Welcome to Environmental Pollution Guide
Environmental Pollution Great Lakes 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 Pollution Great Lakes Specific links
Environmental Pollution Great Lakes News
Group asks candidates to back Great Lakes program - Chicago Tribune
 Petoskey News-Review | Group asks candidates to back Great Lakes program Chicago Tribune An environmental coalition is asking this year's presidential candidates for a pledge to continue an extensive restoration of the Great Lakes and action to keep the lakes free of Asian carp. The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition said Tuesday it ... Group asks candidates to support Asian carp fight |
Plastic pollution survey planned - Evening Observer
Plastic pollution survey planned Evening Observer Fredonia's students will be among 20 from five different regional institutions who will attempt to quantify the amount of plastic polluting the fresh water Great Lakes. The study also intends on raising local and regional awareness of just how much ... |
Connected by Pipeline from Canada, Tar Sands Represents Bonus and Risk to ... - Circle of Blue WaterNews
 Circle of Blue WaterNews | Connected by Pipeline from Canada, Tar Sands Represents Bonus and Risk to ... Circle of Blue WaterNews The massive spending — more than $US 6 billion since 2009 — has made the Great Lakes Basin both a center of commerce in the two nations' oil production boom and a target of rising environmental risks to the largest system of fresh surface water in ... |
Environmental group worries EPA beach pollution proposal not strong enough - Florida Independent
Environmental group worries EPA beach pollution proposal not strong enough Florida Independent The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 required EPA to issue by 2005 recreational beach criteria “for the purpose of protecting human health” at coastal and Great Lake beaches. When EPA failed to meet this deadline, ... |
Viewpoint: Badger could lead the way for other ships to switch to cleaner fuel - MLive.com
 Muskegon Chronicle - MLive.com | Viewpoint: Badger could lead the way for other ships to switch to cleaner fuel MLive.com The public discussion of the Badger, in the Chronicle, does bring to light an important issue of pollution of the Great Lakes by commercial ships. While the Badger may currently be the dirtiest of the ships on the Great Lakes, it has the opportunity to ... EPA to allow Lake Michigan Carferry to apply for individual permit Viewpoint: Don't throw the Badger out with the lake water |