What is the worst kind of pollution?

When discussing the worst kind of pollution people talk about either water pollution or air pollution. Water pollution and air pollution not only harm our environment but also our health. Recent estimates say that around 15,000 people in the world die each day because of the water pollution, while according to the data from the World Health Organization 2.4 million people in the world die each year because of the air pollution.

Waste water and sewage waste are the two biggest causes of water pollution. World population is increasing each year, which means that each year there is more waste compared to previous year(s). According to recent estimates world generates 400 billion tons of industrial waste each year, plenty of which ends up in different water bodies causing huge environmental and health damage.

Despite the fact that we now live in the 21st century there is still more than billion people worldwide who lack access to safe drinking water, and more than two billion people in the world live without proper sanitation systems. When you consider this, the fact that diarrhea causes around 1,5 million deaths of children each year shouldn't be really surprising us.

Air pollution doesn't only refer to outdoor but also indoor air pollution, in fact according to the recent estimates indoor air pollution is responsible for more deaths compared to outdoor air pollution (1,5 million deaths per year as the result of indoor air pollution compared to little less than one million deaths per year caused by outdoor air pollution).

The main sources of air pollution are traffic and industry. Air pollution coming from traffic is causing hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. Air pollution is not only issue in many China's cities but also in several U.S. cities such as Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.

How can we fight against water and air pollution? The most obvious answer would be to tackle the main sources of the pollution but this is anything but easy, especially in developing world.

The fight against water and air pollution does not only require global environmental conscience but also very large funding, which is why developing world is finding fight against pollution particularly hard.

On the other hand our industry and our vehicles still need fossil fuels because renewable energy is still not ready to jump in and make the difference.

In current situation it is almost impossible to find some logical foundation that would give us the right to an optimistic point of view in regards to pollution.