"Pollution is a Baddie" by Grace

October 19, 2010 by Graham Webster, Transpacifica, “Pollution From Space...”

Pollution is perhaps the most prevalent problem at the intersection of science and human geography; pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths. In 2015, the deaths of about four out of every twenty-five people who died prematurely were caused by pollution. Perhaps the most terrifying perspective is that pollution - an environmental factor that is directly caused by human activities - killed more people than all of the wars, ethnic cleansings, and other mass violence in 2015. Something we treat as less criminal than speeding in the car is killing millions. More good news? It’s mostly affecting the poor and vulnerable - the ones causing the least pollution! How is that fair? It’s not. The only fair and just thing is to reign in our per capita resource use, especially in more developed countries like the United States, and aggressively advocate for a more sustainable society. Pollution research like this is increasingly important, because, according to the Population Reference Bureau, “It is expected that 70 percent of the world[‘s] population will be urban by 2050.” This has massive implications for the future of mankind. Political, economic, and social processes such as redistricting, carrying capacity, and urban services, such as sanitation and housing, will be drastically affected. Urban people change their environment through their resource and land use and food/material production. This causes urban environments to be polluted, which in turn adversely affects the health and quality of life of the urban population. Therefore, it is increasingly important to know the best ways to sustain human health in urban settings; one of the best ways to sustain all human health is by getting rid of pollution. Naturally, solving this problem would inherently solve many more, because Earth and all of its individuals are entangled in the web of each other’s existence; if the Earth isn’t functioning well, we humans can’t either. All life forms depend on each other for necessary energy and substance; pollution simultaneously has the train-wreck effect on human health, the economy, and the environment. This chain-reaction illuminates how solving the environmental side of the pollution problem would innately resolve other issues linked to it, such as the struggling economies of low/middle-income countries that are held back by pollution-related diseases that force them to incur high healthcare costs, welfare losses, and productivity losses which tank the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a key indicator of the health of a country’s economy). This would fix the health threats, etc. also caused by pollution.

However, the research is not all gloom and doom; most pollution can be eliminated and prevented with the full, concentrated effort of individual nations and the world as one united nation. But where would anyone, let alone everyone, even begin to try and start solving the vast, pertinacious pollution problems plaguing the world today? To change the tide and overcome our impending trash-covered doom, we must treat pollution like the transcendent problem it is, affecting the overall health and wellbeing of our human society. We must work to make pollution prevention a high priority in all governments and integrate that into urban planning processes especially, increase funding for pollution control specifically to lower income countries whose economic and demographic growth depends on naturally polluting processes, and establish systems to monitor pollution and its effects on health. Even then, how can we stimulate economic progress without breaking Earth’s ecological tipping points for resource use and pollution degradation of Earth’s natural systems? Is there a win-win, or at least some half-decent compromise for both vital facets of human life? Amidst this perilous pollution crisis, it is encouraging to note that stopping pollution doesn’t necessarily mean putting the world into debt; the strategies with the most potential for success, in fact, don’t require significant federal investment, but rather lend themselves to a more deeply emulsifying effect through policy and enforcement-based efforts. However, governments cannot hold all of the responsibility… A quote I love from quite possibly the fiercest and most fabulous cultural anthropologist to grace the Earth, Margaret Mead, articulates this philosophy very brilliantly: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world - indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has!”

Sustainable development is not possible without prioritizing pollution prevention and control. To solve the pollution problem, we must realize that the chorus of High School Musical still rings true: “We’re all in this together!” And it will take all of us tackling this issue together to solve it.

Works Cited

Faulkenberry, Isabella G. Margaret Mead's Universal Truth. Grace Faulkenberry, 13 Dec. 2017.

Landrigan, Philip J. “Air Pollution and Health.” The Lancet Public Health, vol. 2, no. 1, 2017,          

            doi:10.1016/s2468-2667(16)30023-8.

Landrigan, Philip J, et al. “Environmental Pollution, Health, and Development: a Lancet–Global 

            Alliance on Health and Pollution–Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Commission.”   

            The Lancet, vol. 386, no. 10002, 2015, pp. 1429–1431., doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00426-2.

The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. “Pollution: Think of the Children.” The Lancet Child 

            & Adolescent Health, vol. 1, no. 4, 2017, p. 249., doi:10.1016/s2352-4642(17)30133-5.

Torrey, Barbara Boyle. Urbanization: An Environmental Force to Be Reckoned With, 

            www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2004/UrbanizationAnEnvironmentalForceto

            BeReckonedWith.aspx.Webster, Graham. 

“Pollution from Space, and Human Geography.” Transpacifica, 

             transpacifica.net/2010/10/pollution-from-space-and-human-geography/.