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by Chris Woodford. Last updated: June 9, 2020.

Over two thirds of Earth's surface is covered by water; less than a third is taken up by land. As Earth's population continues to grow, people are putting ever-increasing pressure on the planet's water resources. In a sense, our oceans, rivers, and other inland waters are being "squeezed" by human activities-not so they take up less room, but so their quality is reduced. Poorer water quality means water pollution.

We know that pollution is a human problem because it is a relatively recent development in the planet's history: before the 19th century Industrial Revolution, people lived more in harmony with their immediate environment. As industrialization has spread around the globe, so the problem of pollution has spread with it. When Earth's population was much smaller, no one believed pollution would ever present a serious problem. It was once popularly believed that the oceans were far too big to pollute. Today, with around 7 billion people on the planet, it has become apparent that there are limits. Pollution is one of the signs that humans have exceeded those limits.

How serious is the problem? According to the environmental campaign organization WWF: "Pollution from toxic chemicals threatens life on this planet. Every ocean and every continent, from the tropics to the once-pristine polar regions, is contaminated."

Photo: Detergent pollution entering a river. Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service Photo Library.

What is water pollution?

Water pollution can be defined in many ways. Usually, it means one or more substances have built up in water to such an extent that they cause problems for animals or people. Oceans, lakes, rivers, and other inland waters can naturally clean up a certain amount of pollution by dispersing it harmlessly. If you poured a cup of black ink into a river, the ink would quickly disappear into the river's much larger volume of clean water. The ink would still be there in the river, but in such a low concentration that you would not be able to see it. At such low levels, the chemicals in the ink probably would not present any real problem. However, if you poured gallons of ink into a river every few seconds through a pipe, the river would quickly turn black. The chemicals in the ink could very quickly have an effect on the quality of the water. This, in turn, could affect the health of all the plants, animals, and humans whose lives depend on the river.

Photo: Pollution means adding substances to the environment that don't belong there-like the air pollution from this smokestack. Pollution is not always as obvious as this, however.

Thus, water pollution is all about quantities: how much of a polluting substance is released and how big a volume of water it is released into. A small quantity of a toxic chemical may have little impact if it is spilled into the ocean from a ship. But the same amount of the same chemical can have a much bigger impact pumped into a lake or river, where there is less clean water to disperse it.

Water pollution almost always means that some damage has been done to an ocean, river, lake, or other water source. A 1969 United Nations report defined ocean pollution as:

"The introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the marine environment (including estuaries) resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities, including fishing, impairment of quality for use of sea water and reduction of amenities." [1]

Fortunately, Earth is forgiving and damage from water pollution is often reversible.

What are the main types of water pollution?

When we think of Earth's water resources, we think of huge oceans, lakes, and rivers. Water resources like these are called surface waters. The most obvious type of water pollution affects surface waters. For example, a spill from an oil tanker creates an oil slick that can affect a vast area of the ocean.

Not all of Earth's water sits on its surface, however. A great deal of water is held in underground rock structures known as aquifers, which we cannot see and seldom think about. Water stored underground in aquifers is known as groundwater. Aquifers feed our rivers and supply much of our drinking water. They too can become polluted, for example, when weed killers used in people's gardens drain into the ground. Groundwater pollution is much less obvious than surface-water pollution, but is no less of a problem. In 1996, a study in Iowa in the United States found that over half the state's groundwater wells were contaminated with weed killers. You might think things would have improved since then, but, two decades on, all that's really changed is the name of the chemicals we're using. Today, numerous scientific studies are still finding weed killers in groundwater in worrying quantities: a 2012 study discovered glyphosate in 41 percent of 140 groundwater samples from Catalonia, Spain; scientific opinion differs on whether this is safe or not.[2]

Surface waters and groundwater are the two types of water resources that pollution affects. There are also two different ways in which pollution can occur. If pollution comes from a single location, such as a discharge pipe attached to a factory, it is known as point-source pollution. Other examples of point source pollution include an oil spill from a tanker, a discharge from a smoke stack (factory chimney), or someone pouring oil from their car down a drain. A great deal of water pollution happens not from one single source but from many different scattered sources. This is called nonpoint-source pollution.

Photo: Above: Point-source pollution comes from a single, well-defined place such as this pipe. Below: Nonpoint-source pollution comes from many sources. All the industrial plants alongside a river and the ships that service them may be polluting the river collectively. Both photos courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service Photo Library.

When point-source pollution enters the environment, the place most affected is usually the area immediately around the source. For example, when a tanker accident occurs, the oil slick is concentrated around the tanker itself and, in the right ocean conditions, the pollution disperses the further away from the tanker you go. This is less likely to happen with nonpoint source pollution which, by definition, enters the environment from many different places at once.

Sometimes pollution that enters the environment in one place has an effect hundreds or even thousands of miles away. This is known as transboundary pollution. One example is the way radioactive waste travels through the oceans from nuclear reprocessing plants in England and France to nearby countries such as Ireland and Norway.

How do we know when water is polluted?

Some forms of water pollution are very obvious: everyone has seen TV news footage of oil slicks filmed from helicopters flying overhead. Water pollution is usually less obvious and much harder to detect than this. But how can we measure water pollution when we cannot see it? How do we even know it's there?

There are two main ways of measuring the quality of water. One is to take samples of the water and measure the concentrations of different chemicals that it contains. If the chemicals are dangerous or the concentrations are too great, we can regard the water as polluted. Measurements like this are known as chemical indicators of water quality. Another way to measure water quality involves examining the fish, insects, and other invertebrates that the water will support. If many different types of creatures can live in a river, the quality is likely to be very good; if the river supports no fish life at all, the quality is obviously much poorer. Measurements like this are called biological indicators of water quality.

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What are the causes of water pollution?

Most water pollution doesn't begin in the water itself. Take the oceans: around 80 percent of ocean pollution enters our seas from the land. [16] Virtually any human activity can have an effect on the quality of our water environment. When farmers fertilize the fields, the chemicals they use are gradually washed by rain into the groundwater or surface waters nearby. Sometimes the causes of water pollution are quite surprising. Chemicals released by smokestacks (chimneys) can enter the atmosphere and then fall back to earth as rain, entering seas, rivers, and lakes and causing water pollution. That's called atmospheric deposition. Water pollution has many different causes and this is one of the reasons why it is such a difficult problem to solve.

Sewage

With billions of people on the planet, disposing of sewage waste is a major problem. According to 2017 figures from the World Health Organization, some 2 billion people (about a quarter of the world's population) don't have access to safe drinking water or the most basic sanitation, 3.4 billion (60 people of the population) lack"safely managed" sanitation (unshared, with waste properly treated). Although there have been great improvements in securing access to clean water, relatively little, genuine progress has been made on improving global sanitation in the last decade.[20] Sewage disposal affects people's immediate environments and leads to water-related illnesses such as diarrhea that kills 525,000 children under five each year.[3] (Back in 2002, the World Health Organization estimated that water-related diseases could kill as many as 135 million people by 2020; in 2016, the WHO was still estimating the annual death toll from poor water and sanitation at close to a million people a year.) In developed countries, most people have flush toilets that take sewage waste quickly and hygienically away from their homes.

Yet the problem of sewage disposal does not end there. When you flush the toilet, the waste has to go somewhere and, even after it leaves the sewage treatment works, there is still waste to dispose of. Sometimes sewage waste is pumped untreated into the sea. Until the early 1990s, around 5 million tons of sewage was dumped by barge from New York City each year. [4] According to 2002 figures from the UK government's Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the sewers of Britain collect around 11 billion liters of waste water every day; there are still 31,000 sewage overflow pipes through which, in certain circumstances, such as heavy storms, raw sewage is pumped untreated into the sea.[5] The New River that crosses the border from Mexico into California once carried with it 20-25 million gallons (76-95 million liters) of raw sewage each day; a new waste water plant on the US-Mexico border, completed in 2007, substantially solved that problem.[6] Unfortunately, even in some of the richest nations, the practice of dumping sewage into the sea continues. In early 2012, it was reported that the tiny island of Guernsey (between Britain and France) has decided to continue dumping 16,000 tons of raw sewage into the sea each day.

In theory, sewage is a completely natural substance that should be broken down harmlessly in the environment: 90 percent of sewage is water. [7] In practice, sewage contains all kinds of other chemicals, from the pharmaceutical drugs people take to the paper, plastic, and other wastes they flush down their toilets. When people are sick with viruses, the sewage they produce carries those viruses into the environment. It is possible to catch illnesses such as hepatitis, typhoid, and cholera from river and sea water.

