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Cause and Effect

Industrialism, progress, and our affluent lifestyles have effects that will be felt for generations. Pollution is both an effect of these and a cause of many other problems.

Pollution: the contamination of the environment as a result of human activities. In other words, pollution is not a natural phenomenon. There are natural sources of impurities, of course, such as volcanic ash, but nature seems to have a way to make use of its own waste; it simply can't deal with ours for very much longer. We are overloading the biosphere and there is simply too much waste for the earth to recycle and filter out.

Pollution has been around as long as there have been humans. It is a result of human interaction with the environment. But ever since the rise of industry and the invention of the automobile, pollution has been rising at alarming rates. There are many culprits: the rising use of cars, factories, overpopulation, and unconcerned corporations.

Pollution was never looked upon as more than a minor nuisance until the second half of the twentieth century. Until recently our mind set has simply been "out of sight, out of mind." But what environmentalists in the 1960s began realizing was that the planet simply can't keep up with the amount of waste and toxins we pollute it with. The arrival of many new chemicals and pollutants, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, only worsened the environment. As new causes arose, so did new effects of the pollution.

The most obvious evil of pollution is its threat to health, both the health of ecosystems and our own. Air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and even lead can lead to serious health problems. According to a study done in Pennsylvania, instances of asthma increased 75% between 1980 and 1994. Respiratory diseases caused by air pollution are on the rise, and pollution also aggravates existing conditions. Often those hardest hit are children.

"Humankind has not woven the web of life, we are but one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."—Chief Seattle

In addition to harming humans, pollution kills countless numbers of animals every year. Fish such as salmon are especially susceptible to pollutants, and have become nearly extinct. Pollution in rivers and other waterways comes from more than just chemicals. For instance, the Potlatch paper mill in Lewiston, Idaho, emits not only air pollution but warm waste water into the Columbia river. At Lewiston, the Snake and Columbia rivers converge, and the waters that were full of salmon at the time that Lewis and Clark explored them are now desolate. Only a few salmon can make it past all the dams to spawn in the rivers. The warm water from the Potlatch factory also alters the ecosystem of the river, making it unfit for species that are adapted to cold water. But companies like Potlatch don't care, as long as their profit margins aren't affected.

How can we stop the effects of pollution before they cause too much harm? We need to rethink our lifestyles, because every action has an impact. We need to be aware of our connection to our environment. We need to examine the effects of our technology.

Everything we do affects our environment. We are intimately connected to the earth and everything in it. Chief Seattle called this connection the web of life. He said, "Humankind has not woven the web of life, we are but one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."

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