The pollution of the world's oceans and atmosphere has long been a matter of concern
to environmental scientists. The great circulation systems of ocean and air are the controlling factors of the earth's natural environment, and modifications to those systems
have unknown consequences. This map is based on what we can measure: (1) areas of
oceans where oil pollution has been proven to have inflicted significant damage to
ocean ecosystems and lifeforms (including phytoplankton--the oceans' primary food
producers, the equivalent of land vegetation); (2) areas of oceans where unusually high
concentrations of hydrocarbons from oil spills may have inflicted some damage to the
oceans' biota; (3) land areas where the combination of sulphur and nitrogen oxides
have produced significant damage to terrestrial vegetation systems; (4) land areas where
the emissions from industrial, transportation, commercial, residential, and other uses of
fossil fuels have produced concentrations of atmospheric pollutants high enough to be
damaging to human health; and (5) land areas of secondary air pollution where the primary pollutant is smoke from forest clearance. A glance at the map shows that there are
few areas of the world where some form of oceanic or atmospheric pollution is not a
part of our environmental system. Scientists are still debating the long-range implications of this pollution, but nearly all agree that the consequences, whatever they may
be, will not be good.
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