Welcome to Environmental Pollution Guide
Science Vs Environmental Pollution Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Environmental Pollution: Pollution Of The Mind
from:We all know about environmental pollution: pollution and its costs, pollution and its causes, and pollution and its terrible effects. We know that environmental pollution (pollution of the air, in particular) causes the death of one in five people around the world every year, according to data gathered by the World Health Organization in partnership with the World Bank. And we know that environmental pollution has slowly made our world less populated with animal species, less safe for ourselves and our children, and less enjoyable for everyone in almost every way. How could this situation get any worse?
The answer: by recognizing a new kind of environmental pollution: pollution of the mind.
Pollution of the mind isn't just what happens when you watch too much TV or read too many comic books at a vulnerable age. Rather, pollution of the mind is a concept discovered by researchers working with the effects of advertising on the public consciousness. The idea is that by placing offensive billboards in unavoidably conspicuous locations within a city or by filling the air with exhortations to buy new products, advertisers are effectively polluting the "mental space" of people in large urban areas.
Environmental pollution--pollution of whatever form--essentially means any damaging product, industrial or otherwise, that makes the world less safe and less pleasant to be in. We can argue that both of these qualities are present in pollution of the mind. Advertising is certainly an industrial product, for the most part, and it certainly makes the world less pleasant--unless you're the type who finds it pleasant to be manipulated by major corporations into spending money you don't have on products you don't even enjoy, of course. And advertising can also make the world demonstrably less safe by stunting people's critical thinking and diminishing the capacity for understanding and for empathy. Manipulating the population into buying products and manipulating the population into, say, starting, supporting, and fighting an endless land war are not as different, in the end, as one might assume.
Because of the problems inherent in this new form of environmental pollution--pollution of the mind--several grass-roots groups are starting to advocate taxing the use of the public's "mental space", much as corporations are taxed (at least in theory) for misusing the public's air and water. This may be a double-edged sword, however, as some critics--notably Joseph Hale, a commentator from the environmental battlegrounds of Texas--have pointed out. To advocate the taxation of "mental space" is to invite the government into our very minds--the one place that, historically, the government has been kept out of.
Whatever the solution, however, it's clear that for this newest form of environmental pollution--pollution of the mind--some solution is necessary. Once we can think clearly, we can begin working diligently on finding a solution to everything else.
Science Vs Environmental Pollution Specific links
Science Vs Environmental Pollution News
Study Compares Mercury Levels In Wild vs. Captive Dolphins
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Aquarium have completed a study, funded by the National Aquarium and by the Center for Contaminant Transport Fate and Remediation at The Johns Hopkins University, which compared the mercury levels of captive dolphins and wild dolphins. Captive dolphins are fed a diet of small fish from the North Atlantic, while the wild dolphins eat ...
Read more...Fracking's Methane Trail: A Detective Story
Four years ago, an atmospheric scientist near Boulder, Colo., stumbled on surprising air pollution data: The region's levels of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, were far higher than anyone would have expected. What was going on? The search for an answer led straight to the natural gas and oil fields of northern Colorado.
Read more...‘I’d rather slam my cock in a door than debate climate change’
The sum total of useful commentary on ABC’s stultifying I Can Change Your Mind About Climate was five minutes of British scientist and author Ben Goldacre saying he'd rather slam his c-ck in the door then debate climate change,... Read more... Read more on the blog...
Read more...Another Week of GW News, May 20, 2012 [A Few Things Ill Considered]
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor . Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
Read more...Americans support national clean-energy standard: study
The average U.S. citizen is willing to pay 13 percent more for electricity in support of a national clean-energy standard (NCES), according to Yale and Harvard researchers in Nature Climate Change.
Read more...