A less convenient truth

January is always an exciting time for awards and titles. This week, I was ever-so-keen to… January is always an exciting time for awards and titles. This week, I was ever-so-keen to find that National Geographic finally released its highly anticipated “10 Most Polluted Places: Photo Gallery.”

I have to admit, there were a few surprises this year, including the blatant snub of what was considered by many to be this year’s frontrunner, my dorm room – which, I assure you, violates at least a dozen health codes.

Upon receiving the news, I cried for hours in said dorm room and then, one by one, ceremoniously burned my entire collection of National Geographic magazines, as well as the three variations of acceptance speeches I had drafted in anticipation of the award.

Despite this shameful lack of acknowledgement, however, I’m excited to see some media attention finally being put on environmental concerns other than global warming.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that global warming is a major international problem – and one that deserves our attention now – but I think that all the recent media coverage has made the general public forget that there are other environmental issues that aren’t being addressed.

According to the Blacksmith Institute, the organization that gathered the data and ranked the top 10 list, the main causes of pollution in each of the top 10 places were among the following: organic chemicals, oil, gas emissions, heavy metals and toxic by-products.

This pollution has been occurring for decades and is still ongoing today, especially in commercially hyperactive China – which has cities in the No. 2 and 3 spots.

Four of the sites are located either in Russia or a former Soviet satellite, most having served previously as an industrial plant. The pollution, hidden until recently by the U.S.S.R. steel curtain of secrecy, garners zero media attention in the United States or the rest of the Western world.

All of the 10 sites listed suffer an increase in death, disease and birth defects.

For example, the No.1 most polluted site on the list, Sumgayit, Azerbaijan, experiences intensely high levels of both cancer morbidity and mortality as well as an alarmingly high percentage of babies who are born premature, stillborn or with genetic defects, according to a study jointly conducted by the United Nations Development Program, the World Health Organization, Azerbaijan Republic Ministry of Health and the University of Alberta.

Though most people in the political world are aware of these problems, not much is being done to correct these issues. In Sumgayit, mercury-contaminated sewage continues to be dumped into the city’s water supply, with little or no regulation.

We are capable of correcting this. With the right amount of political pressure, these cities could be forced to finally adhere to accepted standards for waste management and pollution control, and, with luck, more extensive programs for cleanup and treatment of those contaminated will be implemented.

Unfortunately, the politicos aren’t taking action, simply because the general public doesn’t know or care enough about them to make it worth the politicians’ while.

While the world debates the merits of spending a little extra money to “go green” – and for the most part, only because it’s currently trendy to do so – roughly 12.3 million people live or work in one of those top 10 contaminated areas, according to the Blacksmith Institute.

I have always felt that environmentalism in general is something that has been more of a trend than anything else. Most of the U.S. population either didn’t know what global warming was or didn’t believe it to be true before the release of Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Now, suddenly – as if before the documentary these problems didn’t exist – there are daily reports of melting icecaps and dying polar bears and all the hybrid cars you can shake a stick at.

The power of the masses is a great one. Once you get the public behind your cause, you could report that global warming caused a piece of the sky to fall today, and people would likely read it.

There are a lot of problems in the world, more than mankind could ever possibly solve, I’m sure. What people can do is conduct a little bit of research and stay informed of all the issues. A well-informed public makes politicians do their job and not just pander to the latest news trend.

Got your own environmental concern you’d like to discuss? E-mail Molly at mog4@pitt.edu