Nutrients

Photo: During crop-spraying, some chemicals will drain into the soil. Eventually, they seep into rivers and other watercourses. Photo courtesy of US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

Suitably treated and used in moderate quantities, sewage can be a fertilizer: it returns important nutrients to the environment, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which plants and animals need for growth. The trouble is, sewage is often released in much greater quantities than the natural environment can cope with. Chemical fertilizers used by farmers also add nutrients to the soil, which drain into rivers and seas and add to the fertilizing effect of the sewage. Together, sewage and fertilizers can cause a massive increase in the growth of algae or plankton that overwhelms huge areas of oceans, lakes, or rivers. This is known as a harmful algal bloom (also known as an HAB or red tide, because it can turn the water red). It is harmful because it removes oxygen from the water that kills other forms of life, leading to what is known as a dead zone. The Gulf of Mexico has one of the world's most spectacular dead zones. Each summer, according to studies by the NOAA, it typically grows to an area of around 5500-6000 square miles (14,000-15,500 square kilometers), which is about the same size as the state of Connecticut.[21]

Waste water

A few statistics illustrate the scale of the problem that waste water (chemicals washed down drains and discharged from factories) can cause. Around half of all ocean pollution is caused by sewage and waste water. Each year, the world generates perhaps 5-10 billion tons of industrial waste, much of which is pumped untreated into rivers, oceans, and other waterways. [8] In the United States alone, around 400,000 factories take clean water from rivers, and many pump polluted waters back in their place. However, there have been major improvements in waste water treatment recently. Since 1970, in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invested about $70 billion in improving water treatment plants that, as of 2015, serve around 88 percent of the US population (compared to just 69 percent in 1972). However, another $271 billion is still needed to update and upgrade the system.[15]

Factories are point sources of water pollution, but quite a lot of water is polluted by ordinary people from nonpoint sources; this is how ordinary water becomes waste water in the first place. Virtually everyone pours chemicals of one sort or another down their drains or toilets. Even detergents used in washing machines and dishwashers eventually end up in our rivers and oceans. So do the pesticides we use on our gardens. A lot of toxic pollution also enters waste water from highway runoff. Highways are typically covered with a cocktail of toxic chemicals-everything from spilled fuel and brake fluids to bits of worn tires (themselves made from chemical additives) and exhaust emissions. When it rains, these chemicals wash into drains and rivers. It is not unusual for heavy summer rainstorms to wash toxic chemicals into rivers in such concentrations that they kill large numbers of fish overnight. It has been estimated that, in one year, the highway runoff from a single large city leaks as much oil into our water environment as a typical tanker spill. Some highway runoff runs away into drains; others can pollute groundwater or accumulate in the land next to a road, making it increasingly toxic as the years go by.

Chemical waste

Detergents are relatively mild substances. At the opposite end of the spectrum are highly toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). They were once widely used to manufacture electronic circuit boards, but their harmful effects have now been recognized and their use is highly restricted in many countries. Nevertheless, an estimated half million tons of PCBs were discharged into the environment during the 20th century.[9] In a classic example of transboundary pollution, traces of PCBs have even been found in birds and fish in the Arctic. They were carried there through the oceans, thousands of miles from where they originally entered the environment. Although PCBs are widely banned, their effects will be felt for many decades because they last a long time in the environment without breaking down.

Another kind of toxic pollution comes from heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Lead was once commonly used in gasoline (petrol), though its use is now restricted in some countries. Mercury and cadmium are still used in batteries (though some brands now use other metals instead). Until recently, a highly toxic chemical called tributyltin (TBT) was used in paints to protect boats from the ravaging effects of the oceans. Ironically, however, TBT was gradually recognized as a pollutant: boats painted with it were doing as much damage to the oceans as the oceans were doing to the boats.

The best known example of heavy metal pollution in the oceans took place in 1938 when a Japanese factory discharged a significant amount of mercury metal into Minamata Bay, contaminating the fish stocks there. It took a decade for the problem to come to light. By that time, many local people had eaten the fish and around 2000 were poisoned. Hundreds of people were left dead or disabled. [10]

Radioactive waste

People view radioactive waste with great alarm-and for good reason. At high enough concentrations it can kill; in lower concentrations it can cause cancers and other illnesses. The biggest sources of radioactive pollution in Europe are two factories that reprocess waste fuel from nuclear power plants: Sellafield on the north-west coast of Britain and Cap La Hague on the north coast of France. Both discharge radioactive waste water into the sea, which ocean currents then carry around the world. Countries such as Norway, which lie downstream from Britain, receive significant doses of radioactive pollution from Sellafield.[19] The Norwegian government has repeatedly complained that Sellafield has increased radiation levels along its coast by 6-10 times. Both the Irish and Norwegian governments continue to press for the plant's closure.[11]

Oil pollution

Photo: Oil-tanker spills are the most spectacular forms of pollution and the ones that catch public attention, but only a fraction of all water pollution happens this way. Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service Photo Library.

When we think of ocean pollution, huge black oil slicks often spring to mind, yet these spectacular accidents represent only a tiny fraction of all the pollution entering our oceans. Even considering oil by itself, tanker spills are not as significant as they might seem: only 12 percent of the oil that enters the oceans comes from tanker accidents; over 70 percent of oil pollution at sea comes from routine shipping and from the oil people pour down drains on land. [12] However, what makes tanker spills so destructive is the sheer quantity of oil they release at once - in other words, the concentration of oil they produce in one very localized part of the marine environment. The biggest oil spill in recent years (and the biggest ever spill in US waters) occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez broke up in Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989. Around 12 million gallons (44 million liters) of oil were released into the pristine wilderness-enough to fill your living room 800 times over! Estimates of the marine animals killed in the spill vary from approximately 1000 sea otters and 34,000 birds to as many as 2800 sea otters and 250,000 sea birds. Several billion salmon and herring eggs are also believed to have been destroyed.[13]

Plastics

If you've ever taken part in a community beach clean, you'll know that plastic is far and away the most common substance that washes up with the waves. There are three reasons for this: plastic is one of the most common materials, used for making virtually every kind of manufactured object from clothing to automobile parts; plastic is light and floats easily so it can travel enormous distances across the oceans; most plastics are not biodegradable (they do not break down naturally in the environment), which means that things like plastic bottle tops can survive in the marine environment for a long time. (A plastic bottle can survive an estimated 450 years in the ocean and plastic fishing line can last up to 600 years.)

While plastics are not toxic in quite the same way as poisonous chemicals, they nevertheless present a major hazard to seabirds, fish, and other marine creatures. For example, plastic fishing lines and other debris can strangle or choke fish. (This is sometimes called ghost fishing.) About half of all the world's seabird species are known to have eaten plastic residues. In one study of 450 shearwaters in the North Pacific, over 80 percent of the birds were found to contain plastic residues in their stomachs. In the early 1990s, marine scientist Tim Benton collected debris from a 2km (1.5 mile) length of beach in the remote Pitcairn islands in the South Pacific. His study recorded approximately a thousand pieces of garbage including 268 pieces of plastic, 71 plastic bottles, and two dolls heads. [14]

Today, much media attention focuses on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating, oceanic graveyard of plastic junk roughly three times the size of France, discovered by sailor Charles J. Moore in 1997. But, as you'll know well enough if you've ever taken part in a community beach clean, persistent plastic litters every ocean on the planet: some 8 million tons of new plastic are dumped in the sea every single year.[17]

Alien species

Most people's idea of water pollution involves things like sewage, toxic metals, or oil slicks, but pollution can be biological as well as chemical. In some parts of the world, alien species are a major problem. Alien species (sometimes known as invasive species) are animals or plants from one region that have been introduced into a different ecosystem where they do not belong. Outside their normal environment, they have no natural predators, so they rapidly run wild, crowding out the usual animals or plants that thrive there. Common examples of alien species include zebra mussels in the Great Lakes of the USA, which were carried there from Europe by ballast water (waste water flushed from ships). The Mediterranean Sea has been invaded by a kind of alien algae called Caulerpa taxifolia. In the Black Sea, an alien jellyfish called Mnemiopsis leidyi reduced fish stocks by 90 percent after arriving in ballast water. In San Francisco Bay, Asian clams called Potamocorbula amurensis, also introduced by ballast water, have dramatically altered the ecosystem. In 1999, Cornell University's David Pimentel estimated that alien invaders like this cost the US economy $123 billion a year; in 2014, the European Commission put the cost to Europe at €12 billion a year and "growing all the time.[18]

Photo: Invasive species: Above: Water hyacinth crowding out a waterway around an old fence post. Photo by Steve Hillebrand. Below: Non-native zebra mussels clumped on a native mussel. Both photos courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service Photo Library.

Other forms of pollution

These are the most common forms of pollution-but by no means the only ones. Heat or thermal pollution from factories and power plants also causes problems in rivers. By raising the temperature, it reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, thus also reducing the level of aquatic life that the river can support.

Another type of pollution involves the disruption of sediments (fine-grained powders) that flow from rivers into the sea. Dams built for hydroelectric power or water reservoirs can reduce the sediment flow. This reduces the formation of beaches, increases coastal erosion (the natural destruction of cliffs by the sea), and reduces the flow of nutrients from rivers into seas (potentially reducing coastal fish stocks). Increased sediments can also present a problem. During construction work, soil, rock, and other fine powders sometimes enters nearby rivers in large quantities, causing it to become turbid (muddy or silted). The extra sediment can block the gills of fish, effectively suffocating them. Construction firms often now take precautions to prevent this kind of pollution from happening.

What are the effects of water pollution?

Some people believe pollution is an inescapable result of human activity: they argue that if we want to have factories, cities, ships, cars, oil, and coastal resorts, some degree of pollution is almost certain to result. In other words, pollution is a necessary evil that people must put up with if they want to make progress. Fortunately, not everyone agrees with this view. One reason people have woken up to the problem of pollution is that it brings costs of its own that undermine any economic benefits that come about by polluting.

