Environmental pollution is “the contamination of the physical and biological components of the earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that normal environmental processes are adversely affected”. (1)
“Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the environment that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or that damage the environment” which can come “in the form of chemical substances, or energy such as noise, heat or light”. “Pollutants can be naturally occurring substances or energies, but are considered contaminants when in excess of natural levels.” (2)
Pollution is “the addition of any substance or form of energy (e.g., heat, sound, radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than the environment can accommodate it by dispersion, breakdown, recycling, or storage in some harmless form”. (3)
“Pollution is a special case of habitat destruction; it is chemical destruction rather than the more obvious physical destruction. Pollution occurs in all habitats—land, sea, and fresh water—and in the atmosphere.” (4)
“Much of what we have come to call pollution is in reality the nonrecoverable matter resources and waste heat.” (5)
“Any use of natural resources at a rate higher than nature’s capacity to restore itself can result in pollution of air, water, and land.” (6)
“Pollution is habitat contamination”. (7)
Perhaps the overriding theme of these definitions is the ability of the environment to absorb and adapt to changes brought about by human activities.
In one word, environmental pollution takes place when the environment cannot process and neutralize harmful by-products of human activities (for example, poisonous gas emissions) in due course without any structural or functional damage to its system.
In fact, “the due course” itself may last many years during which the nature will attempt to decompose the pollutants; in one of the worst cases – that of radioactive pollutants – it may take as long as.
