Is carbon dioxide really a pollutant?

In the last decade or so there have certainly been plenty of talks about carbon dioxide (CO2), particularly carbon dioxide emissions that are believed to be the main factor contributing to climate change and global warming impact. Does this make carbon dioxide a pollutant or not?

According to the U.S. environmental protection agency (EPA) carbon dioxide is pollutant, together with other greenhouse gases because primarily because of its role in contributing to climate change, and not because of any direct health effects (like this is the case with some other pollutants).

CO2 is indeed an essential ingredient of all life on our planet, a gas that humans exhale and plants inhale, the gas of vital importance for one of the most important processes on Earth- photosynthesis.

Carbon dioxide is no doubt a natural component of our atmosphere but in „normal levels“, meaning that branding CO2 as pollutant refers only to increased levels of CO2 in our atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is thought by many scientists to be the greenhouse gas mostly responsible for climate change. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped, leading to climate change and global temperature increase.

This means that carbon dioxide can even be considered as the main pollutant that is warming our planet, opening door for the future environmental disaster of enormous proportions.

In order to curb global warming world needs to decrease the level of CO2 emissions, and this can't be done without the transition to cleaner technologies (the ones emitting less CO2 and other greenhouse gases).

The higher than normal CO2 concentrations are big threat to our future. The scientists fear that the world could soon cross the point of no return (the global temperature increase of two degrees Celsius) after which climate change will become irreversible.

World has to find the way to significantly reduce the level of CO2 emissions, and whether this is done by switching to renewable energy or using different carbon capture and storage (CSS) techniques really doesn't matter much in the end, the most important thing is the result, namely less CO2 in our atmosphere.

If we were to significantly reduce the level of carbon emissions, up to a measure that would halt further climate change impact, then it wouldn’t be necessary to tag carbon dioxide as pollutant. But at this point of time, when carbon emissions continue to increase each year, carbon dioxide is with reason branded as one of the most harmful pollutants.

Why is pollution bad for environment?

There are many different reasons why pollution is bad for our environment. Before mentioning the most important ones we first need to be aware that pollution has many different forms meaning that it can negatively affect environment from many different aspects. Therefore the best way to answer this question is to go through each form of pollution and talk about its negative effects on our environment.

Water pollution: 
 - Water pollution is bad for environment because it leads to decline of freshwater resources which means that there isn't enough safe drinking water to support nearby ecosystems.
 - Animals that drink water filled with different chemical and other harmful waste experience poisoning and deaths.
 - Water pollution can also lead to creation of so called „dead zones“ where animals and plants cannot live due to severe lack of oxygen.
 - The longer exposure to water pollution leads to severe decline of many animal species and excessive water pollution can even lead to total extinction of species like this was the case with the Yangtze River Dolphin.
 - Water pollutants also cause aquatic animals breathing difficulties.

Air pollution:
 - Air pollution does big damage to our environment. Harmful greenhouse gases, for instance, not only pollute our planet, but also contribute to global warming and climate change.
 - Some air pollutants also destroy ozone layer, opening the door for harmful ultraviolet rays.
 - Air pollution also leads to creation of acid rain that can cause great damage to many plants and animals.
 - Air pollution also causes breathing problem for many animals, which can result in their deaths.

Noise pollution:
 - Noise pollution is often neglected form of pollution that can be pretty bad for our environment. Noise pollution coming from cars and industry can have negative impact on nearby ecosystem by frightening animals and changing their preferred habitats.
 - Noise pollution is not only happening on land but also in our oceans, mostly because of excessive offshore drilling. Sea animals such as dolphins and whales are among most affected species because they rely heavily on their hearing sense and therefore noise pollution can make their daily activities such as hunting for prey and navigation very difficult, which can lead to decline in species.

