most of the plastics don’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, all that plastic waste could exist for hundreds or even thousands of years. if plastic production isn’t circumscribed, plastic pollution will be disastrous and will eventually outweigh fish in oceans. greenhouse gas emissions historical and projected co2 emissions by country (as of 2005). source: energy information administration. carbon dioxide, while vital for photosynthesis, is sometimes referred to as pollution, because raised levels of the gas in the atmosphere are affecting the earth's climate. disruption of the environment can also highlight the connection between areas of pollution that would normally be classified separately, such as those of water and air. recent studies have investigated the potential for long-term rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to cause slight but critical increases in the acidity of ocean waters, and the possible effects of this on marine ecosystems. in february 2007, a report by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), representing the work of 2,500 scientists, economists, and policymakers from more than 120 countries, confirmed that humans have been the primary cause of global warming since 1950. humans have ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the consequences of global warming, a major climate report concluded. but to change the climate, the transition from fossil fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades, according to the final report this year from the un's intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc). effects human health further information: soil pollution § health effects, toxic hotspots, list of pollution-related diseases, and air pollution § health effects overview of main health effects on humans from some common types of pollution pollution effects humans in every part of the world. an october 2017 study by the lancet commission on pollution and health found that global pollution, specifically toxic air, water, soils and workplaces, kills nine million people annually, which is triple the number of deaths caused by aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and 15 times higher than deaths caused by wars and other forms of human violence. the study concluded that "pollution is one of the great existential challenges of the anthropocene era. pollution endangers the stability of the earth’s support systems and threatens the continuing survival of human societies." adverse air quality can kill many organisms, including humans. ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. a 2010 analysis estimated that 1.2 million people died prematurely each year in china because of air pollution. the high smog levels china has been facing for a long time can do damage to humans' bodies and cause different diseases. the who estimated in 2007 that air pollution causes half a million deaths per year in india. studies have estimated that the number of people killed annually in the united states could be over 50,000. a study published in 2022 in geohealth concluded that energy-related fossil fuel emissions in the united states cause 46,900–59,400 premature deaths each year and pm2.5-related illness and death costs the nation $537–$678 billion annually. water pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries. for example, an estimated 500 million indians have no access to a proper toilet, over ten million people in india fell ill with waterborne illnesses in 2013, and 1,535 people died, most of them children. as of 2007, nearly 500 million chinese lack access to safe drinking water. acute exposure to certain pollutants can have short and long term effects. oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. noise pollution induces hearing loss, high blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance. mercury has been linked to developmental deficits in children and neurologic symptoms. older people are majorly exposed to diseases induced by air pollution. those with heart or lung disorders are at additional risk. children and infants are also at serious risk. lead and other heavy metals have been shown to cause neurological problems. chemical and radioactive substances can cause cancer and as well as birth defects. socio economic impacts the health impacts of pollution have both direct and lasting social consequences. a 2021 study found that exposure to pollution causes an increase in violent crime. a 2019 paper linked pollution to adverse school outcomes for children.a number of studies show that pollution has an adverse effect on the productivity of both indoor and outdoor workers. environment great pacific garbage patch pollution has been found to be present widely in the environment.a 2022 study published in environmental science & technology found that levels of anthropogenic chemical pollution have exceeded planetary boundaries and now threaten entire ecosystems around the world. there are a number of effects of this: biomagnification describes situations where toxins (such as heavy metals) may pass through trophic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in the process.global carbon dioxide emissions by jurisdiction (as of 2015) carbon dioxide emissions cause ocean acidification, the ongoing decrease in the ph of the earth's oceans as co2 becomes dissolved. the emission of greenhouse gases leads to global warming which affects ecosystems in many ways. invasive species can outcompete native species and reduce biodiversity. invasive plants can contribute debris and biomolecules (allelopathy) that can alter soil and chemical compositions of an environment, often reducing native species competitiveness. nitrogen oxides are removed from the air by rain and fertilise land which can change the species composition of ecosystems. smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry out photosynthesis and leads to the production of tropospheric ozone which damages plants. soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. this will affect other organisms in the food web. sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can cause acid rain which lowers the ph value of soil. organic pollution of watercourses can deplete oxygen levels and reduce species diversity. regulation and monitoring this section is an excerpt from regulation and monitoring of pollution. to protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution. at the local level, regulation usually is supervised by environmental agencies or the broader public health system. different jurisdictions often have different levels regulation and policy choices about pollution. historically, polluters will lobby governments in less economically developed areas or countries to maintain lax regulation in order to