Introduction. 2
Air pollution. 4
Deforestation. 5
Acid rain. 8
The "Green House Effect". 9
Water pollution. 11
Toxic waste pollution. 14
Environmental movements. 16
Conclusion. 21
Appendix. 23
# 1. Rates of deforestation. 23
# 2. Carbon Dioxide Emissions per Units of Economic Output 23
# 3 Increase of global surface temperature. 24
References. 25
Introduction
Pollution is probably the most important problem in the world today. One of the reasons it is so important to human beings is that we know that we brought about pollution. Unlike most of the other problems in the world, such as AIDS, pollution is a human creation. Since the beginning of time, whenever human beings changed their environment, they were greatly affected. Areas where pollution is extremely high encounter death rates and disease rates that are sometimes 15 or 20 times more than areas without pollution. Greedy corporations are pushing these problems to areas not ready to encounter this high level of pollution, and if something isn't done soon to curtail these problems, we will all surely feel the longstanding effects they bring. p> During the 1960's, which I call the "Throwaway" era, Plastics and Styrofoam [1] were thrown away without a care, and now we are finally seeing what that kind of stupidity can cause. At first, children began to understand the drastic changes that the entire world was facing. The planet was changing, and adults were doing nothing to save it. Yet, the polluted planet was being handed to the younger generations, who, while more educated on the topic, were not sufficiently knowledgeable to control earth's problems. Nowadays, children are leading the environmental revolution. More educated and smarter on the issues that the world is facing, children are changing the planet. Still, all the education in the world cannot counter the pressure that Big Business is putting on the globe. Chemicals, human wastes, toxic wastes, and other kinds of pollution are beyond repair in some cases. Corporations do not care about the planet; they are willing to trade off small environmental risks for jobs and success in individual communities. Of course, most people in those communities don't realize that them taking a job with these companies is detrimental to their survival. p> Whenever I think of pollution's effect on the world, I think of its effect on innocent human beings. When someone becomes sick or dies of some kind of sickness brought about by pollution, their human rights come into question. I think human rights, although usually reserved for geno...
