polluted environment is one that has diminished value for us. Even when we talk about fish dying in polluted rivers and streams, generally we are concerned because of the impact it has on us. There are some people who just care about the earth.

The Cleaning Cycles THE EARTH IS A MECHANISM FOR PURIFYING ITSELF, WHICH IT DOES THROUGH A SERIES OF NATURAL CYCLES, EXTRACTING IMPURITIES AND MAINTAINING THE NATURAL BALANCE.

A “modern” problem? There are three factors of modern life that have accentuated pollution: 1. In the past most substances consumed by humans were biodegradable, now many of them are not, e.g. plastics. 2. We are creating and using more and more things that do not normally occur in Nature (e.g. chemical compounds. 3. We are consuming vast amounts that overwhelm the capacity of the natural recycling of mechanisms that keep the planet “clean”

Pollution is Waste And so our society has to deal with the problem of WASTE: The unintended consequence of WEALTH This is accentuated by the speed and volume of production growth: The way we farm, manufacture, mine, and get our raw materials. You could say that we have a culture of waste.

Degrees of Pollution Some waste is toxic, i.e. harmful to human health Other waste is a nuisance (smell etc.) Pollution is measured in its impact on us, and that varies.

A Major Modern Area of Pollution Almost everything we do now involves the use of combustion: motor engines, heat used in making metals, burning fuel to make electricity etc... This is a major form of pollution because it alters the composition of the atmosphere reducing its value as a life- support system for us Other life forms may welcome the change and to them it may not be pollution at all

In the Past… In the past, pollution tended to be more of a local affairs, e.g. “fouling your own nest.” Increasingly, now it involves the transportation of pollution over great distances by means of water and air, so the cause and effect of pollution may be physically and geographically separated.

Pollution and “Progress” In the past we externalized the problem, and the only way you could deal with it was to prove cause, effect and damage. It was the “Price of Progress.” Then we introduced polluter pays, so each producer is allowed just so much pollution—any more and they are fined!

Recent issues Having a law (Clean Air, Clean Water Acts) meant we had to have standards, and this related to (i) public health, (ii) quality of life The transport elements that used to carry away pollution were choked. What are they? We kept discovering new forms of pollution. Like what? We have moved from pointsource, tp non-point-source pollution. What does this mean?

Phases of Pollution First phase organic Second phase: Chemical Third Phase: Contemporary Life Style (cars, smoking, etc.)