Take oil spills, for example. They can happen if tankers are too poorly built to survive accidents at sea. But the economic benefit of compromising on tanker quality brings an economic cost when an oil spill occurs. The oil can wash up on nearby beaches, devastate the ecosystem, and severely affect tourism. The main problem is that the people who bear the cost of the spill (typically a small coastal community) are not the people who caused the problem in the first place (the people who operate the tanker). Yet, arguably, everyone who puts gasoline (petrol) into their car-or uses almost any kind of petroleum-fueled transport-contributes to the problem in some way. So oil spills are a problem for everyone, not just people who live by the coast and tanker operates.

Sewage is another good example of how pollution can affect us all. Sewage discharged into coastal waters can wash up on beaches and cause a health hazard. People who bathe or surf in the water can fall ill if they swallow polluted water-yet sewage can have other harmful effects too: it can poison shellfish (such as cockles and mussels) that grow near the shore. People who eat poisoned shellfish risk suffering from an acute-and sometimes fatal-illness called paralytic shellfish poisoning. Shellfish is no longer caught along many shores because it is simply too polluted with sewage or toxic chemical wastes that have discharged from the land nearby.

Pollution matters because it harms the environment on which people depend. The environment is not something distant and separate from our lives. It's not a pretty shoreline hundreds of miles from our homes or a wilderness landscape that we see only on TV. The environment is everything that surrounds us that gives us life and health. Destroying the environment ultimately reduces the quality of our own lives-and that, most selfishly, is why pollution should matter to all of us.

How can we stop water pollution?

There is no easy way to solve water pollution; if there were, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. Broadly speaking, there are three different things that can help to tackle the problem-education, laws, and economics-and they work together as a team.

Education

Making people aware of the problem is the first step to solving it. In the early 1990s, when surfers in Britain grew tired of catching illnesses from water polluted with sewage, they formed a group called Surfers Against Sewage to force governments and water companies to clean up their act. People who've grown tired of walking the world's polluted beaches often band together to organize community beach-cleaning sessions. Anglers who no longer catch so many fish have campaigned for tougher penalties against factories that pour pollution into our rivers. Greater public awareness can make a positive difference.

Laws

One of the biggest problems with water pollution is its transboundary nature. Many rivers cross countries, while seas span whole continents. Pollution discharged by factories in one country with poor environmental standards can cause problems in neighboring nations, even when they have tougher laws and higher standards. Environmental laws can make it tougher for people to pollute, but to be really effective they have to operate across national and international borders. This is why we have international laws governing the oceans, such as the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (signed by over 120 nations), the 1972 London (Dumping) Convention, the 1978 MARPOL International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, and the 1998 OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic. The European Union has water-protection laws (known as directives) that apply to all of its member states. They include the 1976 Bathing Water Directive (updated 2006), which seeks to ensure the quality of the waters that people use for recreation. Most countries also have their own water pollution laws. In the United States, for example, there is the 1972 Clean Water Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act.

Economics

Most environmental experts agree that the best way to tackle pollution is through something called the polluter pays principle. This means that whoever causes pollution should have to pay to clean it up, one way or another. Polluter pays can operate in all kinds of ways. It could mean that tanker owners should have to take out insurance that covers the cost of oil spill cleanups, for example. It could also mean that shoppers should have to pay for their plastic grocery bags, as is now common in Ireland, to encourage recycling and minimize waste. Or it could mean that factories that use rivers must have their water inlet pipes downstream of their effluent outflow pipes, so if they cause pollution they themselves are the first people to suffer. Ultimately, the polluter pays principle is designed to deter people from polluting by making it less expensive for them to behave in an environmentally responsible way.

Our clean future

Life is ultimately about choices-and so is pollution. We can live with sewage-strewn beaches, dead rivers, and fish that are too poisonous to eat. Or we can work together to keep the environment clean so the plants, animals, and people who depend on it remain healthy. We can take individual action to help reduce water pollution, for example, by using environmentally friendly detergents, not pouring oil down drains, reducing pesticides, and so on. We can take community action too, by helping out on beach cleans or litter picks to keep our rivers and seas that little bit cleaner. And we can take action as countries and continents to pass laws that will make pollution harder and the world less polluted. Working together, we can make pollution less of a problem-and the world a better place.

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On this site

Books

For older readers

Understanding Environmental Pollution by Marquita K. Hill. Cambridge University Press, 2020. A clear, wide-ranging introduction that covers all types of pollution, recycling, energy use, and related issues.

Pollution: Causes, Effects, and Control by Roy Harrison (editor). Royal Society of Chemistry, 2001. Comprehensive (579-page) introduction to all forms of pollution.

An Introduction to Pollution Science by Roy Harrison (editor). Royal Society of Chemistry, 2006. Another good introductory text covering all types of pollution.

Biology of Freshwater Pollution by Christopher Mason. Prentice Hall, 2001. This book is aimed at advanced undergraduates and water pollution professionals.

Managing Environmental Pollution by Andrew Farmer. Routledge, 1997. More emphasis on "pollution solutions" in this book.

For younger readers

Pollution (Ecographics) by Izzi Howell. Franklin Watts, 2019. An illustrated introduction to air and water pollution for ages 9-11.

What a Waste: Rubbish, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet by Jess French. DK, 2019. A simple, colorful overview that puts pollution into a much broader context for, for younger readers aged 7-9.

Trash Vortex: How Plastic Pollution Is Choking the World's Oceans by Danielle Smith-Lera. Compass Point/Capstone, 2018. A 64-page introduction to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the issues it raises.

Pollution: What if we do nothing? by Christiane Dorion. Britannica, 2009/2015. A 49-page guide that summarizes the problem of pollution and the current state of our planet, and concludes with an optimistic section on what young readers can do.

Earth Matters by Lynn Dicks et al. Dorling Kindersley, 2008: A more general guide to problems Earth faces, with each major biome explored separately. In case you're interested, I contributed the polar regions chapter. The book is mostly a simple read and probably suitable for 7-10 (and maybe 9-12).

Selected news articles

Water pollution videos

NOAA: Humans impact the oceans: This short, 2.5-minute animation shows how various different human activities affect the oceans around our planet. Only the polar regions have relatively low impacts, so far.

EPA Ireland: Water pollution: A longer, 7-minute introduction describing how Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to tackle water pollution. Although filmed in Ireland, the issues are general and apply to most other countries.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Investigating Ocean Pollution: Scripps scientists research the effects of pollution on marine life in San Diego Bay, California. (6.5 minutes.)

Water pollution: Paul Andersen gives a nice summary of most of the topics I've introduced here, so you could watch this for a quick review. (10 minutes.)

Websites

Water pollution photos: From our friends at the UK Rivers Network, a collection of public-domain (copyright free) pollution photos you can use in school and college projects. You can find links to all the photos we've used on this page, in a much larger size, on there.

Notes and references

Wherever possible, I've referenced my sources with links; the following notes (indicated by bracketed numbers in the text) are mostly references to books, journals, and other "offline" reports that can't be linked the same way.

1. ↑ The original definition appeared in UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection, Report of the First Session, March 1969, p.5. It omitted the word "energy," which was added at the Stockholm Conference (the UN Conference on Human Development) in 1972.

2. ↑ For a summary, see "Agricultural Chemicals in Iowa's Ground Water, 1982-95." by Dana Koplin. US Geological Survey, 1997. More recent studies have found glyphosate (sold under brand names such as Roundup®) in groundwater samples inSpain,Canada,Sri Lanka,Argentina,Mexico, and elsewhere. For a review of the complex debate over glyphosate safety, see (for example)Vandenberg et al (2017), andTarazona et al (2017).

3. ↑ Estimates in different publications quote 4-5 million tons. See "Our World." New York Magazine, April 16, 1990, p.28.

4. ↑ Sewage Treatment in the UK: UK Implementation of the EC Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Report by DEFRA, London, 2002, p.1. The figure of 31,000 pipes comes fromSurfers Against Sewage.

5. ↑ It's very hard to find a decent estimate for the world's total annual production of industrial waste-partly because the term isn't precisely defined and partly because no-one has any obligation to measure. In 2000, the AAAS Atlas of Population & Environment suggested a figure of 1.5 billion tons was being produced by the entire OECD during the mid 1990s. In 1998, James Spalding et al told the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) annual conference that the US produced around 2.5 billion tons of industrial waste per year and estimated that to be "perhaps a third of the world's refuse," giving a grand worldwide total of 7.5 billion tons. From these and other similar estimates, it seems 5-10 billion tons might be a reasonable ballpark figure.

6. ↑ Around 1.5 million tons were produced worldwide according to12. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs): Uses and Environmental Releases by Dr Heidi Fisher (archived via the Wayback Machine). A 1982 estimate suggested about four percent of this total has been destroyed, two thirds of the remainder has been stored or is still in use, and a third has been discharged into the environment. See "Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated sites worldwide" by Ivan Holoubek inPCBs: Recent Advances in Environmental Toxicology and Health Effects by Larry W. Robertson et al (eds), University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Other chapters in this book cover PCB transport into remote parts of the world.

7. ↑ Bitter Sea: The Human Cost of Minamata Disease by Akio Mishima. Kosei Pub, 1982.

8. ↑ See for example "Norway fury at UK nuclear waste flood." by Paul Brown, The Guardian, December 20, 1997. A recent (2017) study found that a major accident at Sellafield could pollute a significant proportion of Norway in as little as 12 hours. SeeWorst Case Meteorological Scenario for Norway in Case of an Accident in Sellafield Nuclear Site by Heiko Klein and Jerzy Bartnicki.

