Ground pollution is closely tied with water pollution because of its close proximity to sources of water. Many sources of water contamination come from pollution originally introduced into the ground. The chief source of ground pollution comes from the inadequate operation and construction of waste disposal facilities, such as landfills and injection wells. This inadequate disposal of wastes leads to ground pollution, which leads to the contamination of rivers, lakes, and groundwater reservoirs. Improper discharge of pollutants in the air (which can become acid rain) can also lead to contamination of water supplies. Incineration, a waste disposal method meant as an alternative to land-based disposal facilities, further contributes to air pollution, as it creates airborne particle contaminants and leaves heavy metal residues for waste disposal, which can result in the contamination of the surrounding environment. However, poor waste management is only a part of the overall pollution affecting the environment.

Some of the pollution contaminating the soil and damaging vegetation is caused by human-made pesticides and herbicides. Although used primarily for agricultural purposes, these pesticides and herbicides are dangerous if people are exposed to a high enough concentration of the product. During the Vietnam War, the United States developed a strong herbicide, code named Agent Orange, to destroy the jungle canopies and vegetation the Vietcong used as cover. Agent Orange was successful in its destruction of the vegetation, but the region had difficulty recovering from its effects. So toxic was the chemical that few new plants grew for several years after the spraying, and restoring the forests will apparently take several decades. The use of Agent Orange not only had long-term effects on the environment but also affected the people exposed to it; these people subsequently developed higher rates of liver problems, cancer, and immune system disorders than those not exposed.

The lessons to be learned are the realities of an interrelationship among different forms of environmental pollution and of the interdependence of humans and their environment. The combustion of fossil fuels and factory emissions contribute to air pollution. Herbicides damage vegetation in ways from which it could take years to recover. Water pollution is influenced by ground pollution, which in turn is created by poor waste disposal. People cause all this pollution that harms not only the environment but also themselves. Few, if any, can escape the far-reaching effects of pollution. People in all countries are dependent on the Earth's ecosystem and its resources. Although all people are harmed by damage to these resources and ecological systems, the harm is much greater for individuals who are poor, those who live in developing countries, women and children, and racial/ethnic minorities.

Society needs to develop a proactive attitude in dealing with environmental pollution, instead of merely reacting to an environmental crisis. This will be difficult when the wealthiest countries (the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Japan, and Australia), who contain only about 22 percent of the world's population, disproportionately consume the largest portion of the world's resources (nearly 88 percent of the natural resources each year, including 73 percent of the world's energy resources). The best way to treat pollution is to eliminate its source. If people act first and eliminate the sources of pollution, rather than reacting to crises and scrambling to contain the already widespread pollution, the environment will have a better chance of survival.

Bibliography:

1) Gardner, Gerald and Paul Stern. 1996. Environmental Problems and Human Behavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Hodges, Laurent. 1977. Environmental Pollution. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

2) Moeller, Dade W. 2004. Environmental Health. 3rd ed. Boston: Harvard University Press.

3) Soroos, Marvin. 1999. "Global Institutions and the Environment: An Evolutionary Perspective." Pp. 27-51 in The Global Environment: Institutions, Law and Policy, edited by N. Vig and R. Axelrod. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.

4) Speth, James. 1998. Environmental Pollution: A Long-Term Perspective. Washington, DC: World Resource Institute of the National Geographic Society.

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