Sol

The only relatively clean place on Earth is Antarctica. The continent is protected by the Antarctic
Treaty that prohibits military activities, mineral mining, nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal

An average family in North America, Europe and Australia throws away more than a ton of garbage
every year.

In 2010, recycling and composting prevented 85 million tons of material from being disposed of,
which is great but considering that humans produce tens of billions tons of garbage every year, it
is still a negligible number
Due to land pollution, the Earth loses approximately 25 billion tons of valuable topsoil each year.

It takes at least 500 years for 2.5 centimeters of topsoil to regenerate, and the
United Staes loses soil at a rate 17 times higher than it takes to generate new topsoil.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization states that annually, 75 billion tons of soil,
the equivalent of nearly 10 million hectares, which is about 25 million acres, of arable land is lost to
erosion, water-logging and salination and another 20 million hectares is abandoned because its soil
quality has been degraded.

In 2009, more than 20,000 beaches were closed as a result of land pollution.

Land pollution can cause skin problems, birth defects, respiratory issues and a
number of other diseases. A study published by Cornell University maintains that about 40 percent of
deaths in the world are caused by pollution.

Soil pollution can negatively affect the metabolism of microorganisms and arthropods, which can
destroy some layers of the primary food chain and have a harmful effect on predator animal species.
Also, small life forms may consume harmful chemicals in the soil which may then be passed up the
food chain to larger animals, which may lead to increased mortality rates and even animal extinction.

Similar to plastics hurting animals that walk, birds also stand to be impacted by plastic
when it impedes their ability to fly. For example, if they end up with plastic soda rings
around their body or a plastic bag gets wrapped around their wings it can be a serious
problem. Staying close to their flock, getting up into a tree or nest for safety, or
migrating isn’t possible without wings! Additionally, birds may even endanger their
young accidentally by using plastic nesting materials that stand to hurt the next
generation.

Apa
We know massive deadly oil spills are created after tankers or drilling rigs have accidents but in fact,
for every million tons of oil shipped, there is always one ton of oil spilled – without any accident.
We know massive deadly oil spills are created after tankers or drilling rigs have accidents but in fact,
for every million tons of oil shipped, there is always one ton of oil spilled – without any accident.

Water pollution is even worse in India, where almost 80% of all urban waste is dumped into the river
Ganges – the most sacred river to Hindus. The river is now also the place where poor Indians bury
their deceased family members.

In India, about a thousand children die every single day due to a disease caused by extreme water
pollution.

About a third of fish in British rivers are in the process of changing sex due to water pollution.
Hormones in human sewage, including those in contraceptive pills, are thought to be the main
cause.

Almost half of all seabird species, 22% of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list
of fish species have been documented with plastic found in or around their bodies.

Aer
China is among the countries with highest air pollution in the world. Breathing air in Beijing, the
country´s capital, increases the risk of lung cancer in the same way as smoking 21 cigarettes a day.
Moreover, almost 700 million Chinese (about a half of the country´s population) have to drink
contaminated water.

Pollution in China can change weather in the US. Almost a third of air pollution in San Francisco
actually comes from China.

If you think that you don’t smoke and you will be spared by lung cancer, just remember that your
lungs or heart may be similarly damaged simply from exposure to ozone and particulate matter.

Air pollution is a leading cause of many common killers. It accounts for about one-third of deaths
from stroke, chronic respiratory disease, and lung cancer as well as one quarter of deaths from heart
attack. Ground-level ozone, produced from the interaction of many different pollutants in sunlight,
can also trigger asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses.

Pollutants that are released into the air, as opposed to land and water pollutants, are the most
harmful.

Air pollution is not a recent occurrence. In 1952, the Great Smog of London killed 8000 people.

Deaths caused by air pollution cost the European Union €161 billion
Air pollution that causes smog affects dolphins and makes them suffer from black lung diseases.

Air pollution in India is estimated to cause 527, 700 deaths every year

Others
Noise pollution is one of the most ignored types of pollution but it can cause serious problems
including stress, hearing loss, sleep disorders, high blood pressure etc. In the US alone, millions of
people suffer from noise pollution.

Two main reasons that make environmental impact of noise in marine life especially grave are-
firstly noise travels much more in water, covering greater distances than it would do on land
while travelling though air, and secondly because the marine life is extremely sensitive to noise
pollution. Due to their extreme reliance on underwater sounds for basic life functions like
searching for food and mate and an absence of any mechanism to safeguard them against it,
underwater noise pollution disrupts marine life in more serious ways.

A radioactive waste dumping site for the former Soviet Union, Lake Karachay, western Russia, is the
most polluted spot on Earth. Spending just an hour in the lake would be fatal for a human.

Lake Karachay (Russian: Карача́й), sometimes spelled Karachai or Karachaj, was a small lake in
the southern Ural mountains in central Russia. Starting in 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as
a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and
reprocessing facility, located near the town of Ozyorsk (then called Chelyabinsk-40). Today the lake
is completely infilled, acting as "a near-surface permanent and dry nuclear waste storage facility."

Прошло уже больше года с тех пор, как законсервировали озеро Карачай. Консервацию его
проводили в рамках федеральной программы «Обеспечение ядерной и радиационной
безопасности на 2008–2015 года». Затраты составили почти 17 миллиардов рублей – на эти деньги
озеро полностью закрыли бетонными блоками и скальным грунтом.

These days, there are up to 500 chemicals in an average human body that were not found in humans
before 1920. In total, there are almost 80,000 synthetic chemicals on today´s market.

Light pollution usually doesn’t have a significant impact on humans but it causes major problems to
many animals. Birds often confuse days and nights and scientists found that light pollution can even
change migration patterns in some animal species.