9. ↑ International Maritime Organization: Marine Environmental Awareness, 2011 Edition, IMO Press, 2011 reveals that routine shipping adds three times as much oil to the marine environment as accidental pollution (but that doesn't factor in significant discharges coming from the land). According to Pollution Impacts on Marine Biotic Communities by Michael J. Kennish, CRC Press, 2007, about 58 percent of oil added to the oceans comes from land runoff, atmospheric deposition, and ocean dumping; 24 percent comes from all kinds of "marine transportation activities" (including routine shipping operations and tanker spills); 8 percent comes from oil wells and refineries; and natural inputs add 10 percent.

10. ↑ There have been many estimates of the impact of the Exxon Valdez spill. They differ wildly, largely because the spill was studied at different times, by different groups with different scientific, political, and financial agendas. My upper figures are taken fromExxon Valdez: Ten Years On, BBC News, March 18, 1999. One definitive academic study worth seeking out isExxon Valdez Oil Spill: Fate and Effects in Alaskan Waters, ASTM International, 1995, which collected 25 papers from an ASTM symposium in April 1993.

11. ↑ The impact on seabirds of marine debris is explored in The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation by Daniel J. Lebbin et al. University of Chicago Press, 2010, p.340. The shearwater study is quoted in Biological Oceanography: An Introduction by Carol Lalli et al. Elsevier, 1993. p.253. Tim Benton's studies of the Pitcairn Islands are thoroughly documented inThe Pitcairn Islands: Biogeography, Ecology and Prehistory: Proceedings of an International Discussion Meeting Held at the Linnean Society by T.G. Benton et al, Linnean Society of London, 1995.

12. ↑ The figure of 8 million tons comes from a research study by Kara Lavender Law et al. SeePlastic waste inputs from land into the ocean, Science 13 Feb 2015. There's a more accessible account inEight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year by Lara Parker, National Geographic, 13 February 2015.

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This article was originally written for the UK Rivers Network and first published on their website in April 2006. It is revised and updated every year.

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Water pollution: An introduction to causes, effects, solutions

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Advertisement by Chris Woodford. Last updated: June 9, 2020. Over two thirds of Earth's surface is covered by water; less than a third is taken up by land. As Earth's population continues to grow, people are putting ever-increasing pressure on the planet's water resources.

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Our planet is covered by more than 10 billion acres of forests, which is over 30% of its entirety. Now, people are cutting them down at a rapid rate (about 15 million acres per year) in a process called deforestation in order to make room for developments, such as roads, buildings and other man-made structures. This has been happening since the early 1990s.

Although deforestation is often thought of negatively, there are some advantages we can get from the practice. Otherwise, it would not be happening, right? What we need to do is to evaluate its benefits against its potential future risks. Will the long-term gains of transforming our lands outweigh the long-term gains of leaving it as it is? By evaluating both the pros and cons of this method, then we can effectively answer this question.

List of Pros of Deforestation

1. It creates more usable space for growth.
One of the main reasons that these forests are being cut down is to make room for expansion. With all of the free areas that are being created from deforestation, things like economy-stimulating businesses and improved road systems can be built.

With 10 billion people expected to be on the planet by 2050 and the never-ending growth explosion in sight, space has become more of a premium necessity on Earth. When there are forests on lands that could be utilized for habitation, then removing them can create more livable space. Commercial establishments and homes will also be built using the products that have been removed from the biome.

2. It produces more usable material.
All of the trees are being cut down to be used for producing lumber and other types of wood product. From the saps to the plants, they can be used to make good paper and many other necessities. For the land itself, it can be used for agricultural purposes.

Considering the products of deforestation, it can certainly provide an economic benefit, both regional and local in many instances. Timber and paper are created for the whole world to enjoy, and some of the toilet paper, which is used in most households, comes at least in some part from deforestation, unless it was created from purely recyclable items.

3. It allows for civilization and industrialization.
If we think of it, wide parts of forests around the world are left unused, which could instead be converted into some more beneficial agricultural sites, which can help feed hundreds or even thousands of people who are starving. A few parts of these lush lands can also be used to make great infrastructures that will help economies boom, hence assisting all the people living in them economically as well.

4. It creates more job openings.
Mostly, the people who are working in a forest clearing have no other job opportunities available to them, which means deforestation is providing workers with the financial resources they need to take care of their families on a regular basis. When a certain forested area is cleared, workers can then settle down and establish a farm, plantation or an industry sector that can help keep income flowing.

5. It allows for the opportunity to graze animals.
Animal grazing is one good way to make deforestation highly useful. With this method, it will be easier for people to find possibly unknown animals that are hiding within the virgin forests or even rediscover those that are declared extinct. This will provide the chance for us to propagate them for the better.

6. It gives us the chance to produce more food.
Developments in crop technologies have resulted in huge volumes of farming yields over the last 2 decades, but it is speculated that this may not be sufficient in the next 2 decades. Fortunately, deforestation can provide enough space to produce enough food for more than 10 billion people who will be hungry in the future.

7. It allows people to generate more revenue.
The process of deforestation creates a strong source of revenue for governments around the world. This helps stimulate many economies, especially in developing countries.

List of Cons of Deforestation

1. It increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Plants and trees play a vital role in keeping the planet habitable. As most of us probably know, photosynthesis (a process that happens in plants) filters carbon dioxide gases out of the air and releases oxygen. This means that cutting huge numbers of plants can have a very negative impact on the environment. It will allow green house gases to build up and contributing to global warming.

2. It further promotes the development of drought.
Global warming brings about a lot of unfavorable consequences, including drought, which is already affecting many parts of the world. To mention, deforestation encourages higher levels of water consumption for growing livestock and crops. Instead of having a natural system of moisture recycling forests provide, water goes to food and livestock production, removing it from the natural cycle of life.

3. It focuses only on short-term gains.
According to research, the world is already producing more than 10% of the calories it needs for the entire world population today. In fact, many countries are consuming more than 1,000 calories a day per capita, which is more than the needed amount for proper health. We should take note that, if more food is produced, then people will tend to focus more on short-term gains, instead of meeting long-term needs.

4. It is a limited resource.
Regardless of the many monetary benefits we can get from deforestation at first, these timber profits could go away since there will not be any additional trees being planted to replace those that are harvested. Livestock and farms may not be nearly as profitable as a living, considering the thriving forests on a planetary scale.

5. It contributes to the extinction of wildlife.
The removal of a habitat is often the foundation for the extinction of a species. When forests are cut down, it is not only the trees that are being lost, but also countless amounts of wildlife, such as mammals, birds, insects, amphibians and many other animals that make them their home. With nowhere else for them to go, they will be forced into areas that are not suited for them. In fact, there has been a drastic decline in the amount of wildlife in certain areas that have experienced severe effects of deforestation. In essence, we are removing a piece of ourselves when we no longer allow for animals to exist as they always have.

6. It causes flooding.
We all know that trees and plants play a vital role in absorbing excess ground water by sucking the extra moisture up through their roots and disperse it back into the atmosphere. So, without plants, trees and other plant life, there will be nothing to help regulate the excess water from rain, and the soil will become over saturated. This is one of the main causes of flooding not only in the deforested area, as well as its surroundings.

7. It may hinder the production of future medicines.
Only a small fraction of the forests in the world have been explored by non-tribal humans, and many of the best medicines today have a foundation from items that were secured from these rich lands. Now, deforestation would remove the possibility to study the biome, learn from it and help improve human life for all.

8. It only renders a short time to lose all forests.
Given the rapid rate that forests are being hacked down every day through deforestation, it is a very likely possibility that the planet will lose all rain forests in as little as 100 years. And if this happens, all of the species of plants and animals that are native to them will be lost as well.

9. It introduces countless environmental and community harms.
The abrupt and irreversible consequences of global deforestation can certainly put the existence of human beings and the whole world at risk.

10. It causes a domino of unfavorable effects.
Deforestation can cause a domino effect on the whole planet, including global climate change, indigenous people annihilation and biodiversity extinction. One wrong move, and the process will lead us to an empty and meaningless world. The death of plants and animals can lead to a partial loss of human life.

In conclusion, deforestation, while it may be necessary, will have an extremely negative effect on the environment. Although there are many benefits that can be enjoyed through it, its risks cannot be ignored. Many deforestation efforts focus only on short-term gains and think nothing of the long-term risks and consequences. The cure for a significant number of devastating illnesses could be found in forest areas right now, and deforestation may remove permanently the ability to discover something that could benefit the human race for the coming years.

Deforestation should definitely have its place and should never be overdone? Study shows that an area the size of 20 football fields is lost every 20 minutes! Considering this threat, we can help research about what we can do help slow down this destructive process.

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17 Important Pros and Cons of Deforestation

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Our planet is covered by more than 10 billion acres of forests, which is over 30% of its entirety. Now, people are cutting them down at a rapid rate (about 15 million acres per year) in a process called deforestation in order to make room for developments, such as roads, buildings and other man-made structures.

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Overpopulation, water, and resources around the world

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Overpopulation, water, and resources around the world

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This website is very good, it also talks about nuclear power, deforestation, etc. Check it out

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What is deforestation, and what can we do to prevent it? Rainforests around the world are being lost at an alarming rate. In this article we investigate the causes and effects of deforestation, and look at what is being done to stop it.

This page contains information about deforestation for kids, and is part of our rainforest series.

Deforestation For Kids: What Is Deforestation?

Deforestation is the removal of a forest so that the land on which it stood may be put to another use. Deforestation occurs for a number of reasons (see below), the most common being the conversion of the once-forested land into farmland, either for growing crops or for keeping livestock.

