Editing Pollution (section)

== History ==
{{Further|History of environmental pollution| Legacy pollution}}

=== Prior to 19th century ===
[[Air pollution]] has always accompanied civilizations. Pollution started from [[prehistoric times]], when humans created the first [[fire]]s. According to a 1983 article in the journal ''Science,'' "[[soot]]" found on ceilings of prehistoric caves provides ample evidence of the high levels of pollution that was associated with inadequate ventilation of open fires."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Spengler|first1=John D.|last2=Sexton|first2=K. A.|year=1983|title=Indoor Air Pollution: A Public Health Perspective|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=221|issue=4605|pages=9–17 [p. 9]|bibcode=1983Sci...221....9S|doi=10.1126/science.6857273|pmid=6857273}}</ref>

Metal [[forging]] appears to be a key turning point in the creation of significant air pollution levels outside the home. Core samples of [[List of glaciers in Greenland|glaciers in Greenland]] indicate increases in pollution associated with Greek, Roman, and Chinese metal production.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hong|first=Sungmin|display-authors=etal|year=1996|title=History of Ancient Copper Smelting Pollution During Roman and Medieval Times Recorded in Greenland Ice|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=272|issue=5259|pages=246–249 [p. 248]|bibcode=1996Sci...272..246H|doi=10.1126/science.272.5259.246|s2cid=176767223}}</ref>[[File:DARK CLOUDS OF FACTORY SMOKE OBSCURE CLARK AVENUE BRIDGE - NARA - 550179.jpg|thumb|Air pollution in the US, 1973]]
The burning of coal and wood, and the presence of many horses in concentrated areas made the cities the primary sources of pollution. [[Edward I of England|King Edward I]] of England banned the burning of [[mineral coal]] by proclamation in [[London]] in 1306, after its smoke became a problem;<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Sarah Anne |title=The first environmental law was passed in 1306. |url=https://historyfacts.com/world-history/fact/the-first-environmental-law-was-passed-in-1306/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=History Facts |language=en-US}}</ref> the fuel was named [[Seacoal|sea-coal]] at the time, getting its name from the fact that it was delivered form overseas (as opposed to [[charcoal]], which was referred to as "coal").

=== 19th century ===
The Industrial Revolution gave birth to environmental pollution as we know it today. London also recorded one of the earliest extreme cases of [[water quality]] problems with the [[Great Stink]] on the [[River Thames|Thames]] of 1858, which led to the construction of the [[London sewerage system]] soon afterward. Pollution issues escalated as [[population growth]] far exceeded the ability of neighborhoods to handle their waste problem. Reformers began to demand sewer systems and clean water.<ref>Lee Jackson, ''Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth'' (2014)</ref>

In 1870, the sanitary conditions in [[Berlin]] were among the worst in Europe. [[August Bebel]] recalled conditions before a modern [[sewerage|sewer]] system was built in the late 1870s:

{{blockquote|Waste-water from the houses collected in the gutters running alongside the curbs and emitted a truly fearsome smell. There were no public toilets in the streets or squares. Visitors, especially women, often became desperate when nature called. In the public buildings the sanitary facilities were unbelievably primitive....As a metropolis, Berlin did not emerge from a state of barbarism into civilization until after 1870.<ref>Cited in David Clay Large, ''Berlin'' (2000) pp 17-18</ref>}}

=== 20th and 21st century ===
The primitive conditions were intolerable for a world national capital, and the [[Imperial Germany|Imperial German]] government brought in its scientists, engineers, and urban planners to solve the deficiencies and forge Berlin as the world's model city. A British expert in 1906 concluded that Berlin represented "the most complete application of science, order and method of public life," adding "it is a marvel of civic administration, the most modern and most perfectly organized city that there is."<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle= Berlin |volume= 03 |last= Phillips |first= Walter Alison |author-link= Walter Alison Phillips| pages = 785–791; see page 786 |quote=  Dr A. Shadwell (Industrial Efficiency, London, 1906) describes it as representing "the most complete application of science.... "}}</ref>

