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Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. [1] Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring ...
The World Health Organization estimated in 2014 that every year air pollution causes the premature death of some 7 million people worldwide. Studies published in March 2019 indicated that the number may be around 8.8 million. A 2022 review concluded that air pollution was responsible for 6.67 (5.90–7.49) million premature deaths in 2019.
Water pollution is a major global environmental problem because it can result in the degradation of all aquatic ecosystems – fresh, coastal, and ocean waters. The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum of chemicals , pathogens, and physical changes such as elevated temperature.
The US, China and Russia have cumulatively contributed the greatest amounts of CO 2 since 1850. [3] This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions [n 1] due to certain forms of human activity, based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
Over the last two decades, the world's oceans have absorbed 20 to 30% of emitted CO 2.: 450 Thus, around half of human-caused CO 2 emissions have been absorbed by land plants and by the oceans. This fraction of absorbed emissions is not static. If future CO 2 emissions decrease, the Earth will be able to absorb up to around 70%.
The World Health Organization's recommended limit is 5 micrograms per cubic meter, although there are also various national guideline values, which are often much higher. Air pollution is among the biggest health problems of modern industrial society and is responsible for more than 10 percent of all deaths worldwide (nearly 4.5 million ...
The ongoing pollution of the Ganges, the largest river in the Indian subcontinent, poses a significant threat to human health and the environment. [1] The river provides water to about 40% of India's population across 11 states. [2] It serves an estimated population of 500 million people, more than any other river in the world.
Marine pollution made further international headlines after the 1967 crash of the oil tanker Torrey Canyon, and after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill off the coast of California. [citation needed] Marine pollution was a major area of discussion during the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm.