Pollution of the Atmosphere from Energy Use

Abstract

When the earth’s population was much lower than today it was common practice, especially in the industrial sector, to consider the atmosphere and the oceans to represent depositories for pollutants without serious harm. However, the capacity of the societies of the world for producing pollutants is increasing even more rapidly than its population. The attitude of using the atmosphere and oceans as depositories for pollutants is no longer acceptable, and most of the more advanced industrial nations of the world have enacted legislation designed to prevent such pollution of both the atmosphere and the oceans.