Pollution from oil spills:
  - Oil spills cause massive and long-term damage to marine wildlife. The scenes of animals trapped in oil spill are horrific to watch, especially birds once they ingest oil that covers their feathers as this causes serious kidney damage, altered liver function, and digestive tract irritation, resulting in deaths of many birds.

Nuclear waste pollution:
-  Nuclear waste pollution can occur during nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Hiroshima. This is a particularly dangerous form of environmental pollution because nuclear waste stays radioactive for at least 5000 years, and can lead to reproduction problems and death of many animals.

Soil pollution:
-  Soil pollution isn't exactly among most talked about forms of pollution. Excessive soil pollution can lead to serious water contamination and can therefore create huge environmental damage. Contaminated soil is anything but a safe place to grow food on because the different harmful chemicals can reach into the bodies of living organisms once they digest the affected food.

Light pollution:
- Excessive light pollution can also have negative impact on our environment. Light pollution can negatively affect nearby ecosystems and disrupt the proper functioning of food web chain. Light pollution is especially harmful for nocturnal animals as it can disrupt their navigational ability.

E-waste pollution becoming a serious issue

E-waste pollution is less talked about form of pollution that refers to different electronic waste, and includes different end of life electronic equipment such as computers, TVs, and in recent times mobile phones.

World generates enormous quantities of e-waste each year with the large share of it ending up in China where it is being dismantled and then recycled. This is the reason why China is today the country with the biggest e-waste pollution issue in the world.

E-waste pollution is not only a big environmental threat but also a major threat for human health. This is due to the presence of many dangerous pollutants in old electronics such as heavy metals and different other organic pollutants. The latest research where Chinese scientists took samples of the air from Taizhou of Zhejiang province has showed the significant increase of pollutants that are being linked with the inflammation and oxidative stress - precursors to cardiovascular disease, DNA damage and even in some cases cancer.

The samples were taken from this province because this is one of the largest e-waste dismantling areas in China with a dismantling factory that involves more than 60,000 workers and dismantles more than two million tons of e-waste to recycle metals each year.

More than 60,000 people who work in this dismantling complex do not have proper protection against E-waste pollution, and this could soon lead to a serious negative impact on their health.

E-waste pollution will become even bigger issue in years to come because as the world population grows so does the amount of e-waste. World will have to come up with the adequate solution to protect environment and human health from the ever-growing amount of E-waste. At this moment the best solution looks to be implementing completely new manufacturing process of electrical equipment that would use environmentally friendly products which are not hazardous for environment and human health.

The current process of dismantling an e-waste in China is crude, basically without any advanced technological solutions. During this process many pollutants such as heavy metals are being released into air, and this polluted air can easily be inhaled by workers and other people that live in this area, creating not only environmental damage but also serious health issues.

How is pollution affecting polar bears?

According to Christian Sonne, Danish wildlife veterinarian and toxicologist, pollution coming from the industry in form of organic pollutants (mostly pesticides and flame retardants) is having a serious negative impact on polar bears by changing their genitals and bones.

Polar bear population most affected with these pollutants is at East Greenland because the bear diet in this area primarily depends on pollutants-loaded blubber from ringed and bearded seals.

Sonne discovered that the bone density decrease was severe in some of the adult male polar bears he studied. These bears had their bones in such a bad shape that they were at the brink of developing chronic osteoporosis, a main cause for bone fractures and deformities.

The fertility and reproduction of polar bears is also heavily affected with an increased level of pollution. The male bears that had higher level of pesticides in their body had the smaller size and weight of their testicles not to mention that the ovary size and weight in female bears also decreases as pollutant levels rise.

Climate change still remains the biggest threat for polar bears but the increased levels of pollution have also started taking heavy toll on polar bear population. These majestic land predators are highly adapted to icy Arctic' environment but sadly for them Arctic’s ice is disappearing at an alarming rate.

The polar bears aren't the only animals in Arctic that are heavily affected with pollution. Sonne also discovered that Arctic's famous sled dogs are also heavily affected by contaminants from a diet heavy in marine mammal blubber, because it is weakening their immune system.

