POLLUTION UNVEILED

I am talking about the pollution of the natural environment. The natural environment could be split into three main parts. The three main parts from which pollution could be made, and are caused are air, land (soil) and water. These parts, that is air, land and water as indicated, are the basic components that compose the natural environment as a whole. Within these parts in which pollution is committed, there are many kinds of pollution occurring.

Some of the kinds of pollution referred to are:

• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Soil pollution
• Plastic pollution
• Dust pollution
• Radiation pollution
• Noise pollution
• Light pollution
• Heat pollution
• Occupational pollution

Pollution of various forms overwhelms parts of the natural environment. The fact that you wake up and strut up to your office, do your work, earn your emolument, and go back to your home, in apparent good health, should not make you complacent. Not in the least. Pollution is narrowing in on the natural environment; bombarding from each and every quarter of the natural environment. It is as though the provider and engineer of the natural environment made elements to be versatile; attaching and detaching themselves, as and when the need requires, maintaining a natural environment of balanced flux of elements for the sustenance of life.

However, the balanced flux of elements is under obvious threat! An example is the excess carbon dioxide that continues to be released into the atmosphere, causing global warming, and leading to climate change.

The Lancet Commission has released (October, 2017) a mind-blowing report on pollution as it affects human health. The name of the report is The Lancet Commission Report on Pollution and Health. It took 2 years to put the report together. The report was produced by the intellectual efforts of over 40 international environmental and health authors.

The screaming main point in the report is that more than 9 million people were killed in 2015 by pollution. This number is more than three times the aggregate death toll caused by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.  

Attribution of the over 9 million deaths is as follows:

• Air pollution- 6.5 million (India and China are most affected)
• Water pollution- 1.8 million
• Workplace pollution- 800,000
• Lead pollution- 500,000

I have intentionally given you such a picture on pollution to show you the scale on which it is occurring. The Lancet Commission report is said to be the first time pollution has been studied on a relatively holistic dimension- air, water and soil together. In relation to past studies it is holistic. In the past, studies and reports have been made on individual aspects of pollution. Yet even with the Lancet Commission report covering the three basic areas (air, water and soil) of the natural environment not everything was covered. An example is chemical pollution.

The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health is a shared opening move by the Lancet, the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. These institutions are supported by the United Nations Environment, United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the World Bank. The intention of the Commission is to reduce air, water and soil pollution by informing the world of the health and economic costs of pollution globally, giving solutions to policy makers and quelling the idea that pollution cannot be avoided.  

This blog is about a clean and balanced natural environment, so the obvious logical question should be how then could the issue of pollution be tackled? Well there are countries on this planet with acceptable pollution standards thereby engendering relatively better natural environments.  These countries are applying themselves to pollution research and coming out with relevant pollution laws and implementing them efficiently. The countries with relatively clean natural environments should be the role models for the rest of the world. Europe, for example, is doing well.

Combating pollution should be a collective effort because pollution is trans-spatial.