Forests that are naturally occurring and which have never been harvested are called 'primary', or 'old-growth' forests. Primary forests have often stood for many thousands of years. Their ecosystems have formed over long lengths of time, and exhibit high biodiversity*. In many cases primary forests provide a unique habitat for species that are unable to live anywhere else.

* Biodiversity is the number of different species in a particular location.

Due to the time it takes for primary forests to grow, deforestation is most often a permanent process. Forests grown on previously deforested land are called 'secondary forests'. It can take hundreds of years for secondary forests to regain primary forest characteristics.

In some areas, deforestation causes permanent damage to the quality of the soil, making it impossible for the original ecosystem to recover.

Reasons For Deforestation

The two main reasons for deforestation are food production and timber production. Other reasons for deforestation include mining, oil extraction, road building and urban expansion.

Timber (And Fuel) Production

The most obvious reason for deforestation is to obtain timber. Although a significant amount of deforestation does occur as a result of trees being chopped down for timber (logging), it is not the biggest cause.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) found that logging was responsible for 14% of deforestation.

Trees that produce the strong timber known as 'hardwood' often grow in tropical rainforests, and large numbers of these trees are felled to produce timber for building houses and other buildings. Timber is also used in paper production.

An additional 5% of deforestation is caused by trees being cut down for fuel.

Food Production

As the world's human population continues to rise, natural habitats - such as rainforests - are destroyed so that mankind can grow food to feed all of the people living on Earth.

Farming is by far the biggest cause of deforestation.

World Population

There have never been this many people living on Earth. In July 2015, there were over 7.3 billion people living in the world. It is estimated that this number will rise to over 11.2 billion by 2100.

Everyone needs to eat. Enough food needs to be produced to feed the billions of people on the planet. Deforestation occurs when forests are cleared to make room for fields.

The fields are used either to grow crops, or to house livestock. The crops are used for food not just for humans, but also for livestock. Most of the livestock will eventually feed humans, so the root cause is the same.

Subsistence Farming

The largest amount of deforestation (48%) is caused by subsistence farming. This is farming by local people; traditionally by family groups. It often involves 'slash and burn' techniques, in which small parts of the forest are cut and burned down to make room for a family's crops and livestock. The ash from the burned trees would even help to improve the soil.

In the past, these small scale farming techniques would enable the forest to grow back after the people had moved on. Today, due to the increased number of people involved in subsistence farming, the forest isn't being given enough time to recover.

Commercial Farming

Commercial farming is the next biggest cause of deforestation, at 32%. Commercial farming is carried out by businesses and governments.

Crops Grown On Cleared Land

Sugarcane

Sugarcane is grown to produce sugar for food and also to produce a chemical called ethanol. Ethanol can be used as an antiseptic (used to prevent infection in wounds), as a solvent and as fuel.

Brazil is the world's leading grower of sugarcane, and rainforest has been cleared to make way for the crop.

Oil Palms

Oil palms are grown to produce a vegetable oil called palm oil. Palm oil is used in food and for food production. It is also used in soap production and as a fuel.

Rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia have been particularly affected by deforestation for palm oil. In Indonesia, this has had a devastating effect on the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan.

Forests are also cleared in Africa for palm oil production.

Soya Beans

Large areas of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared to grow soya beans (soybean in the US). Brazil is the world's biggest producer of soya beans, which are used in animal and human foods.

Schemes to encourage commercial crop growing are often created by governments. These schemes, such as Brazil's 'Advance Brazil', often reward farmers, mine owners and other companies for developing land.

Deforestation For Kids: How Fast Is The Rainforest Disappearing?

There are many estimates as to how much of rainforest has already been lost, and how fast the rainforest continues to disappear.

It is thought that since 1950, over half of the trees in the world have been lost.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), estimates that around half of the world's rainforests have already been lost. The same organisation estimates that around 18 million acres of forest - roughly the size of Panama - is still being destroyed every year.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates that over a quarter of the Amazon Rainforest biome will be cleared of trees by 2030 if deforestation continues at its present rate.

Another estimate is that 400,000 hectares of Amazon Rainforest is being cleared each year.

Deforestation is a huge problem all over the world. Here are a few more figures:

Since 1990, up to 90% of the rainforests on West Africa's coast have been lost. 88% of South Asia's rainforests have disappeared. 40% of Central America's rainforests have been cleared in the last 40 years.

The Atlantic Forest, on the coast of Brazil, has lost over 85% of its area due to deforestation. It used to cover 390,000 to 580,000 sq. miles (1,000,000 to 1,500,000 square kilometres).

What Is Deforestation: Effects

Deforestation can cause:

Soil erosion (which can cause floods and landslides)

Droughts / aridity (when an area becomes too dry due to lack of rain)

Lack of biodiversity (the number of different species in an area becomes smaller)

Habitat loss (animals and plants lose their homes)

Climate change. Deforestation may contribute to global climate change.

Extinction

You may not know this, but it is a fact that a certain number of species go extinct naturally every day. Scientists call this the 'background extinction rate'.

However, the rate of species going extinct is currently between 1,000 and 10,000 times the background extinction rate. This is in part caused by habitat loss caused by deforestation.

Forests still cover 30% of the land, and deforestation has slowed in recent years. However, large amounts are still being lost each year.

Habitat Loss

When large areas of the rainforest are cleared, many species lose their natural homes. Some may be able to move to other areas, but most will perish. Even those that can move may not survive. There is a limit to how many species an area can support.

For example, a few acres of rainforest may hold enough prey animals for one tiger. If another tiger is introduced into the area, neither will have enough food to eat.

The same thing happens all the way down the food chain. Herbivores (plant-eating animals) need enough plants to eat. Plants need enough sunlight.

Forcing more and more animals into a smaller area will not work. There is a natural balance in the rainforest. This has gradually been formed over thousands of years. If an area of rainforest is destroyed, then the species that lived there will eventually be lost.

Environmental Effects Of Deforestation

Soil Erosion

In the rainforest, the roots of all the trees help stop the soil being washed away by rainwater. When the trees are chopped down, the rain washes away the soil, causing rivers and streams to be blocked. This can cause flooding and also affects the quality of drinking water for local people.

Without vegetation to slow down the movement of water, localised flooding and flash floods are more likely to occur.

Climate Change

Deforestation can change the local climate. When trees are cleared, the temperature in the daytime can increase, and nighttime temperatures decrease. With fewer trees creating water vapour, there is less cloud and less rainfall.

All of these changes affect the species in the area directly and indirectly. For example, if a certain plant finds it harder to grow, this can affect the whole food chain.

Global Effects Of Deforestation

Deforestation affects the water cycle. The water cycle is the transfer of water between oceans, land, plants and clouds. Deforestation can change this cycle. It affects how much rain falls, how much water is stored in the land and the amount of clouds formed.

The effect of deforestation on global climate is unclear. Deforested areas reflect more heat into the atmosphere, creating a cooling effect. However, the loss of trees causes fewer clouds to form. This has a warming effect.

Carbon Storage

Rainforest trees store a large amount of carbon both above the surface and in their roots. When the trees are cut down, this carbon can find its way into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which can contribute to global warming.

Scientists have calculated that 1.5 billion tons of carbon is released into the atmosphere each year due to deforestation.

Deforestation For Kids: Prevention

If deforestation is allowed to continue, then most of the world's forests will disappear in the space of a few decades. This will cause many species to go extinct, and will also affect people all over the world.

The problem is that deforestation provides short term economical (money and business) benefits. Many rainforests are located in poor countries. These countries need the money that crops planted on deforested land can bring in.

Finding ways to prevent deforestation is often a case of striking a balance between environmental and economical factors.

Many schemes are now in place to prevent deforestation.

Organisations such as the Forest Stewardship Council have been formed to promote products from sustainably forested areas. Other organisations, such as Global Forest Watch, monitor the amount of deforestation that takes place.

One thing we can do is to buy FSC certified goods. Check when buying paper and other wood products that it has been FSC certified.

REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) is a United Nations scheme to lower carbon emissions caused by deforestation.

However, many of the countries that rely on income from deforestation are poor. This means that they are unlikely to sign up to schemes that may mean they earn less money.

Some countries have reforestation schemes in place. For instance, in Senegal, a scheme has seen 6 million mangrove trees planted by youths.

In Bolivia, forest owners are paid to conserve their trees, rather than to cut them down. They are also encouraged to buy beehives to produce honey.

Malaysia has pledged to limit its palm oil production by keeping half of its land area forested.

In Europe, a successful campaign made it necessary for products containing palm oil to include it in the list of ingredients. Previously, the term 'vegetable oil' could be used, hiding the fact that the product contained palm oil.

Look carefully at the ingredients of the food that you buy. Avoid buying food that contains palm oil.

Other plans include stopping clear-felling (this is when all of the trees in an area are cut down). Instead, only selected trees are felled, and many trees are left standing. This minimises habitat loss (and therefore the damage to the area's biodiversity), and also allows young trees to grow.

What Is Deforestation For Kids: Conclusion

Deforestation threatens many of the world's species. It affects the local climate and the quality of life for the people who live in the area.

Despite growing awareness of deforestation, it still continues, with many thousands of acres of rainforest being lost every day.

Species such as the Sumatran orangutan and Javan Rhinoceros are critically endangered due to habitat loss caused by deforestation.

