Welcome to Environmental Pollution Guide
Environmental City Air Pollution Mongolia Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Plastic: Economic Miracle And Chief Among The Causes of Environmental Pollution
from:There are many causes of environmental pollution. Most infamously, there are the sealed drums of toxic waste material produced as a byproduct of nuclear reactions. There are the smog and toxins that float through the air, caused by burning industrial smokestacks and the overuse of petroleum-burning vehicles and other machines. There's slash-and-burn deforestation with the additional airborne toxins it creates and the massive environmental changes caused by the death of innumerable species that called the forests their home. Yet among all of these causes of environmental pollution, one development looms larger than any other. That development is the economic miracle of the twentieth century: the revolution in plastics.
Strangely enough, plastics were developed as a solution to some of the other major causes of environmental pollution in the nineteenth century. Animal and plant-based materials like ivory, rainforest wood, tortoiseshell, and rubber were recognized as scarce and worthy of protection even in the nineteenth century, an epoch known above all else as the time in which people believed in the "myth of perpetual progress": the belief that mankind's destiny was to dominate the creatures of the earth and exploit them in order to build an ever-greater, cleaner, and safer future. The fact that coal-burning smokestacks and river-ruining industrial development was the means by which this shining utopia was to be reached never seemed to register with people--or if it did, it was viewed as at best a transitional phase, something that would in time cease altogether to apply. Yes, today our lungs are being poisoned with coal, and we are planting the seeds of many causes of environmental pollution. But tomorrow, we'll have something better on our hands.
The first step in that revolution was plastics. No longer was it necessary to harvest elephant ivory or rubber tree plants in order to get materials that could be used in industrial machines and consumer goods. Now synthetic polymers could be manipulated chemically in order to create a material that was at the same time durable, flexible, and reusable: a material, in other words, like plastic. Following from the development of cellulose and Bakelite in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, respectively, plastic began to slowly conquer the world markets and to become the sine qua non of industrial technology. By the 1970s, the production of plastic had outmatched the production of steel worldwide. Surely the causes of environmental pollution were trumped forever.
But plastic was too durable and not reusable enough. The non-biodegradable nature of plastic made it an excellent material for high-stress machines, but a terrible material for preventing the causes of environmental pollution--of which it quickly became one. Today, plastic debris fills 25% of landfills, and it'll continue to fill 25% of landfills for the foreseeable future. In trying to solve the causes of environmental pollution, we've created our own worst nightmare--and the dependency of industry on plastic means that no end is in sight.
Environmental City Air Pollution Mongolia Specific links
Environmental City Air Pollution Mongolia News
Achieving shared growth through green ODA (31) - Korea Times
 Korea Times | Achieving shared growth through green ODA (31) Korea Times In Mongolia, it presented a high-tech heat system, which reduces air pollution. On South Pacific island countries which are threatened by the sea level rises, KOICA focuses on strengthening these countries' capacity in utilizing renewable energy ... |
Mongolia to promote development of wind power and solar energy - M.A.D
Mongolia to promote development of wind power and solar energy M.A.D The 100-million US dollar wind turbines project aims to provide clean energy for Ulan Bator and alleviate the capital city's air pollution. Mongolia boasts rich wind power resources. According to specialists' estimates, the country's wind energy ... |
Mongolia to promote renewable energy - China.org.cn
Mongolia to promote renewable energy China.org.cn The 100-million US dollar project aims to provide clean energy for Ulan Bator and alleviate the capital city's air pollution. Mongolia boasts rich wind power resources. According to specialists' estimates, the country's wind energy generation capacity ... |
Surging gold prices make mining prospects palatable - Rapid City Journal
Surging gold prices make mining prospects palatable Rapid City Journal He has done environmental work at every major gold mine in the Black Hills, and has worked on more than 70 mining projects across the western United States and in Inner Mongolia, China. Barry Bender MD, Spearfish: Barry is an emergency room physician ... |
Ch.Bat: “If public transportation becomes reliable, people will stop driving cars” - UB Post
Ch.Bat: “If public transportation becomes reliable, people will stop driving cars” UB Post -The population of Ulaanbaatar has exceeded 1.2 million, which means half the entire population of Mongolia resides and works in the capital. The traffic in the city has reached its peak and its load is at an unmanageable. Fast and efficient public ... |