Pollution is affecting our entire planet and Arctic area has the misfortune of being particularly sensitive to almost any environmental change. The combination of climate change and pollution could irreversibly change the life on Arctic as we currently know it and bring many Arctic animals on the brink of extinction.

How to ensure adequate pollution control?

Pollution control refers to different measures that have a goal of controlling the introduction of certain pollutants into given environment. Since pollution is constantly growing around the globe it has become quite clear that current levels of pollution control are anything but enough to keep our planet clean and healthy for years to come.

What this world desperately needs is a very strict international pollution control but this cannot be achieved without the adequate pollution control mechanisms at domestic level. Every country in the world needs to become aware that pollution is degrading our environment by making it dirty and unhealthy and that this also degrades the quality of our life and human well-being in general.

The effective global pollution control is anything but easy because human population is constantly growing, and more people mean more waste. Minimizing waste is the first premise of successful pollution control but can this be done with rapid growth of human population in many parts of the world?

It can, but only if the entire world becomes more educated and change its current way of thinking. The entire world needs to work hard on developing something like global ecological conscience because this is really the only way to protect our planet from further environmental degradation.

It's not only pollution it is also climate change, biodiversity loss, and many other environmental issues, all of which present huge threat to future well-being of human generations. The only way for humans to start solving these issues is to care more for environment. Without the healthy environment what would our future look like and more importantly who would want to live in such future.

Scientists and environmentalists are constantly warning world leaders that pollution is running out of control but yet the global politics still pretty much remains ignorant about it. Like they are waiting for some kind of miracle to happen instead of actually doing something that could fix the problem.

Ignorance isn't the answer. It never was and it will never be. Our fate and the fate of our future generations will be determined by our actions. We still have some time to make things right.

How does pollution affect animals?

Many animals are dying because of pollution. All types of environmental pollution have negative impact on animal's health, and the worst types of pollution are air, water and noise pollution. Even small levels of environmental pollution create discomfort for many animals while on the other hand more excessive pollution leads to diseases and deaths of animals.

Many people ignore the fact that our planet is now polluted more than ever before, and that many animals are dying because of it. They fail to see the importance of these animals, and underestimate the importance of biodiversity in general. Biodiversity is the key to human well being, and we should be definitely doing more to stop huge biodiversity loss that is also a serious threat to our own survival.

Air pollution is particularly dangerous to animals when in form of the acid rain. Acid rains kills fish in lakes and streams by increasing the acidity of water. Other forms of air pollution such as ozone are also harmful to animals, for instance ozone pollution can cause serious damage to lung tissues of many animals.

Water pollution has extremely negative impact on many animals. Water polluted with different chemicals can cause decline of population in some species (such as frog), while on the other hand water polluted with nutrients can lead to huge growth of toxic algae which when eaten by other animals may cause serious diseases and death to these animals.

Noise pollution is also becoming huge problem for many animals, especially animals that live in our oceans and seas. Because of the increased ship traffic and offshore oil drilling noise pollution has started affecting very large number of marine animals. Whales and dolphins are among animals most affected by noise pollution. This is because they use their sense of hearing for many purposes such as hunting for prey, navigation, migration and distinguishing the members of the same species and with so many artificial sounds in our oceans they are having tough time to distinguish them all.

Littering can also lead to death of many animals because of toxic substances in trash (for instance motor oil, detergents, pesticides) that once eaten by animals often lead to their deaths. Animals can also die by getting themselves entangled in many of the litter items people dump into our environment.

By reducing all forms of environmental pollution on our planet we could save millions of animals but sadly world is currently not doing enough, and pollution issue is therefore constantly growing in size. Add to this climate change and deforestation and you'll soon realize why so many animals are finding it very hard to survive.

Why has China become a symbol of environmental pollution?

