Contamination of fresh water used for household needs, including pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, ranks top on the list of environmental concerns for 61% of Americans. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set standards to ensure quality of drinking water to protect public health by limiting levels of various contaminants like microorganisms, disinfectants and their byproducts, inorganic compounds, organic compounds and radionuclides. However, levels of toxic fluoridated compounds are above minimum levels prescribed by EPA in 33 states across the U.S., according to a 2016 study reported by Havard Gazette.
2. Water PollutionGeneral worry over water pollution and associated environmental issues greatly concerns more than half of all Americans who participated in the 2016 poll. Many water sources like streams, rivers and oceans are getting polluted. Related issues include acid rain, nutrient pollution, ocean dumping, urban runoff, oil spills, ocean acidification, and wastewater.
A 2016 Guardian report says half the rivers in Asia, Africa and South American are polluted. In the U.S. there are 12 to 18 million water borne diseases reported in a year, half of which are spread through rains. Globally, "certain food-borne disease outbreaks" are linked to water pollution.
3. Air PollutionConcerns over air pollution have remained steady over the last decade, with more than 40 percent of Americans worried about indoor and outdoor air quality, carbon emissions, and pollutants like particulate matter, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, radon and refrigerants.
Ninety-two percent of the world population lives in places with polluted air according to a 2016 World Health Organization report. Each year, three million deaths occur due to outdoor air pollution. Though the situation is better in the U.S., there were still approximately 200,000 premature deaths due to air pollution mainly caused by car emissions, according to a 2013 report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
4. Wildlife Conservation and Species Extinction
More than 40 percent of Americans expressed concern about wildlife conservation and associated environmental issues, such as endangered species, animal and plant extinction, coral bleaching, introduction of invasive species, poaching, and loss of natural animal habitats.
The world is currently experiencing its sixth extinction event driven by human activities, reports the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It is estimated to be 1000-10,000 times faster than natural extinction rates and each year 200-2000 species go extinct. Mother Nature Network (MNN) reports that 38% of all land animals and 81% of fresh water vertebrates went extinct between 1970 to 2012, due to habitat loss and land degradation.
5. Loss of Tropical Rainforests
Nearly 40% of Americans are worried about distant problems like loss of tropical forests. Rain forests cover only 2% of land but support 50% of its species according to Mongabay. Yet among tropical forests the area of rainforests cleared is the maximum, and most of it is export driven. "Every year an area of rainforest the size of New Jersey is cut down and destroyed," notes Mongabay.
6. Climate Change/Global Warming
Climate change and issues related to global warming, was a concern for 37% of the Americans in 2016. This includes tropospheric ozone depletion caused by CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons). Increases in levels of emissions of greenhouse gases by people trap heat and have resulted in global warming. NASA records that temperatures are 1.70F more since 1880, a decrease of 13% per decade in Arctic ice cover, and about a 7-inch increase in sea levels over the last 100 years. Moreover, warmer oceans, glaciers melting on mountain tops, and extreme events increasing in U.S. are presented as evidence of climate change by NASA.
