Pollution

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Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms . Pollution can take the form of chemical substances, or energy, such as noise, heat, or light energy. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. The Blacksmith Institute issues annually a list of the world's worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru, Russia, Ukraine and Zambia.

For more information about Pollution, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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News tagged with pollution

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A view of a lowland rainforest on Sumatra, Indonesia

Forests could flip from sink to source of CO2: study

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 17, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (78) | comments 12

Forests that today soak up a quarter of carbon pollution spewed into the atmosphere could soon become a net source of CO2 if Earth's surface warms by another two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), cautions ...


Station assistant helps a customer with an emissions test

Obama to unveil dramatic new auto emissions standards

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 19, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (57) | comments 16

A new front in the battle against climate change will open Tuesday, when President Barack Obama unveils sweeping new auto regulations described as equivalent to taking 177 million cars off the road.


The public's "right to starlight" is being eroded by urban illumination that is the bane of astronomers everywhere

We have a 'right to starlight,' astronomers say

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 15, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (31) | comments 38

The public's "right to starlight" is steadily being eroded by urban illumination that is the bane of astronomers everywhere, the International Astronomical Union said on Friday.


V. Ramanathan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Warming world in range of dangerous consequences

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 17, 2008 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (32) | comments 15

The earth will warm about 2.4° C (4.3° F) above pre-industrial levels even under extremely conservative greenhouse-gas emission scenarios and under the assumption that efforts to clean up particulate pollution ...


Sky Pods

Are Magnetically Levitating 'Sky Pods' the Future of Travel?

Technology / Hi Tech

created Sep 23, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (26) | comments 47

(PhysOrg.com) -- As a society, we are increasingly interested in finding new ways of transportation that are cleaner for the environment. New concepts in mass transit seem to be one of the main ways to move ...


World's largest telescope to be built in Hawaii (AP)

World's largest telescope to be built in Hawaii

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 22, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (20) | comments 17

(AP) -- Hawaii was chosen Tuesday as the site for the world's biggest telescope, a device so powerful that it will allow scientists to see some 13 billion light years away and get a glimpse into the early ...


Helium Balloon in Paris Displays Air Pollution Levels

Helium Balloon in Paris Displays Air Pollution Levels

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 09, 2008 | popularity 4 / 5 (24) | comments 4

People in Paris won't have to look far to see the city's air pollution levels. A giant tethered helium balloon will display real-time reports of atmospheric pollution using an innovative lighting system, which ...


Clean fuels could reduce deaths from ship smokestacks by 40,000 annually

Clean fuels could reduce deaths from ship smokestacks by 40,000 annually

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 08, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (17) | comments 7

Rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012 -- almost one-third higher than previously believed, according to the second major ...


Air Pollution

New Pollution Monitoring: Our Air is Dirtier Than We Thought

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 14, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (18) | comments 21

(PhysOrg.comOne of my pet peeves is the focus we have on global warming. While global climate change is important, it continues to provide a red herring of sorts, taking attention away the public health concern ...


Physicist makes new high-res panorama of Milky Way

Physicist makes new high-res panorama of Milky Way

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 3

Cobbling together 3000 individual photographs, a physicist has made a new high-resolution panoramic image of the full night sky, with the Milky Way galaxy as its centerpiece. Axel Mellinger, a professor at ...


MU researcher uses bacteria to make radioactive metals inert

Researcher uses bacteria to make radioactive metals inert

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 08, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 16

The Lost Orphan Mine below the Grand Canyon hasn't produced uranium since the 1960s, but radioactive residue still contaminates the area. Cleaning the region takes an expensive process that is only done in ...


New climate targets may not change daily life much (AP)

New climate targets may not change daily life much

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 27, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (17) | comments 29

(AP) -- Americans' day-to-day lives won't change noticeably if President Barack Obama achieves his newly announced goal of slashing carbon dioxide pollution by one-sixth in the next decade, experts say.


Trapped! Scientists Immobilize Bacteria in Fibrous Hydrogel

Trapped! Scientists Immobilize Bacteria in Fibrous Hydrogel

Chemistry / Polymers

created Aug 04, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria play a role in myriad industrial processes from fermentation to cleaning up environmental pollution. But floating freely in solution, the microbial cells constantly multiply, generating ...


Scientists ready to set sail for 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' in name of research

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 04, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Hoping to learn more about one of the most glaring examples of waste and environmental pollution on Earth, a group of scientists will set sail from San Francisco Tuesday to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a massive vortex ...


The first evidence of pre-industrial mercury pollution in the Andes

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 18, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 2

The study of ancient lake sediment from high altitude lakes in the Andes has revealed for the first time that mercury pollution occurred long before the start of the Industrial Revolution.