China is the world's biggest polluter and world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, and the main reason why China has become a symbol for pollution is a rapid (but unsustainable) economic growth. To put it simply, China is sacrificing its environment to please its economy. Such policy is definitely bringing short-term economic benefits but is also doing huge environmental damage to one of world's largest countries.

China still doesn't know how to maintain its economic growth and stop environmental pollution in the same time. China's main interest is shoring up industrial growth, and if the environment has to pay the price then let it be it. But such policy can not survive for very long because China has already started losing valuable natural resources due to excessive water and air pollution.

Zhou Shengxian, the Minister of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, recently warned that "the depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development."

China definitely needs new environmental policy despite the fact that this may somewhat slowdown China's industrial growth. Short-term damage to industry today is definitely a better option compared to huge long-term damage to both industry and environment in years to come, and this is exactly what will happen if China fails to act quickly.

The environmental pollution issue has so far been neglected in China's economic policy, and this is the main reason why according to the official government statistics nearly 20 percent of the length of China's monitored rivers and lakes had pollution worse than Grade 5, making the water officially unfit for even irrigating crops, let alone drinking. In many large Chinese cities air pollution is out of control, and things are not looking likely to improve any time soon.

China still fails to show the necessary political will to clean its air, rivers, and environment in general. Despite the huge investments into renewable energy coal is still a dominant energy source in China, and coal is the dirtiest fuel of them all.

China's ever improving economic standard means that today more people have access to cars which makes pollution far greater than ever before.

The environmental conscience is very slowly making its way into China's society, and many years will pass before China becomes synonym for green development, despite being the current leader in clean energy race.

And in the meantime China will remain a symbol for environmental pollution. A sad example of what humankind can do to nature.

How do different forms of pollution affect human health?

Pollution has many different forms that are not only doing damage to our environment but also to our health. Through this article I will mention what diseases and other health issues can be caused by various forms of pollution.

The most common forms of environmental pollution are air pollution and water pollution. Air pollution can not only cause several respiratory diseases, it can also cause cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. Children and elderly people are particularly vulnerable to air pollution.

Water pollution is source of many waterborne diseases, and it is responsible for about 15,000 deaths a day (most of these deaths occur in China and India).

Oil pollution coming from oil spill can cause skin irritations and rashes.

Noise pollution can lead to not only problems with hearing loss but also high blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance.

Pollution coming from toxic heavy metals can cause several neurological problems, lead to problems with heart and lungs.

Radioactive pollution coming from nuclear waste increases the risk of cancer, and is also known to cause birth defects.

Pollution is therefore not only serious environmental issue but also serious health issue that deserves much more attention from entire world, especially since so many people in the world still characterize pollution as "no big deal".

Do we need to change our way of life to stop pollution?

Do we really need to change our way of life in order to stop pollution on our planet? The answer to this question is anything but easy to give but one thing is sure, since the industrial revolution the pollution levels have been constantly rising, and many environmentalists will tell you that the industrialization is the main culprit behind the global environmental pollution.

This question also belongs to the well known "environment vs industry" category. Why does it always have to be environment vs industry, why not instead environment and industry? Or is it impossible for environment and industry to coexist without being on opposing sides?

Our industry, and economy in general, is mostly based on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels when burn release harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which not only contribute to climate change impact but are also responsible for tremendous levels of air pollution in many areas around the globe.

Many environmentalists will tell you that fossil fuels are almost behind every environmental problem, and pollution is certainly not an exception here. But sadly so, at the current moment of time, our way of life still desperately needs fossil fuels because our hunger for energy is great, and fossil fuels are currently the only energy sources that can satisfy this hunger.

Renewable energy looks like the perfect solution with a potential to stop dominance of fossil fuels, ensure cleaner environment, and decrease the magnitude of environmental problems. The only problem is that renewable energy still needs lot of time to fully develop, and time is currently very precious resource, especially given the severity of climate change issue.

