Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
So if a person in Neighbourhood A throws trash on the ground and a person in Neighbourhood B throws trash on the ground, but Neighbourhood B is bigger then the person from Neighborhood A is more responsible for polluting the Earth?
|
Trash isn't pollution until it alters the environment it's discarded in. If a can of trash is discarded into a small stream it might contaminate the habitat for fish and make the water undrinkable(depending on what is in the can). If that same can of trash is dumped into a river the size of the Kootenay or the Columbia the impact is slight. Of course there is no practical reason to throw trash around which makes trash a bad metaphor. Pollution produced in the process of growing food or moving goods and people have a definite benefit to mankind. That is why most people will accept a certain level of alteration of the environment in order to achieve a quality of life. The question of impact relates directly to size of the environment.