Air pollution is the introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause discomfort, disease, or death to humans, damage other living organisms such as food crops, or damage the natural environment or built environment.
The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems.
Indoor air pollution and urban air quality are listed as two of the World’s Worst Toxic Pollution Problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report.
| Part of the nature series |
| Weather |
|---|
| Calendar seasons |
|
| Tropical seasons |
|
| Storms |
|
| Precipitation |
|
| Topics |
|
| Weather portal |
Read more about Air Pollution: Pollutants, Sources, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Health Effects, Reduction Efforts, Legal Regulations, Cities, NATA, Governing Urban Air Pollution – A Regional Example (London), Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Atmospheric Dispersion, Environmental Impacts of greenhouse Gas Pollutants
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or pollution:
“What is lawful is not binding only on some and not binding on others. Lawfulness extends everywhere, through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light of the sky.”
—Empedocles 484–424 B.C., Greek philosopher. The Presocratics, p. 142, ed. Philip Wheelwright, The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc. (1960)
“Like the effects of industrial pollution ... the AIDS crisis is evidence of a world in which nothing important is regional, local, limited; in which everything that can circulate does, and every problem is, or is destined to become, worldwide.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)