Is our planet in fact more despoiled and polluted than ever?

Our planet is not less or more polluted than in the past. It is polluted in a different way.

For example radiation from soil—rocks—space permeated this planet in its pristine state millions of years ago. Dust pollution—volcanic ashes—forest-fire smoke were around even before the earliest primates.

Thousands of years ago the ancient Egyptians suffered from silicosis resulting from the inhalation of dust and sand. Another prevalent lung problem among ancient peoples was anthrasilicosis believed to have been caused by inhalation of carbon from oil-lamp smoke and wood fires.

Autopsies performed on the well-preserved bodies of people who lived in Alaska sometime between 1500 and 1800 revealed "pitch-black lungs filled with soot pigment" believed to have been caused by home environments heavily polluted with oil-lamp smoke.

Natural carcinogens in foods were common long before we developed pesticides. Bruce N. Ames—chairman of the biochemistry department at UC Berkeley and member of the National Academy of Sciences — recently noted that carcinogens currently found in our water supplies "are trivial relative to the background level of carcinogens in nature."¹

In agrarian societies of recent centuries millions of people died every year of infections contracted from polluted waters. Dysentery—typhoid fever—cholera—malaria—intestinal disorders—trachoma—many other crippling and fatal diseases were widespread in "pastoral societies." These diseases still rampant in some rural areas of the world are brought on by polluted sewage systems—ponds—streams—wells.

According to United Nations studies millions of people in developing countries still haul water from distant and contaminated sources—a practice resulting in millions of deaths a year. "There was so much diarrhea, bilharzia, and cholera," a woman in Kwale—Kenya—is quoted by the New York Times. "Many people were dying. People didn't have time to do any other work because they were always looking for doctors to treat them. Things are better now."²

The United Nations Development Program and the World Bank have been introducing hand pumps and lessons in sanitation to rural com­munities in Africa—Asia—Latin America.

In agrarian times people washed their dirty linen and bathed and urinated in nearby streams. Hardly anyone was sensitive to the reality of "pollution." In fact the image of women blissfully washing linen at a stream has long been a metaphor for the idyllic pastoral world.

More recently we have had industrial pollution: from factories—auto emissions—nuclear power plants.

Pollution is nothing new. At no time has the environment been pure.

What is new is the concern and sensitivity about the quality of the environment.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 677