- The list of the dirtiest countries in the world is headed by China.
- Environmental pollution causes 6 million deaths a year.
- During 2020 there was a decrease in the levels of environmental contamination due to the pandemic but now they have returned to normal.
Environmental pollution is present throughout the world and has become a severe problem that affects everyone. The technological advances that have been achieved are not enough to achieve a solution and the consequences are already serious enough. Although if the trend continues, the result could be even worse.
In that sense, although modernity has brought many benefits to the world, it has also become a dangerous tool. Since the Industrial Revolution, it has been warned that the creation of machinery allowed the automatic manufacture of thousands of products, but it also affected the entire environment. From then on, an increase in contamination was detected that has continued to this day.
To put in context, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) it is estimated that nine out of ten people on the planet breathe air with high levels of pollutants. As a result, it is estimated that 23 percent of all recorded deaths are related to “environmental hazards” such as pollution and chemical exposure.
The dirtiest countries by their level of pollution
For its part, pollution is one of the factors that has caused an acceleration of global warming. The main responsible for this situation is man and that can be seen in the drastic change that the planet experienced during 2020. As a result of the pandemic and the confinement in which millions of people were, a decrease in gas emissions was obtained. . Although according to Statista until a year before China and the United States were the nations that polluted the air the most.
Both countries are listed as the dirtiest on the planet. On the one hand, China, where more than 1.4 billion people reside (around 18.5% of the world population) is responsible for 28.1% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions with 9.528 million tons, according to data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy report.
On the other hand, in the United States the figure is 5 thousand 145 million tons, which corresponds to 15.2% of the global total.
Diseases and deaths caused by pollution
While according to Ecolab, a leading company in water and technology solutions and services for clean and safe environments, constant exposure to pollutants can increase the risk of acute respiratory infections in living beings, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.
While the Global State of the Air 2020 report by the State of Global Air organization revealed that air pollution caused 6.67 million deaths globally. It also caused the death of around 500 thousand babies in their first month of life during 2019.
Environmental pollution is a fairly serious problem that affects everyone and for which we are all responsible. Therefore, small actions are necessary to achieve the appropriate results that allow a better environment.