We don't have to totally change our way of life to do something for our environment, but our society certainly needs to develop global ecological conscience to change the things around. Too many people on our planet take everything for granted, and this tactic could easily backfire, and even sooner than expected.

Caring for our planet, which is our one and only home, should be something that is written into a genetic code of each and every one of us, but sadly this is not the case with most of the human race. It's mostly all about money, greed and materialism, and these are certainly not the values that can lead human civilization towards the bright future.

Which country is the world's biggest polluter?

A few weeks ago China admitted that it is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, though this was known for more than a year because already in 2009 China overtook United States and became world's biggest polluter.

China's fast growing economy, mostly based on using coal as primary fuel, is the main reason why China emits about 6,018 million tons of greenhouse gases per year. Though China is doing tremendous efforts to get more power from renewable energy coal will very likely remain dominant fuel for at least next few decades which will certainly not be helpful in global fight against the climate change.

Situation isn't much better in United States. U.S. is currently the second biggest polluter in the world, but you also need to know that China has much more people compared to U.S. so if we look at the pollution per capita then US still leads the way as the world's largest polluter. Coal still generates around 50% of US electricity, and US transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is anything but fast.

These two countries are the largest polluters in the world followed by Russia, India, and Japan.

Is it realistically to expect that world will actually do something to decrease the global levels of greenhouse gas emissions? Is international climate deal possible at this moment or not?

The climate summit in Cancun looks very likely to fail because not much has happened since the last year's Copenhagen climate talks. The difference in opinion between developed and developing world is still a giant hurdle as on one side United States wants China to commit to emissions cuts and on the other side China argues that developing nations should be exempt from such cuts because they need to grow their economies and lift people from poverty.

You can't really blame China for maintaining this position because United States is the country mostly responsible for climate change issue, and so it should lead the way with example instead of putting the responsibility on others.

World can tackle pollution on global level only by acting as one, united, and world leaders are still far far away from reaching the level of unity needed for the important decisions such as international climate deal.

How to stop environmental pollution?

Environment is everything that surrounds us, including not just living but also non living materials. And when certain pollutants enter our environment we are then talking about the environmental pollution.

Environmental pollution can have many different forms, and the two most common forms are air and water pollution which are in some parts of the world very serious issues. The other common environmental pollution forms include noise, light and land pollution.

When talking about the environmental pollution we need to know that this isn't something that has been only happening in the last century or so, the history of pollution is almost as old as humans are, although today with rapidly growing human population our environment, and our planet in general, is more polluted than ever before.

Fighting against environmental pollution isn't easy, not only because environmental pollution has so many different forms but also because the fight against pollution means in most cases environment vs industry, where environment is almost always on the losing side.

Industries are still the biggest pollutants but most of them remain unpunished because of the economic benefits they bring to certain area, and because of the fact that they have great influence on politics, so they most often get major political decisions going their way so they can continue with pollution.

How to stop environmental pollution? Almost each country in the world has some laws that prohibit environmental pollution and in the same predict punishments for offenders. But the main problems lie in monitoring the environment as well as finding the culprit responsible for pollution. These mechanisms will have to significantly improve if world wants to stop environmental pollution.

A strict international climate deal that would oblige countries to significant cuts in emissions would be extremely helpful to stop environmental pollution too but many analysts predict that world is still far away from such a deal.

The pollution problem is still not getting the adequate media attention because the media is only presenting the worst examples of environmental pollution such as recent oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, while on the other hand, many other significant examples of pollution remain unnoticed which leads some people to think that pollution is happening only once in a while. If only this was the case.

Main forms of pollution - Quick overview

First of all, I would like to point out that is impossible to list all forms of pollution, so throughout this article I will only list major forms of pollution. I'll start with the most talked about form of pollution - air pollution.

