Air pollution is growing at an alarming rate, particularly in the underdeveloped nations of the world.  On June 11, 1999, BBC News reported that, “a thick brown cloud of pollution the size of the United States has formed over the Indian Ocean, contributing to acid rain and cutting the amount of sunlight reaching the water.”   The cloud, which extends three kilometers (1.86 miles) into the atmosphere, contains pollutants from vehicle and industrial emissions and could wreak havoc with the climate in the region, as well as with the marine life.  Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego say that the pollution is unprecedented in the region’s history and that it will only increase as the population of Asia grows. On August 11, 2002, BBC News filed another report on the persistent haze over the continent of Asia stating that it poses a widespread threat to rainfall and farming, placing “hundreds of thousands of people in jeopardy.”  As mentioned earlier in this chapter, a brown cloud now extends to the tops of the Himalayas, an area that at one time boasted the most pristine air on earth.  Scientists refer to this new and startling development as a regional and global menace, the impact of which will worsen over the next 30 years. 

Air pollution is not the only form of environmental deterioration we have witnessed in recent years.  On April 5, 2000, the Associated Press reported that, according to the National Academy of Sciences, marine life is being killed and marshlands damaged in more than a third of the nation’s coastal areas because of excess algae growth from runoff.  On August 8, 2001, CBS News announced that coastal pollution had closed beaches near oceans, bays, the Great Lakes, and rivers almost twice as often as the previous year, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.  The report also stated that there was a 40 percent increase in the number of beaches reporting pollution problems from an unknown source.  On July 24, 2002, BBC News reported that serious water pollution incidents had increased 50 percent from the previous year in England and Wales.  The report claimed that pollution from farms accounted for 27 percent of the most serious problems.  On January 26, 2003, USA Today reported that half the world’s coastal areas, where one billion people live, have deteriorated because of pollution and over-development.

During the past few years, there have been serious concerns raised about increasing pollution of oceans and groundwater resulting in damage to aquatic food sources and depletion of available clean drinking water.  Last year, environmental watchdog agencies and marine biologists warned that the explosive growth of jellyfish populations in oceans and seas around the world is a sign that nutrient pollution and global warming are destroying

Toxic wastes have also contributed to pollution of water sources and present serious hazards to residents of some communities.  Many may recall the infamous Love Canal incident in the 1970s that changed the lives of local residents and shocked the nation.  Beginning as early as the 1920s, the City of Niagara Falls, New York and later the Hooker Chemical Company, dumped 21,000 tons of organic solvents, acids, and pesticides into the canal.  After many years of toxic waste dumping, the local community began to experience an astronomical rise in birth defects, miscarriages, cancers, and severe respiratory disorders.  Toxic chemicals that bubbled up through the ground reportedly burned children and animals and caused explosions.  It was a nightmare.  In 1980, the federal government had identified 248 different chemicals in the dumpsite, and today the count stands at over 400.  Although arguably one of the most extreme examples in U.S. history of toxic waste dumping and its consequences, this activity still persists in many areas today, and in fact has increased in recent years.

On June 25, 1998, the Inter Press Service (IPS) filed a report on the dumping of large amounts of hazardous wastes by Mexican industries along the U.S. – Mexican border.  The toxic wastes contaminated streams and groundwater.  Episodes of dumping and subsequent investigations have been going on in that area for several years.  On July 12, 2000, the Toronto Globe announced that Ontario’s “feeble environmental laws” allowed the province to be used as a dumping ground for toxic wastes, potentially exposing citizens to deadly carcinogens.  A report by the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy stated that Ontario’s toxic waste imports increased a staggering 138 percent between 1994 and 1998.  On December 6, 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to clean up dangerous toxins along a 40-mile stretch of the Hudson River in upstate New York, according to CNN.  The $460 million clean-up effort was designed to address 30 years of legal PCB dumping by two General Electric Company manufacturing plants.  It is estimated that the plants dumped about 1.1 million pounds of the chemicals into the Hudson River between 1947 and 1977.  PCBs are highly toxic and carcinogenic chemicals used as coolants in heavy electrical equipment.  Their production has been banned in the United States since the late 1970s. 

Nuclear waste is yet another major problem in the world today.  As a result of the production and testing of nuclear weapons spurred on by the Cold War, and the proliferation of nuclear power plants, we are now saddled with a stockpile of radioactive materials and wastes that require storage or disposal.  There are vast areas in this country that have already been contaminated as a result of nuclear weapons production and testing, and an effort still wages to determine how to make these areas safe or livable for current and future generations.  The former Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986 – the worst in history, illustrated to the world the devastating effects of widespread radioactive contamination.  The long-term effects of this incident are still being felt today.  Exposure to even low levels of radioactive material can cause cancer, birth defects, and a variety of degenerative and autoimmune diseases.  Larger doses can be lethal by causing radiation sickness – a rapidly progressing disease process resulting in decreased white blood cell count, nausea, hair loss, and finally death. 

The toxic half-life of some nuclear materials can range up to several million years.  Half-life is the time required for half the amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.  When you consider the amount of nuclear material stockpiled today including many unused or dismantled nuclear weapons, the dilemma becomes frighteningly evident.  What do we do with these materials?  This question has yet to be answered satisfactorily.  Debates have raged on for years about safe storage facilities and practices for handling nuclear wastes.  In 1987, the federal government elected to build a storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.  About $6.8 billion has already been invested in the project, but efforts to fully activate it have drawn fire from many in Nevada who do not want nuclear wastes in their backyard.  The turmoil was further compounded by the September 11 tragedy, which spurred the government to plan the storage of highly radioactive wastes at the facility, rather than the low to medium-level wastes originally slated for storage.  A January 15, 2002 ABC News story entitled “Nevada Mountain to be Nuclear Garbage Can” reported that the government’s decision to store high-level wastes at the site drew resounding protests from elected officials in Nevada, despite the anticipated $50 billion windfall in jobs and income it could bring to the state.