Poverty and Pollution

1. Provide a brief overview / synopsis of the issue.

There is a link exists between poverty-pollution-population and it has been focused in the literature. The relationship between these variables is very complicated. However, a simple equation is that larger population leads to more poverty and pollution and on the other hand, more poverty increased population and pollution. Therefore, with available worldwide data suggest that all the three variables have been increasing globally. Poverty is a complex occurrence and besides other factors such as bad governance, income inequality and weak economic growth; rapid population growth is the main contributor responsible for poverty. Poverty on a worldwide level has in the past been elevated in rural than urban areas. This paper will give the reader an understanding on how pollution and poverty has drained the life out of the population in rural and urban areas; from three articles about Nigeria in Africa, China and our final destination United States.

2. Discuss the model or economic theory that relates to the issue presented in the news article.

Let's begin to discuss the model of global perspective of pollution and poverty based on the findings of the author, Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D., Environmental Justice Resource Center Clark Atlanta University, his article is named Poverty, Pollution and Environmental Racism: Strategies for Building Healthy and Sustainable Communities. Dr. Bullard discusses in his article 10 global perspectives of poverty and pollution. Is poverty, pollution and environmental a racial issues with only the poor? This article points out the author findings that may have the reader to raise eyebrows. Beginning with the first as follow:

Double Burden-Poverty and Pollution- where poor people exposed excessively to toxic material and waste that makes them sick due to the lack of clean and fresh water, and adequate food, shelter, fuel and air, which the end results impacts their health. Therefore, environmental risks for the "poorest of the poor", that one-fifth of the world's population lives on less than $1 a day and the governments spend around $10 per person per year on health care. Its been reported globally 15 percent of the death toll of 52 million, where one in five children in the poorest regions of the world will not live to see their fifth birthday, mainly because of environment-related diseases, typically due to malaria, acute respiratory infections or diarrhea-all of which are largely avoidable. This amounts to 11 million childhood deaths a year worldwide (Bullard, 2012).

Inadequate Sanitation- poor drinking water, poor sanitation, and lack of infrastructure has cause millions people to die. Scarcity of sanitary conditions contribute each year to about 2 billion diarrhea infections and 4 million deaths, often among infants and young children in developing countries (Bullard, 2012).

Water Poverty- Approximately 1.1 billion in the world's population remains without access to improved sources of water. More than 1.4 billion people not have access to safe water. Dirty water is the worlds "deadliest" pollutant (Bullard, 2012).

In-Door Air Pollution- Air pollutants damagingly affect the health of 4 to 5 billion people worldwide. With the increase of the world population, burning more fossil fuels, send more manufacturing pollution and driving more automobiles. The end result, over 2.7 million yearly global deaths can be attributed to air pollution (Bullard, 2012).

Access to Clean Energy- Today worldwide billion of people does not have access to adequate energy to meet their basic needs. About 80 percent the world energy used in the world comes from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the major contributors to environmental and health problems (Bullard, 2012).

Childhood Lead Poisoning- Mostly in large cities worldwide an increase of children is affected by lead poisoning is amazing. However, motor vehicles contributors up to 90 percent of all airborne lead contamination in urban areas where leaded gasoline is still widely used. But the lead from air pollution causes comparatively few deaths; it causes a great deal of disability, mainly among children for example: linking to lower IQ and affects every organ and system in the body-including the kidneys and the reproductive system. "According to the Global Lead Network, 47 countries has completed phase-out of leaded gasoline in January 2002(Bullard, 2012)".

Toxic Production- The world death has been predict of 40 percent due to diverse of environmental factors, in particularly organic and chemical pollutants. It's reported that roughly 80,000 diverse chemicals are now used commercially with nearly six trillion pounds produced yearly in America. However, these chemicals have never been tested whether if it may cause cancer; harm the nervous system, the immune system, the endocrine system or the reproductive system. "The top 20 chemicals reported to the U.S. Federal EPA under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) as those released in the largest quantities in 1997, nearly 75 percent are known or suspected neurotoxins (Bullard, 2012)."

Pesticide Poisoning- Since 1997 and 2000 almost 3.3 million pounds of pesticide products were exported from the U.S, directly or indirectly to the developing world. Today pesticide poisoning is an ongoing environmental and health problem in developing countries, in addition the use of poor farmers and farmworkers suffer from pesticide poisoning each year; that leads to hundreds of thousands of death. In the United States alone was estimated that 3-5 million migrant farm workers labor in the fields at low wages and unsafe, unsanitary, and unjust work conditions (Bullard, 2012).

Cancer and the Environment-The uses of pesticides and other chemical in use today, 10 percent are documented as cancer-causing substances. Everyday a case of cancer is reported and increasing cases are growing each year. Therefore, the lack of data on the carcinogenic potential of most industrial chemicals, the number of cancer deaths caused by occupational exposures vary from 4 percent to over 20 percent, which the results of absence of effective public health observation systems for occupational disease (Bullard, 2012) .

Finally, Toxics on the U.S.-Mexico Border- This is a good example on the continuing dumping toxic waste. Along the lower Rio Grande River Valley maquiladoras (operated an assembly plant) who produce large quantities of hazardous waste. Over 95 percent of the region's residents get their drinking water, which is huge problem.

"Shantytowns or colonias are home to 1 of every 5 residents of the 14 Texas counties along the U.S.-Mexico border. Of the 11 million border inhabitants,