THE POLLUTION

Pollution is pervasive. Few countries, whether developing or industrialized, have adequately safeguarded water quality and controlled water pollution. Many countries do not have standards to control water pollution adequately, while others cannot enforce water quality standards. Increasingly, international development agencies are urging that developing countries devote more attention to protecting and improving water quality (165, 198). The developed world also must spend more and do more to clean up degraded waterways, or economic development will stall and the quality of life will fall (63, 85).

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms.[1] Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat, or light. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. The Blacksmith Institute issues annually a list of the world's worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru, Russia, Ukraine, and Zambia.

We all want a safe, pollution-free environment - and with hope in our hearts many of us have turned to government rules and regulations to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the horrors of a ravaged world. Yet pollution of our air and water still threatens. In South America the rainforests are cleared so rapidly that some of us may live to see them vanish from the earth. In Africa, big game animals are hunted to extinction. Where has our environmental strategy failed? What can we do to