If you value the forests of the world, then spread the word about deforestation. The more people who know about it, the more pressure there is on companies and governments to either stop it or to use sustainable forestry methods.

Learn about rainforests, and the animals that live in them, support rainforest charities and make sure that you buy products that are rainforest friendly!

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What Is Deforestation For Kids: Information And Facts

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What is deforestation, and what can we do to prevent it? Rainforests around the world are being lost at an alarming rate. In this article we investigate the causes and effects of deforestation, and look at what is being done to stop it.

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Deforestation is the clearing, or cutting down, of forests. The word is normally used to describe the actions of humans in removing forests from the planet, rather than destruction caused by such natural events as hurricanes.

People have been cutting down trees for thousands of years. In recent times, however, the number of forests being lost through deforestation has grown enormously. This is seen as a great problem that affects the environment in many important...

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Deforestation is the clearing, or cutting down, of forests. The word is normally used to describe the actions of humans in removing forests from the planet, rather than destruction caused by such natural events as hurricanes.People have been cutting down trees for thousands of years.

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REDD+ helps to prevent deforestation, reduce poverty & much more. How can it be scaled up? #forestsolutions #WWF

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Do you have to be a vegan to help fix climate change? - video

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What causes more global warming: every vehicle on the planet or the meat and dairy produce we eat?

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How a Vegetarian Diet Could Help Save the Planet

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New research shows how the widespread adoption of vegetarian and vegan diets could save millions of lives and trillion of dollars

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f we really want to reduce the human impact on the environment, the simplest and cheapest thing anyone can do is to eat less meat. Behind most of the joints of beef or chicken on our plates is a phenomenally wasteful, land- and energy-hungry system of farming that devastates forests, pollutes oceans, rivers, seas and air, depends on oil and coal, and is significantly responsible for climate change. The way we breed animals is now recognised by the UN, scientists, economists and politicians as giving rise to many interlinked human and ecological problems, but with 1 billion people already not having enough to eat and 3 billion more mouths to feed within 50 years, the urgency to rethink our relationship with animals is extreme.

1 Overheating the planet

We humans eat about 230m tonnes of animals a year, twice as much as we did 30 years ago. We mostly breed four species - chickens, cows, sheep and pigs - all of which need vast amounts of food and water, emit methane and other greenhouse gases and produce mountains of physical waste.

But how much stress does our meat-eating put on ecological systems? The answer is a lot but the figures are imprecise and disputed. In 2006, the UN calculated that the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat were about 18% of the global total - more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

The authors of the report, called Livestock's Long Shadow, did not just count the methane from the belching, farting cattle, but the gases released from the manures that they produce, the oil burned taking their carcasses to markets often thousands of miles away, the electricity needed to keep the meat cool, the gas used to cook it, the energy needed to plough and harvest the fields that grow the crops that the animals eat, even pumping the water that the cattle need.

The figure was revised upward in 2009 by two World Bank scientists to more than 51%, but attempts to fully account for meat-eating are condemned as simplistic. Should the studies have been based on giant US factory farms, or on more sustainable breeding in Europe? Should you include all the knock-on emissions from clearing forests? What about the fertiliser used to grow the crops to feed to the animals, or the emissions from the steel needed to build the boats that transport the cattle; or the "default" emissions - the greenhouse gases that would be released by substitute activities to grow food if we were to give up meat? And is it fair to count animals used for multiple purposes, as they mostly are in developing countries, from providing draught power to shoe leather or transport, and which only become meat once they reach the end of their economic lives?

It's an accounting nightmare but depending on how it's done, livestock's contribution to climate change can be calculated as low as 5-10% of global emissions or as high as 50%. Last year, a Food Climate Research Network report concluded that UK meat and dairy consumption was responsible for 8% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions. But however it's counted, livestock farming ranks as one of the three greatest sources of climate changing emissions and one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation.

2 Eating up land

A human population expected to grow by 3 billion, a shift in developing countries to eating more meat, and global consumption on track to double in 40 years point to the mother of all food crises down the road. How much food we grow is not just limited by the amount of available land but meat-eaters need far more space than vegetarians. A Bangladeshi family living off rice, beans, vegetables and fruit may live on an acre of land or less, while the average American, who consumes around 270 pounds of meat a year, needs 20 times that.

Nearly 30% of the available ice-free surface area of the planet is now used by livestock, or for growing food for those animals. One billion people go hungry every day, but livestock now consumes the majority of the world's crops. A Cornell University study in 1997 found that around 13m hectares of land in the US were used to grow vegetables, rice, fruit, potatoes and beans, but 302m were used for livestock. The problem is that farm animals are inefficient converters of food to flesh. Broiler chickens are the best, needing around 3.4kg to produce 1kg of flesh, but pigs need 8.4kg for that kilo.

Other academics have calculated that if the grain fed to animals in western countries were consumed directly by people instead of animals, we could feed at least twice as many people - and possibly far more - as we do now.

To make matters worse, our hunger to eat animals has led to overstocking of fragile lands and massive soil erosion and desertification. Overgrazing, from the downlands of southern England to the uplands of Ethiopia and mountains of Nepal, causes great loss of fertility, as well as flooding.

But the figures must be treated with caution. Animal manures can revitalise the soil and millions of animals live on marginal land that is quite unsuitable for crops.

But before we leap to conclusions and lump all livestock rearing together, consider this: in western countries animals are bred and reared to put on as much meat as possible in the shortest time after which they are slaughtered. But in poorer regions, cattle - especially in dry areas - are central to human life and culture and often the only source of food and income for many millions of pastoralists. The ceaseless movement of these nomadic herders over vast areas is the backbone of many African economies and, a major new study from the International Institute for Environment and Development suggests, a far more ecologically efficient method of farming than the way cattle are reared in Australia or the US.

3 Drinking too much water

Eat a steak or a chicken and you are effectively consuming the water that the animal has needed to live and grow. Vegetarian author John Robbins calculates it takes 60, 108, 168, and 229 pounds of water to produce one pound of potatoes, wheat, maize and rice respectively. But a pound of beef needs around 9,000 litres - or more than 20,000lbs of water. Equally, it takes nearly 1,000 litres of water to produce one litre of milk. A broiler chicken, by contrast, is far more efficient, producing the same amount of meat as a cow on just 1,500 litres.

Pigs are some of the thirstiest animals. An average-sized north American pig farm with 80,000 pigs needs nearly 75m gallons of fresh water a year. A large one, which might have one million or more pigs, may need as much as a city.

Farming, which uses 70% of water available to humans, is already in direct competition for water with cities. But as demand for meat increases, so there will be less available for both crops and drinking. Rich but water-stressed countries such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, the Gulf states and South Africa say it makes sense to grow food in poorer countries to conserve their water resources, and are now buying or leasing millions of hectares of Ethiopia and elsewhere to provide their food. Every cow fattened in Gambella state in southern Ethiopia and exported to Abu Dhabi or Britain is taking the pressure off water supplies back home but increasing it elsewhere.

4 Causing deforestation

Global agribusiness has for 30 years turned to tropical rainforests - not for their timber but for the land that can be used to graze cattle or grow palm oil and soya. Millions of hectares of trees have been felled to provide burgers for the US and more recently animal feed for farms for Europe, China and Japan.

In its latest food report What's Feeding Our Food? Friends of the Earth estimates that around 6m hectares of forest land a year - an area equivalent to Latvia or twice the size of Belgium - and a similar acreage of peat and wetlands elsewhere, is converted to farmland a year. Of that, it says, most goes to livestock or to grow the crops to feed the cattle.

As soya becomes the world's major crop for chicken feed, so the industry is driving cattle ranching deeper into the forests.

5 Poisoning the earth

Industrial-scale agriculture now dominates the western livestock and poultry industries, and a single farm can now generate as much waste as a city. A cow excretes around 40kg of manure for every kilogram of edible beef it puts on and when you have many thousands crowded into a small area the effect can be dramatic. Their manure and urine is funnelled into massive waste lagoons sometimes holding as many as 40m gallons. These cesspools often break, leak or overflow, polluting underground water supplies and rivers with nitrogen, phosphorus and nitrates.

Tens of thousands of miles of rivers in the US, Europe and Asia are polluted each year. A single spill of millions of gallons of waste from a North Carolina pig factory lagoon in 1995 killed about 10 million fish and forced the closure of 364,000 acres of coastal wetlands to shellfishing.

The sheer quantity of animals now being raised for humans to eat now threatens the earth's biodiversity. More than one third of the world's 825 "ecoregions" identified by conservation group WWF are said to be threatened by livestock and giant US group Conservation International reckons that 23 out of 40-odd global "biodiversity hotspots" - the places considered most valuable for life - are now seriously affected by livestock production.

6 Spoiling the oceans

The present oil pollution disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is not the only problem that the region faces. Most summers between 13,000-20,000 sq km of sea at the mouth of the Mississippi become a "dead zone", caused when vast quantities of excess nutrients from animal waste, factory farms, sewage, nitrogen compounds and fertiliser are swept down the mighty river. This causes algal blooms which take up all the oxygen in the water to the point where little can live.

Nearly 400 dead zones ranging in size from one to over 70,000sq km have now been identified, from the Scandinavian fjords to the South China Sea. Animal farming is not the only culprit, but it is one of the worst.

