Since the beginnings of the Industrial Age in the mid 19th century, the earth has experienced a very rapid increase in the amount of pollutants in the air and the water, due to emissions from automobiles, factories, chemical plants and other manufacturing methods which use fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, to create power. But within the last thirty years or so, the amount of pollution in our air and water has reached what some consider as a tipping point, meaning that pollution is slowly yet surely poisoning not only our air and water but also living environments all over the planet. Many proposals have been put forward concerning ways to decrease pollution and to help slow down global warming, yet the causes and effects of air and water pollution must first be understood before international governments set about creating ways to combat the destruction of our natural environments.
             Technically, water pollution occurs when "environmental stresses associated with chemicals or heat are intense enough to cause ecological damage," such as the effects of dumping raw sewage in rivers and lakes, acidification and toxic chemicals from coal-burning power plants and the discharge of industrial hot water, especially related to nuclear power plants that use radioactive materials to generate power (Mishra, 87). The results of this damage commonly include toxicity in organisms, such as water fowl, fish and other marine life, changes in living environments like rain forests and jungles and changes in the processes linked to organism productivity and the decomposition of dead matter.
             Some types of water pollution are caused by natural processes, such as erosion and rainfall, yet the majority is due to the activities of human beings. For example, acidification can
             occur by the natural draining of bogs and swamps or by acid rain, caused by the release of excessive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Also, thermal p...