protect industrialisation at the cost of human and environmental health. the modern environmental regulatory environment has its origins in the united states with the beginning of industrial regulations around air and water pollution connected to industry and mining during the 1960s and 1970s. because many of pollutants have trans-boundary impacts, the un and other treaty bodies have been used to regulate pollutants that circulate as air pollution, water pollution or trade in wastes. early international agreements were successful at addressing global environmental issues, such as montreal protocol, which banned ozone depleting chemicals in 1987, with more recent agreements focusing on broader, more widely dispersed chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants in the stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants created in 2001, such as pcbs, and the kyoto protocol in 1997 which initiated collaboration on addressing greenhouse gases to mitigate climate change. control a litter trap catches floating waste in the yarra river, east-central victoria, australia air pollution control system, known as a thermal oxidizer, decomposes hazard gases from industrial air streams at a factory in the united states. a dust collector in pristina, kosovopollution control is a term used in environmental management. it means the control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. without pollution control, the waste products from overconsumption, heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and other human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will degrade the environment. in the hierarchy of controls, pollution prevention and waste minimization are more desirable than pollution control. in the field of land development, low impact development is a similar technique for the prevention of urban runoff. policy, law and monitoring/transparency/life-cycle assessment-attached economics could be developed and enforced to control pollution. a review concluded that there is a lack of attention and action such as work on a globally supported "formal science–policy interface", e.g. to "inform intervention, influence research, and guide funding". practices recycling reusing waste minimisation mitigating pollution prevention compost devices air pollution control thermal oxidizer dust collection systems baghouses cyclones electrostatic precipitators scrubbers baffle spray scrubber cyclonic spray scrubber ejector venturi scrubber mechanically aided scrubber spray tower wet scrubber sewage treatment sedimentation (primary treatment) activated sludge biotreaters (secondary treatment; also used for industrial wastewater) aerated lagoons constructed wetlands (also used for urban runoff) industrial wastewater treatment api oil-water separators biofilters dissolved air flotation (daf) powdered activated carbon treatment ultrafiltration vapor recovery systems phytoremediation cost pollution has a cost. manufacturing activities that cause air pollution impose health and clean-up costs on the whole of society. a manufacturing activity that causes air pollution is an example of a negative externality in production. a negative externality in production occurs "when a firm’s production reduces the well-being of others who are not compensated by the firm." for example, if a laundry firm exists near a polluting steel manufacturing firm, there will be increased costs for the laundry firm because of the dirt and smoke produced by the steel manufacturing firm. if external costs exist, such as those created by pollution, the manufacturer will choose to produce more of the product than would be produced if the manufacturer were required to pay all associated environmental costs. because responsibility or consequence for self-directed action lies partly outside the self, an element of externalization is involved. if there are external benefits, such as in public safety, less of the good may be produced than would be the case if the producer were to receive payment for the external benefits to others. goods and services that involve negative externalities in production, such as those that produce pollution, tend to be overproduced and underpriced since the externality is not being priced into the market. pollution can also create costs for the firms producing the pollution. sometimes firms choose, or are forced by regulation, to reduce the amount of pollution that they are producing. the associated costs of doing this are called abatement costs, or marginal abatement costs if measured by each additional unit. in 2005 pollution abatement capital expenditures and operating costs in the us amounted to nearly $27 billion. dirtiest industries the pure earth, an international non-for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating life-threatening pollution in the developing world, issues an annual list of some of the world's most polluting industries. below is the list for 2016: lead–acid battery recycling mining and extractive metallurgy lead smelting tanning artisanal mining landfills industrial parks chemical industry manufacturing dyeing a 2018 report by the institute for agriculture and trade policy and grain says that the meat and dairy industries are poised to surpass the oil industry as the world's worst polluters. textile industry this section is an excerpt from chemical waste § textile industry. indigo color water pollution in phnom penh, cambodia, 2005 the textile industry is one of the largest polluters in the globalized world of mostly free market dominated socioeconomic systems. chemically polluted textile wastewater degrades the quality of the soil and water. the pollution comes from the type of conduct of chemical treatments used e.g., in pretreatment, dyeing, printing, and finishing operations that many or most market-driven companies use despite "eco-friendly alternatives". textile industry wastewater is considered to be one the largest polluters of water and soil ecosystems, causing "carcinogenic, mutagenic, genotoxic, cytotoxic and allergenic threats to living organisms". the textile industry uses over 8000 chemicals in its supply chain, also polluting the environment with large amounts of microplastics and has been identified in one review as the industry sector producing the largest amount of pollution. a campaign of big clothing brands like nike, adidas and puma to voluntarily reform their manufacturing supply chains to commit to achieving zero discharges of hazardous chemicals by 2020 (global goal) appears to have failed. the textile industry also creates a lot of pollution that leads to externalities which can cause large economic problems. the problem usually occurs when there is no division of ownership rights. this means that the problem of pollution is largely caused because