Environmental
issues and pollution are common topics of conversation and forums today. This
Chapter will touch on Pollution and link you to various websites so you can
read more about the topic. I hope this will encourage you to surf for more
information related to this topic.
What is Pollution?
Pollution is a term we come across almost
daily.
According to the BBC English
Dictionary, ‘to
pollute means to make dirty or dangerous to live in’.
So, environmental pollution just refers to
the
release of chemical, physical, biological or radioactive contaminants to the
environment.
What are the Principal Forms of Pollution?
Air pollution, the release of carbon monoxide,
sulphur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and nitrogen oxide produced by
industry and motor vehicles into the atmosphere.
Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground storage tank
leakage. Contaminants include hydrocarbons, herbicides and pesticides.
Water pollution affects oceans and inland bodies of water.
Light pollution includes over illumination and astronomical interference.
Visual pollution can refer to the presence of overhead power lines, highway billboards,
scarred landforms, open storage of junk or municipal solid waste and even
litter.
There are many other forms of
pollution based on the definition that pollution is the contamination of any
aspect of the environment.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances
that Deplete the Ozone Layer is one of the first international environmental
agreements that include trade sanctions to achieve the stated goals of a
treaty. It also offers major incentives for non-signatory nations to sign the
agreement.
The Kyoto Protocol, 1997 The Kyoto Protocol is an international
agreement to address global warming and delay climate change - it aims to
reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries to 5% below
the level they were in 1990. Developed countries like USA refused to sign the
treaty.
The 2009
United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen
Summit. It achieved little as the document
does not contain any legally binding commitments for reducing CO2
emissions.