The emergence of great factories and consumption of immense quantities of coal gave rise to unprecedented [[air pollution]], and the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste. [[Chicago]] and [[Cincinnati]] were the first two American cities to enact laws ensuring cleaner air in 1881. Pollution became a significant issue in the United States in the early twentieth century, as [[Progressive Era|progressive reformers]] took issue with air pollution caused by coal burning, water pollution caused by bad sanitation, and street pollution caused by the three million horses who worked in American cities in 1900, generating large quantities of urine and [[manure]]. As historian Martin Melosi notes, the generation that first saw automobiles replacing horses saw cars as "miracles of cleanliness".<ref>Patrick Allitt, ''A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism'' (2014)  p 206</ref> By the 1940s, automobile-caused [[smog]] was a significant issue in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jeffry M. Diefendorf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeVqitbSP_AC&pg=PA44|title=City, Country, Empire: Landscapes in Environmental History|author2=Kurkpatrick Dorsey|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8229-7277-8|pages=44–49}}</ref>

Other cities followed around the country until early in the 20th century when the short-lived Office of Air Pollution was created under the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]]. The cities of Los Angeles experienced extreme smog events and [[Donora, Pennsylvania]], in the late 1940s, serving as another public reminder.<ref name="Donora">{{cite web|last1=Fleming|first1=James R.|last2=Knorr|first2=Bethany R.|title=History of the Clean Air Act|url=http://www.ametsoc.org/sloan/cleanair/|access-date=14 February 2006|publisher=[[American Meteorological Society]]}}</ref>

Air pollution would continue to be a problem in England, especially later during the Industrial Revolution, and extending into the recent past with the [[Great Smog of 1952]]. Awareness of atmospheric pollution spread widely after World War II, with fears triggered by reports of [[radioactive fallout]] from atomic warfare and testing.<ref>Patrick Allitt, ''A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism'' (2014)  pp. 15–21</ref> Then a non-nuclear event&nbsp;– the Great Smog of 1952 in London&nbsp;– killed at least 4000 people.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/9/newsid_4506000/4506390.stm 1952: London fog clears after days of chaos] (BBC News)</ref> This prompted some of the first major modern environmental legislation: the [[Clean Air Act 1956|Clean Air Act of 1956]].

Pollution began to draw significant public attention in the United States between the mid-1950s and early 1970s, when Congress passed the [[Noise Control Act]], the [[Clean Air Act (United States)|Clean Air Act]], the [[Clean Water Act]], and the [[National Environmental Policy Act]].<ref name="issues">{{cite web|author=John Tarantino|title=Environmental Issues|url=http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/environmental-issues/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111153436/http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/environmental-issues/|archive-date=11 January 2012|access-date=10 December 2011|publisher=The Environmental Blog}}</ref> [[File:Air-pollution-taiwan.JPG|thumb|Smog pollution in [[Taiwan]]]]

Severe incidents of pollution helped increase consciousness. [[Polychlorinated biphenyl|PCB]] dumping in the [[Hudson River]] resulted in a ban by the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA]] on consumption of its fish in 1974. National news stories in the late 1970s&nbsp;– especially the long-term [[Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins|dioxin]] contamination at [[Love Canal]] starting in 1947 and uncontrolled [[Waste disposal|dumping]] in [[Valley of the Drums]]&nbsp;– led to the [[Superfund (environmental law)|Superfund]] legislation of 1980.<ref>Judith A. Layzer, "Love Canal: hazardous waste and politics of fear" in Layzer, ''The Environmental Case'' ([[CQ Press]], 2012) pp. 56–82.</ref> The pollution of industrial land gave rise to the name [[brownfield]], a term now common in [[city planning]].