Air pollution refers to introduction of different contaminants into the atmosphere that cause damage to living organisms and environment. It is also important to mention that when talking about air pollution we must not only focus on outdoor air pollution but also on indoor air pollution because indoor air pollution has lately become serious issue, especially in modernized countries. Air pollution is cause for many deaths around the globe, in US alone air pollution is responsible for about 4 percent of deaths.

Water pollution refers to any contamination of water bodies, and it occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds. Water pollution is believed to be the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, on global level responsible for the deaths of more than 14,000 people per day. Water pollution is especially serious issue in China and India.

Noise pollution refers to any disruptive sound that harms the balance of human or animal life. There are variety of different sounds that can cause noise pollution such as car alarms, emergency service sirens, mechanical equipment, fireworks, compressed air horns, groundskeeping equipment, barking dogs, loud appliances, audio entertainment systems, electric megaphones, and even loud people.

Light pollution can be also categorized as the major form of pollution, and refers to any excessive or obtrusive artificial light. Light pollution, like any other form of pollution, damages environment and has adverse health effects. Light pollution is most severe in highly industrialized, densely populated cities of North America, Europe, and Japan.

Relatively unknown but widely spread form of pollution is visual pollution. Visual pollution refers to introduction of visually unattractive elements into certain landscape, so this in fact more an aesthetic issue than the actual source of damage. Yet, despite its aesthetic character visual pollution has been accepted my most categorization as one of the main forms of pollution.

What can each of us do to reduce the pollution?

The pollution has many different forms, and all these forms of pollution are much bigger environmental threat than many of us think they are. On many different places our planet is heavily polluted, and in order to help our planet to recover from pollution we need to develop ecological conscience, and do at least some small things to reduce the overall pollution.

Each and every one of us can do something to reduce the pollution, and there are really some very simple ways that if used by many people would significantly decrease the global impact of pollution on our planet. We can start with our cars by doing everything that is in our power to minimize the pollution. That could include not going to every single destination with your car (you can sometimes go by foot or with bike which will not only help reduce pollution but is also healthy for you), planning trips in order to maximally reduce the gasoline consumption, or when buying new car paying a bit extra for hybrid car that emits significantly less than traditional gasoline powered car.

You can also do some easy things at your home that could also help reduce pollution like for instance conserve energy by turning light or your electrical appliances off when you no longer need it. Also make sure to use power saving devices, basically wherever possible look for the most energy efficient method.

Together with not depending so much on your car, and doing different energy conservation measures you can also use devices that can be reused, like for instance rechargeable batteries. Paper and plastic can also be reused instead ending up in garbage.

By reusing plastic we can also reduce pollution.

These all may seem like the little things with very little effect but if many people were to start doing these things that would significantly reduce the overall pollution. All what it takes is some responsibility, and a small dose of ecological conscience.

Pollution at Baltic sea to continue?

The pollution at the Baltic has been taking heavy toll for couple of decades, and Baltic sea really needs cleaning up. Some experts say that the Baltic sea is the most polluted sea in the world, and if Russia continues to push forward the plan for even bigger oil and gas expansion in this area, we will soon be witnessing total environmental disaster in this area.

The main problem in this story is that Baltic sea has already gathered the reputation as the top destination to dump different waste such as untreated sewage, many chemical pollutants, and particularly damaging is the agricultural waste that causes blooms of algae that choke marine life.

The factor that will further contribute to pollution at the Baltic is also an increased sea traffic. The well known Russian port of Ust Luga is being upgraded and should in few years time handle almost one-fifth of Russia's total petroleum products exports as the Russia seeks more European business.

Baltic sea - The most polluted sea in the world.

The marine ecosystems at Baltic sea are already having tough times, and the further business expansion could wipe out many of native species. It would be very interesting to see whether the one-day summit that would be hosted by Finland and will gather a number of national leaders, including Putin, along with heads of businesses and different non-governmental organizations will actually do something to protect fragile marine environment in this area. Or will once again, like in many other cases industry edge out environment concerns.