Pollution is "dirty" word. To pollute means to contaminate-to spoil something by introducing impurities, which make it unfit or unclean to use. Pollution comes in many forms. We see it, smell it, taste it, drink it, and stumble through it. We literally live in and breathe pollution, and, not surprisingly, it is beginning to threaten our health, our happiness, and our very civilization.
Once we thought of pollution as meaning simply smog-the choking, stinging, dirty air that hovers over cities. But air pollution, while it is still the most dangerous, is only one type of contamination among several which attack the most basic life functions.
Through the uncontrolled use of insecticides, man has polluted the land, killing the wildlife. By dumping sewage and chemicals into rivers and lakes, we have contaminated our drinking water. We are polluting the ocean, too, killing the fish and thereby depriving ourselves of an invaluable food supply.
Part of the problem is our exploding population. More and more people produce more wastes. But this problem is intensified by our "throw-away" technology. Each year Americans dispose of 7 million autos, 20 million tons of waste paper plates. It is easier and cheaper to buy a new one and discard the old, even though 95 percent of its parts may still be functioning. Baby's diapers, which used to be made of reusable cloth, are now paper throwaways. Soon we will wear clothing made of paper: "Wear it once and throw it away"will be the slogan of the fashion conscious.
Where is this all to end? Are we turning the world into a gigantic dump, or is there hope that we can solve the pollution problem? Fortunately, solutions are in sight. A few of them are positively ingenious.
destroy the quality of （Para. 1）
spoil
