Beth asked:

Why is there so much pollution? How can we stop air pollution? What causes air pollution? How did
air pollution get started? When we knew there was so much pollution why didn't we stop it?

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I'm only going to answer the first of these questions: the others pretty much answer themselves if you
continue thinking along the lines of my answer. But the strong case is that we have only partially
succeeded in coping with our human status. And this implies that, of all the billions of dollars we
spend on luxury sciences, we've seem never to get around to the issues that affect us right here on
earth, in our very survival (compare the ecology problem).

Anyway the initial answer is surprisingly simple. We are mammals, closely related to apes and
monkeys, with which we evolved in parallel from an ancestral stem that comprised originally an (or
many) species of arboreal simians. However, for arboreal creatures, pollution problems don't exist:
they drop their rubbish to the ground (including faeces), where on the principle of organic recycling,
other creatures will cart it away or decompose it. Accordingly the genetic profile of this whole
evolutionary branch has failed to develop a "clean up after yourself'' instinct; you can see this in
action in any zoo or in the wild among arboreal monkeys; more importantly, it is plainly there (or
rather, still absent as an instinct) in human babies, every single one of whom has to be toilet trained.
Compare this to cats, to which the pollution they create is a severe problem; and accordingly they
possess an instinct for cleaning up after themselves as part of their genetic profile. When therefore
the first primates left the trees (probably enforced by a changing habitat), their instincts were and
remain inappropriate to terrestrial habitance. Specifically in relation to humans, this means we are
required to apply our intellect to this problem, because (firstly) our numbers are too great to rely on
the fairly slow recycling effort of small creatures, plants and bacteria, and (secondly) our many
inventions represent just so many proliferations of rubbish, with which the environment cannot cope
(and sooner or later, if we persevere in our thoughtless habits, we will literally choke to extinction on
it!).

From this simple issue, as I said, enormous consequences arise. It strikes me as funny (not in the
hilarious sense) that we are well educated these days to appreciate our intrinsic animal nature, and
yet such obvious repercussions as those I've just drawn for you, are simply not made a part of it.
Which of course they should!

Well, now that you know, I hope you feel encouraged to do whatever little you can, remembering that
the quantity of rubbish produced by one person EVERY DAY is pretty high compared to other
animals, and now multiply that by 4 billion. Conversely, every little bit of rubbish thoughtfully disposed
of, and again multiplied by 4 billion, is a lot of (self-)help.

Jürgen Lawrenz

Sydney