The development of nuclear science introduced [[radioactive contamination]], which can remain lethally radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. [[Lake Karachay]]&nbsp;– named by the [[Worldwatch Institute]] as the "most polluted spot" on earth&nbsp;– served as a disposal site for the [[Soviet Union]] throughout the 1950s and 1960s. [[Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast|Chelyabinsk]], Russia, is considered the "Most polluted place on the planet".<ref name="Lenssen">Lenssen, "Nuclear Waste: The Problem that Won't Go Away", Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C., 1991: 15.</ref>

[[Nuclear weapons]] continued to be tested in the [[Cold War]], especially in the earlier stages of their development. The toll on the worst-affected populations and the growth since then in understanding the critical threat to human health posed by [[radioactivity]] has also been a prohibitive complication associated with [[nuclear power]]. Though extreme care is practiced in that industry, the potential for disaster suggested by incidents such as those at [[Three Mile Island accident|Three Mile Island]], [[Chernobyl disaster|Chernobyl]], and [[Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster|Fukushima]] pose a lingering specter of public mistrust. Worldwide publicity has been intense on those disasters.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Friedman|first1=Sharon M.|year=2011|title=Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima: An analysis of traditional and new media coverage of nuclear accidents and radiation|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|volume=67|issue=5|pages=55–65|bibcode=2011BuAtS..67e..55F|doi=10.1177/0096340211421587|s2cid=145396822}}</ref> Widespread support for [[Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty|test ban treaties]] has ended almost all nuclear testing in the atmosphere.<ref>Jonathan Medalia, ''Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments'' (Diane Publishing, 2013.)</ref>

International catastrophes such as the wreck of the [[Amoco Cadiz]] oil tanker off the coast of [[Brittany]] in 1978 and the [[Bhopal disaster]] in 1984 have demonstrated the universality of such events and the scale on which efforts to address them needed to engage. The borderless nature of the atmosphere and oceans inevitably resulted in the implication of pollution on a planetary level with the issue of [[global warming]]. Most recently, the term [[persistent organic pollutant]] (POP) has come to describe a group of chemicals such as [[PBDE]]s and [[Fluorocarbon|PFCs]], among others. Though their effects remain poorly understood owing to a lack of experimental data, they have been detected in various ecological habitats far removed from industrial activity, such as the Arctic, demonstrating diffusion and [[bioaccumulation]] after only a relatively brief period of widespread use.
[[File:Litter.JPG|thumb|[[Litter]] on the coast of [[Guyana]]|300x300px]]
The [[Great Pacific Garbage Patch]] is a concentration of plastics in the [[North Pacific Gyre]]. It and other garbage patches contain debris that can transport invasive species and that can entangle and be ingested by wildlife.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 March 2024 |title=Garbage Patches |url=https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/discover-marine-debris/garbage-patches#:~:text=So%20far%2C%20we%20know%20that,fishing%20nets%20are%20especially%20dangerous. |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=NOAA Marine Debris Program}}</ref> Organizations such as [[5 Gyres]] and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation have researched the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and found [[microplastics]] in the water.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoare |first=Rose |date=22 May 2012 |title=Research ship finds the world's oceans are 'plasticized' |url=https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/21/world/asia/algalita-eco-solutions |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=CNN}}</ref>

Pollution introduced by light at night is becoming a global problem, more severe in urban centres, but contaminating also large territories, far away from towns.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Falchi|first1=Fabio|last2=Cinzano|first2=Pierantonio|last3=Duriscoe|first3=Dan|last4=Kyba|first4=Christopher C. M.|last5=Elvidge|first5=Christopher D.|last6=Baugh|first6=Kimberly|last7=Portnov|first7=Boris A.|last8=Rybnikova|first8=Nataliya A.|last9=Furgoni|first9=Riccardo|date=1 June 2016|title=The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness|journal=[[Science Advances]]|language=en|volume=2|issue=6|pages=e1600377|arxiv=1609.01041|bibcode=2016SciA....2E0377F|doi=10.1126/sciadv.1600377|issn=2375-2548|pmc=4928945|pmid=27386582}}</ref>

Growing evidence of local and global pollution and an increasingly informed public over time have given rise to [[environmentalism]] and the [[environmental movement]], which generally seek to limit [[human impact on the environment]].