pollution

Examples of pollution in the following topics:

• Air Pollution

  • Air pollution results from increasing levels of harmful molecules and particulates in the atmosphere.
  • Air pollutants are considered primary when the harmful particles are directly emitted into the atmosphere; secondary pollutants are products of reactions that occur following emission.
  • Secondary pollutants include:
  • Air pollution is also a problem indoors, where poor health has been linked to pollutants like radon, VOCs, lead paint, combustion particulates, carbon monoxide, and asbestos.
  • The output of industrial manufacturing processes is a major source of air pollution.

• Photochemical Smog

  • Photochemical smog is a major contributor to air pollution.
  • This type of air pollution is formed through the reaction of solar radiation with airborne pollutants like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.
  • In fact, most major cities have problems with smog and air pollution.
  • Photochemical smog is composed of primary and secondary pollutants.
  • Primary pollutants include nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds as a result of industrial processes, while secondary pollutants are created through the reaction of primary pollutants with ultraviolet light.

• Protecting the Environment

  • Engine exhaust from growing numbers of automobiles, for instance, was blamed for smog and other forms of air pollution in larger cities.
  • Pollution represented what economists call an externality -- a cost the responsible entity can escape but that society as a whole must bear.
  • A slew of laws were enacted to control pollution, including the 1963 Clean Air Act, the 1972 Clean Water Act, and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act.
  • The EPA sets and enforces tolerable limits of pollution, and it establishes timetables to bring polluters into line with standards; since most of the requirements are of recent origin, industries are given reasonable time, often several years, to conform to standards.
  • However, in 1990 many Americans believed that still greater efforts to combat air pollution were needed.

• Thermal Pollution

  • Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature.
  • Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature.
  • A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant, for example, by power plants and industrial manufacturers.
  • Some may assume that by cooling the heated water, we can possibly fix the issue of thermal pollution.
  • Identify factors that lead to thermal pollution and its ecological effects

• Quotas

  • In the example of pollution, the government may put a quota on the amount of pollution a factory can produce by issuing tradable permits.
  • In the past tradable permits have been primarily used to control pollution .
  • There are several active trading programs for air pollutants.
  • Markets for other pollutants tend to be smaller and more localized.
  • Emissions trading or "cap and trade" is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for reducing the emissions of pollutants.

• What's Next?

  • The agency pressed auto-makers and electric utilities to reduce small particles of soot that their operations spewed into the air, and it worked to control water-polluting storm and farm-fertilizer runoffs.
  • Meanwhile, environmentally minded Al Gore, the vice president during President Clinton's two terms, buttressed EPA policies by pushing for reduced air pollution to curb global warming, a super-efficient car that would emit fewer air pollutants, and incentives for workers to use mass transit.
  • It developed a system of air-pollution credits, for example, which allowed companies to sell the credits among themselves.
  • Companies able to meet pollution requirements least expensively could sell credits to other companies.
  • This way, officials hoped, overall pollution-control goals could be achieved in the most efficient way.

• Racial Stratification

  • Pollution and polluting facilities are not evenly distributed in the U.S.
  • Communities made up predominantly of racial minorities are significantly more likely to be polluted and to house factories and business that pollute extensively.
  • While it might seem that this is inadvertent and not intentionally racist, the evidence suggest otherwise: these communities are systematically targeted as locations for situating polluting businesses.

• Tax

  • Take environmental pollution as an example.
  • The private cost of pollution to a polluter is less than its social cost.
  • If the government levies a tax on pollution, it increases the polluter's private cost.
  • The polluter now has an incentive to generate less pollution.

• Hidden poisons

  • The average television, for example, contains 4,000 toxic chemicals (200 of which emit hazardous fumes when the TV is turned on) and many buildings are insulated with formaldehyde-laden particleboard that heavily pollutes indoor air.
  • Moreover, the average PC consumes ten times its weight in hazardous chemicals and fossil fuelsto complete its production (in India and China alone, about 70% of arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, mercury and other heavy-metal pollutants come from electronic waste created just by computer manufacturers).
  • Even glues and paints contain solvents that steadily pollute the air long after they dry.

• Individuals Make Decisions at the Margins

  • The tools of marginal analysis can illustrate the marginal costs and the marginal benefits of reducing pollution.
  • When the quantity of environmental protection is low (quantity $Q_a$) and pollution is extensive, there are cheap and easy ways to reduce pollution, and the marginal benefits of doing so are quite high.
  • At $Q_a$, it makes sense to allocate more resources to fight pollution.
  • However, as environmental protection increases, the cheap and easy ways of reducing pollution decrease, and pollution can only be reduced with costly methods.
  • Reducing pollution is costly—resources must be sacrificed.