7 Ruining the air

Anyone who has lived close to a large factory farm knows the smells can be extreme. Aside from greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, cows and pigs produce many other polluting gases. Global figures are unavailable but in the US, livestock and animal feed crops are responsible for 37% of pesticide use, more than half of all the antibiotics manufactured and a third of the nitrogen and phosphorous in fresh water. Nearly two thirds of the manmade ammonia - a major contributor to acid rain - is also generated by livestock. In addition, concentrated factory farming of animals contributes to ozone pollution.

8 Making us prone to disease

Animal waste contains many pathogens including salmonella, E coli, cryptosporidium, and fecal coliform, which can transfer to humans through water run-off or manure or touch. In addition, millions of pounds of antibiotics is added to animal feed a year to speed the growth of cattle. But this contributes to the rise of resistant bacteria, and so makes it harder to treat human illnesses.

9 Draining the world's oil

The western animal farming economy is based on oil, which is why there were food riots in 23 countries when the oil price peaked in 2008. Every link in the chain of events that brings meat to the table demands electricity, from the production of the fertiliser put on the land to grow the animal feed, to pumping the water they need from the rivers or deep underground, to the fuel needed to transport the meat in giant refrigerated ships and the supermarket shelves. According to some studies, as much as one-third of all fossil fuels produced in the United States now go towards animal agriculture.

10 Meat's costly, in many ways

Polls suggest that 5-6% of the population eats no meat at all, with many millions of others consciously reducing the amount of meat they eat or only eating it occasionally. This is backed by new government figures which show that last year we ate 5% less meat by weight than in 2005.

But the quantities are still staggering: according to the Vegetarian Society, the average British carnivore eats over 11,000 animals in a lifetime: 1 goose, 1 rabbit, 4 cattle, 18 pigs, 23 sheep and lambs, 28 ducks, 39 turkeys, 1,158 chickens, 3,593 shellfish and 6,182 fish.

For this, say the vegetarians, the meat eaters get increased chances of obesity, cancers, heart diseases and other illnesses as well as a hole in the pocket. A meat diet is generally considered twice as expensive as a vegetarian one.

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10 ways vegetarianism can help save the planet

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f we really want to reduce the human impact on the environment, the simplest and cheapest thing anyone can do is to eat less meat. Behind most of the joints of beef or chicken on our plates is a phenomenally wasteful, land- and energy-hungry system of farming that devastates forests, pollutes oceans, rivers, seas and air, depends on oil and coal, and is significantly responsible for climate change.

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Pollution & Its Harmful Effects

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Our Final Invention: Nanotechnology Revolution (720p)

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This video describes the use of nanotechnology in today's modern world and shows us what applications are in use and will be in use in the future. Nanotech is manipulation of matter on an atomic. Meaning, its a building block technology for building one atom at a time, as if building with legos.

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Newsela | Earth Sciences: Natural Resources

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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(CNN) -- By the year 2050, China will no longer be the most populous country in the world.

That distinction will pass to India, where more than 1.8 billion people could be competing for their country's resources, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's International Data Base.

The 2007 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and the United Nations Population Division set China's current population at around 1.3 billion people, and India's at around 1.1 billion. If population continues to grow at the estimated rate, such rapid growth in India between now and mid-century could lead to overpopulation and an uncertain future for the environment and the people living there.

And while organizations like the Population Institute and the United Nations Population Fund are working to promote the human rights and environmental consequences of overpopulation, not everyone views the newest population estimates with pessimism.

"Nothing ever continues at its present rate, neither the stock market nor population growth," said Doug Allen, the dean of the school of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and an expert in the history of cities and urban design, which he's taught for more than 31 years.

"There is a substantial body of evidence that the world population will flatten out in about 30 years," he said. "Built into that model would be an assumption that more of the world's population will become urban, and as such the population will begin to decline."

Citing historical evidence of falling birthrates in urban populations, Allen looks to Italy as a current example of the phenomenon.

"Italy right now [is] not at a point where it can sustain its current level. And I don't think that's because people in Italy have suddenly become aware of the need to conserve resources. I think it has more to do with decisions that are made by families on the margin not to have as many children."

Consequences of overpopulation

Overpopulation occurs when a population's density exceeds the capacity of the environment to supply the health requirements of an individual, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmentalists have long been concerned about the resources threatened by rapidly growing human populations, focusing on phenomenon such as deforestation, desertification, air pollution and global warming. But the worst-case scenario for people experiencing overpopulation, according to Lawrence Smith, president of the Population Institute, is a lack of fresh, clean water.

"If the water goes, the species goes," he said.

"That sounds kind of alarmist," Smith conceded, "considering there's water all around us, but 97 percent plus is saltwater, and the freshwater that we use to sustain ourselves is just native to 3 percent. ... So the accessibility of water, the competition for water, the availability of water is going to be a major, major threat," he said, noting world population growth estimates at more than 9 billion people by 2050.

Nine billion is an exceptional amount of people, considering the world's population only reached 1 billion in 1830, according to the Population Institute, a nonprofit organization that works to fund population and family planning programs around the world.

By 1999, world population reached 6 billion, and in the relatively short time between 2007 and 2050, there could be roughly 2.4 billion more people on Earth needing clean water, space and other natural resources from their environment in order to survive.

Governments facing overpopulation will also struggle to manage waste, said Allen. "Handling your waste and the public health consequences of not handling it well is the biggest problem that will be faced in rapidly growing urban areas in the developing world." When London, England, faced a population boom in the 1850s, for example, its infrastructure was not prepared for the excess waste, which resulted in Cholera outbreaks.

"Huge outbreaks," said Allen. "Fifty-thousand people dying over the summer. That's the kind of thing that in the developed world we no longer have problems with, but in the developing world are very, very real."

Smith said that 97 percent of world population growth between now and 2050 will occur in the developing world, where governments face serious economic and social challenges.

"I would say most of this is in sub-Saharan Africa, where by every other health indicator, they rank at the bottom," Smith said. "This growth rate is taking place despite the high levels of HIV and AIDS and [tuberculosis] and malaria."

Health care -- and the lack of it -- is also a factor in the rising populations in developing countries, according to Stan Bernstein, United Nations Population Fund senior policy adviser.

"We've seen a global trend of people wanting smaller families, but in the poorer settings that's not quite the case yet," Bernstein said. "And it's certainly not the case within countries that the poor [do not] have access to the kinds of services that the wealthy avail themselves of."

Globally, Bernstein said the poorest fifth of people in countries with rapid population growth have twice as many children, on average, as the wealthy people in those same countries.

Birthrates make a difference

The massive growth in developing nations is due in large part to fertility rates, where women during their reproductive years will have an average of five children, said Smith. "That's considerably higher than it is in the developed world."

In addition to the growing demands of developing nations, emerging countries like China and India are rapidly industrializing, said Smith. "Their demands for food alone will have considerable impact on global markets."

China's government has instituted population control methods in order to curb growth. Their controversial "one child" policies have garnered an uneasy reception, especially in rural populations, where people complain of stiff fines or forced sterilizations and abortions as a result of breaking population laws.

Traditionally, rural populations are larger than urban populations, said Smith. This is because rural families need to be larger in order to work and live off the land, and urban populations -- with better education, health care and family planning opportunities -- offer parents the luxury of choosing how many children they will have, he said.

This year is the first year that rural and urban populations are nearly equal, according to the United Nations Population Fund's annual report. This creates a mixed bag of concerns, according to Smith, that include susceptibility of young urban populations in poor countries with weak governments to recruitment for terrorism and conditions of instability.

"We have never in the history of the world experienced urban growth rates or metropolitan growth rates at the same level that we are experiencing now," said Allen. E-mail to a friend

All About Global Climate Change

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Overpopulation could be people, planet problem

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(CNN) -- By the year 2050, China will no longer be the most populous country in the world. That distinction will pass to India, where more than 1.8 billion people could be competing for their country's resources, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's International Data Base. The 2007 population estimates from the U.S.

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An estimated 7.6 million hectares of forests are lost each year. In tropical rainforests particularly, deforestation continues to be an urgent environmental issue that jeopardizes people's livelihoods, threatens species, and intensifies global warming. Forests make a vital contribution to humanity, but their full potential will only be realized if we halt deforestation and forest degradation.

Forests in our lives

Forests impact our daily lives in more ways than we can imagine. From the air we breathe to the wood we love, human beings are heavily dependent on forests and the products and services they provide.

Forests provide habitats to diverse animal species; they form the source of livelihood for many different human settlements; they offer watershed protection, timber and non-timber products, and various recreational options; they prevent soil erosion, help in maintaining the water cycle, and check global warming by using carbon dioxide in photosynthesis.

Yet we are losing forests.

Between 1990 and 2015, the world lost some 129 million ha of forest, an area the size of South Africa. When we take away the forest, it is not just the trees that go. The entire ecosystem begins to fall apart, with dire consequences for all of us.

Deforestation and forest degradation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the conversion of forest to another land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover. This includes conversion of natural forest to tree plantations, agriculture, pasture, water reservoirs and urban areas but excludes timber production areas managed to ensure the forest regenerates after logging.

Forest degradation

Forest degradation happens when changes within the forest negatively affect the structure or function of the stand or site, and thereby lower the capacity to supply products and/or ecosystem services. Forest degradation creates less resilient and less productive forests and in some countries, it can be nearly as harmful as deforestation, carving "death by a thousand cuts" that eventually leads to deforestation. Forest degradation often begins the slippery slope to deforestation: large canopy gaps can dry out rainforests leaving them vulnerable to fire; abandoned logging roads provide access to settlers; and authorities are often more willing to grant conversion permits in heavily logged forests.

