Pollution of the environment is a problem that affects most of us, starting with air pollution, followed by pollution of surface water, groundwater and our drinking water, of nature, productive land and sometimes even of our food. The reason for this is again increasing population pressure due to overpopulation, industrialization and the growing living standard of increasing numbers of people on our planet including too many cars polluting the air. In addition, there is our materialistic, wasteful and throwaway mentality and overall irresponsible attitude about this matter.

 

People often do things that can adversely affect the society they live in when they think they can get away with it. Trouble is, that we not only harm nature by polluting it but in the end our own health. E.g. by breathing polluted air (particular in the cities) and drinking polluted water, more and more people can get respiraty diseases, becoming asthmatic and sick, and the elderly and weaker persons can even die from these ailments. We can also get certain kinds of cancer due to pollution.

 

Furthermore, heavy metals can accumulate in our body and poison it. Overall, our immunity is weakened by pollution, making us more vulnerable to a range of illnesses. We even cannot eat as much fish as we like because of the risk of putting too much mercury into our body system when eating certain fish.

 

 

 

Power stations run on various kinds of fuel, some on coal, some on oil, some on gas etc. Depending on this, on their design and on their age, they emit different quantities of pollution. The worst offenders should be taxed most and the cleanest stations least, if at all. The pollution tax should be levied in addition to the carbon tax, giving the financial advantage to cleaner power stations. 

 

Part of the pollution tax should be spent on research for cleaning up emissions from ‘dirty’ power stations and for better designs of such stations, thereby using computer models where useful. E.g. the concept of burning the fuel with higher temperature and perhaps adding certain catalysts, also different kinds of filters (possibly from the nano technology) should be looked at.  – The whole concept should be started locally and later be extended globally if successful.

 

 

 

All cars, buses and trucks combined probably contribute the most pollution on our planet. They should also be levied with a pollution tax, selected for different models. The tax should depend on the pollution to be expected during their lifetime and for a certain mileage (e.g. for ten years and 200,000km). When they get older than ten years and with a higher mileage they should get an additional tax levied. In warmer countries vehicles with a bright colour (needing less air condition) and with solar panels integrated on their tops or with solar coating should get a bonus.

 

 
Make all soft plastics degradable

At present hard plastics can usually be recycled but not yet soft plastics, as far as I know. Therefore the solution for preventing this material becoming a pollutant to nature could be to make products containing this material (e.g. plastic bags) degradable within a reasonable time. Such kind of prevention is often far cheaper than cleaning up later after the problem of pollution has occured!


Make rubbish tips useful and less polluting

 

Growing cities on our globe together with the higher living standards of more and more people need increasingly large areas for their garbage. The cities often lack a recycling service, adding such kind of waste as well. The garbage of rubbish tips can pollute the groundwater and the air and is so a cause for concern. However, they can be a bonus if managed properly and cleverly. This could be done as follows: 

 
1. Spread arriving garbage in thin layers and collect and separate recycle material as far as practical.

 2. Use the recycle matter as raw material for new products later.
 

 3. Alternatively, burn paper and cardboard etc. in a high temperature furnace, designed for making electricity or just heat for heating not too distant buildings and with relatively little emission.
 

4. Products, containing heavy metal, paint, old oil etc. should either be recycled where practical or be specifically treated to render them harmless.
 

5. Introduce special earthworms and bacteria into the remaining garbage for quick decomposing and sell the compost at a profit as fertile soil when ready.

 

The above activities should perhaps best be carried out with machines but can also be assisted with manually near poor cities in developing countries, giving jobless people work.

 

 

 

1. Plant selected trees and shrubs along the coast and all waterways, acting as filter for fertilizers from farms.

 

3. Keep a certain distance between power stations, settlements and rivers, lakes and the coast.