As developing nations struggle with population growth, poverty, famines, and wars, their residents are discovering the environmental effects of these problems, in the form of increasing air, water, and land pollution.
Pollution refers to the presence of environmental contaminants in quantities large enough to cause damage, deterioration, or toxicity. Such contaminants are known as pollutants. While some forms of pollution have natural causes, the term is used almost exclusively to refer to pollution caused by human activity.
The advance of global warming, highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report this week, not only demands that the private sector accelerate efforts to cut carbon emissions.