Effects of deforestation and forest degradation

Reduced biodiversity

Deforestation and forest degradation can cause wildlife to decline. When forest cover is removed, wildlife is deprived of habitat and becomes more vulnerable to hunting. Considering that about 80% of the world's documented species can be found in tropical rainforests, deforestation poses a serious threat to the Earth's biodiversity.

Release of greenhouse gas emissions

Release of greenhouse gas emissions: Forests are the largest terrestrial store of carbon, but deforestation is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions after fossil fuel burning, causing 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Disrupted water cycles

As a result of deforestation, trees no longer evaporate groundwater, which can cause the local climate to be much drier.

Increased soil erosion

Deforestation accelerates rates of soil erosion, by increasing runoff and reducing the protection of the soil from tree litter.

Disrupted livelihoods

Millions of people rely directly on forests, through shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering, and by harvesting forest products such as rubber. Deforestation continues to create severe social problems, sometimes leading to violent conflict.

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An estimated 7.6 million hectares of forests are lost each year. In tropical rainforests particularly, deforestation continues to be an urgent environmental issue that jeopardizes people's livelihoods, threatens species, and intensifies global warming. Forests make a vital contribution to humanity, but their full potential will only be realized if we halt deforestation and forest degradation.

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Seascape: the state of our oceans ‘Oil spills of our time’: experts sound alarm about plastic lost in cargo ship disasters

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Tidal power is the only renewable source derived from the moon. Now an extraordinary array of devices promise to unlock this vital energy potential

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Latest Climate crisis news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

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Invisibility cloaks, bulletproof suits and cancer cures, we enter the minuscule world of nanotechnology with these 10 awesome facts. Click to Subscribe.. http://bit.ly/WTVC4x 10 Curious Facts About Taste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9TpW24uCVo&list=PLec1lxRhYOzvy5GFfvGYitqrL2KgOwdBJ&index=61 10 Technologies That Could Enslave Humanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MuXRr46CnE&list=PLec1lxRhYOzvy5GFfvGYitqrL2KgOwdBJ&index=66 10 Unsolved Mysteries Of the Brain:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hZ98an9wjo&list=PLec1lxRhYOzvy5GFfvGYitqrL2KgOwdBJ&index=114 Music = Stupido by Gareth Johnson Where else to find All Time 10s...

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Adapting to change

Many of the most biodiversity-rich places on Earth are also those where both people and ecosystems are the most vulnerable to climate change.

Climate adaptation is a process which helps communities and ecosystems cope with a changing climate.

The threat

Rising temperatures and increasingly unpredictable climate patterns are threatening biodiversity and livelihoods around the globe. Climate change has the potential to destabilize both economies and societies, compounding other environmental challenges and undermining sustainable development efforts.

The response

The impacts of climate change are now unavoidable. That is why understanding the synergies between climate change and other pressures is an important part of our work - to bring about a world where people live in harmony with nature.

Learn more

Use the menu on the left to learn more about climate-smart conservation and WWF's work on climate change adaptation around the world.

Key concepts in climate change adaptation

As a result of our past, present and expected future emissions of CO₂, we are committed to climate change, and effects will persist for many centuries even if emissions of CO₂ stop.

Why the urgency?

Some aspects of climate adaptation are not new; people and nature have responded to climatic changes in the past. Adaptation includes well-established practices such as disaster risk reduction, ensuring water and food security, and coastal, river basin, and protected area management.

What is new are unprecedented climate conditions, faster change, greater uncertainty, and our need for new knowledge and methods to manage climate-related risks.

Click on the logo to visit ClimatePrep.org, a WWF blog aiming to define climate change adaptation through illustrations of on-the-ground adaptation projects, explorations of adaptation concepts, and sharing lessons learned from work around the world.

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Many of the most biodiversity-rich places on Earth are also those where both people and ecosystems are the most vulnerable to climate change. Climate adaptation is a process which helps communities and ecosystems cope with a changing climate. Rising temperatures and increasingly unpredictable climate patterns are threatening biodiversity and livelihoods around the globe.

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The task at hand is managing the unavoidable impacts and, at the same time, mitigating the impact of future climate impacts.

To have a chance of preventing dangerous global warming, the vast majority of fossil fuels-the biggest driver of climate change-have to be left in the ground. Fortunately, renewable energy alternatives are growing rapidly and a more competitive than ever; helping to shield the world from the worst climate risks, while improving human health, boosting our economies, and creating jobs.

Working with local communities, helping ecosystems adapt to rapid change, speeding up the renewable energy transition, and cutting the emissions that drive climate change-these are critical things WWF does to make a safer world, for all of us.

WWF is part of the diverse movement to fight this global crisis. Our vision is a world powered by clean, renewable energy, where communities and ecosystems are resilient in the face of climate challenges. We engage millions of citizens, leading businesses and government leaders to realise this future.

Why it matters

Governments and scientists have agreed that global warming must remain under 2°C to avoid catastrophic climate change. The mean global temperature has already risen by almost a full degree since the start of the Industrial Revolution (c. 1750). At the United Nations climate talks in Paris in December 2015, governments acknowledged the growing threat of climate change and agreed to work towards keeping warming to 1.5°C.

The world can still avoid dangerous climate change, but action is needed urgently to cut emissions and to prepare communities and ecosystems for a hotter world.

People around the world are facing extreme weather. From more dangerous floods and storms, to droughts and heatwaves, extreme weather events are growing in frequency and intensity. We're loading more and more heat into the air and seas, upping the risks, costing trillions of dollars, and mounting an even bigger toll on people, with the poorest the most exposed.

Climate change is a health emergency. Extremes of heat, more intense drought, ferocious storms, and more torrential downpours are already undermining human health and security. We risk undoing years of public health gains if we let global warming get away. Climate change and our continued dependence on dirty energy are polluting our air, increasing the spread of disease, fuelling food insecurity and malnutrition, and making water supplies scarcer and less safe. A world of more than 2°C would see an increasing number of people move across borders, exacerbate inequity, and raise the risk of conflict and social strife.

The oceans are warming and acidifying. People and wildlife depend on the healthy oceans: a vital source of livelihoods and sustenance. The oceans have absorbed most of extra heat and carbon dioxide (CO ₂) so far-more than the air-making the seas both warmer and more acidic. Warming waters are bleaching coral reefs and driving stronger storms. Rising ocean acidity threatens shellfish, including the tiny crustaceans without which marine food chains would collapse.

The ice is melting and the seas are rising. Sea ice in the Arctic is shrinking before our eyes with summer sea ice expected to virtually disappear before 2050. This would have dangerous consequences for global weather, not to mention degrade the region's marvellous ecosystem. In the Antarctic and Arctic, massive ice shelves are disintegrating and breaking away. Glaciers are retreating at alarming rates worldwide, threatening a sea-level rise of several metres by century's end.

Our ecosystems are in peril. As climate change wreaks havoc across the globe, ecosystems could undergo serious and irreversible changes, and even disappear altogether. The increase in average temperatures will see optimal habitats for many species move higher up mountains and further towards the poles. Where there is no higher ground or where changes are taking place too quickly, local losses or even global extinctions will follow.

What WWF is doing

Promoting low carbon societies to cut dependence on dirty energy and fuels. From the local to the global, WWF works to promote a shift away from carbon-intensive activities by holding governments to account and encouraging ambitious policies that favour renewable energy.

Working to change our energy use and provide clean energy to those who don't have access. By 2050, all of the world's energy needs can be met from renewable sources. WWF is working to shift the world to a low-carbon economy by increasing the use of clean, renewable energy, and promoting greater energy efficiency.

Working for a shift in finance towards a low carbon resilient world. Many financial institutions are already acting to cut their climate related risks; these first-movers are leading the development of the new, low-carbon economy, which is prepared for a warmer world. WWF works with governments and private investors to raise finance for renewable energy, clean technologies, and low-carbon, resilient infrastructure. At the same time, we work to shift money out of fossil fuels.

Working with businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and source materials and energy more sustainably. Through programmes like Climate Savers, Climate Solver and Science Based Targets, WWF works with global companies that ensure they take climate change seriously and prepares them to cut their carbon emissions on a scale never seen before.

Working to reduce the impact of climate change in areas such as agriculture and land use, forests, and water. WWF supports strong action for climate change adaptation and supports industries to adjust to the changing climate and its cascading impacts.

Paris Climate Agreement

At the UN climate conference held in Paris in December 2015 (COP21), 197 countries agreed to a historic new climate accord, the Paris Agreement.

WWF is working to ensure that governments increase the ambition of their national action plans so that the sum of these plans puts us on the pathway to a climate-safe future.

Key to our climate work is ensuring emissions reduce in the period before 2020, which is when the Paris Agreement becomes effective. This is essential if we are to meet the global temperature objectives set out in the Paris Agreement.

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The task at hand is managing the unavoidable impacts and, at the same time, mitigating the impact of future climate impacts. To have a chance of preventing dangerous global warming, the vast majority of fossil fuels-the biggest driver of climate change-have to be left in the ground.

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Pro/con article

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Newsela | PRO/CON: Amid climate change, should we use more nuclear power?

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Using nuclear energy against climate change

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For Nuclear energy

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3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Awesome! 3/3

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Against Nuclear Energy

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3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Terrible! 2/3