4 ms·

You said that only nitrogen, oxygen, CO2 and “some noble gases” should be in the atmosphere. Everything else (such as salt) is a pollutant. How many compounds

You said that only nitrogen, oxygen, CO2 and “some noble gases” should be in the atmosphere. Everything else (such as salt) is a pollutant. How many compounds are there that are not nitrogen, oxygen, CO2 and “some noble gases”? In my estimation that is uncountable but maybe you have some hard numbers? edit: “Suitable purpose“ for me would be creating or maintaining an environment that sustains human life. Is your “checkmate” position something like “Hah! In my dictionary, ‘suitable purpose’ only relates to underwater welding, root beer production, and synthetic diamond formation!” I personally find moving goalposts to avoid talking about concrete things in concrete terms to be problematic, but I understand that if a person is quite jaded about the future of life on earth that it might seem that the only thing worth debating is semantics. Maybe avoiding boredom matters more than attempting to avert catastrophe.

ars 4y ago
> In my estimation that is uncountable And? There are uncountable pollutants - why is that an issue? None of those other things belong in the air, in any amount. > would be creating or maintaining an environment that sustains human life. So my small campfire where I burn plastic is perfectly fine then? After all the toxins released are minor and rapidly dissipate, so the environment still sustains human life. Your definition doesn't even acknowledge that you can sustain life, but everyone has asthma because of all the particulate matter in the air. By your definition there are no pollutants. Or at best you can only talk about them in bulk once they reach levels sufficient to kill, but never about individual releases. By my definition each individual release of something that doesn't belong in the air is pollution. I find my definition much more usable and useful.
- braingenious 4y ago
  > By my definition each individual release of something that doesn't belong in the air is pollution. Does your classification of CO2 have a real upper limit of ppm wherein it becomes considered a pollutant? Or is it just “all plastic supply burned + 1”
  - nofunsir 4y ago
    Holy smokes dude. You are being ridiculous. Have you forgotten you literally breath out CO2? It is an “avoidable” situation, too ;)

ars 4y ago

> In my estimation that is uncountable And? There are uncountable pollutants - why is that an issue? None of those other things belong in the air, in any amount. > would be creating or maintaining an environment that sustains human life. So my small campfire where I burn plastic is perfectly fine then? After all the toxins released are minor and rapidly dissipate, so the environment still sustains human life. Your definition doesn't even acknowledge that you can sustain life, but everyone has asthma because of all the particulate matter in the air. By your definition there are no pollutants. Or at best you can only talk about them in bulk once they reach levels sufficient to kill, but never about individual releases. By my definition each individual release of something that doesn't belong in the air is pollution. I find my definition much more usable and useful.

braingenious 4y ago
> By my definition each individual release of something that doesn't belong in the air is pollution. Does your classification of CO2 have a real upper limit of ppm wherein it becomes considered a pollutant? Or is it just “all plastic supply burned + 1”
- nofunsir 4y ago
  Holy smokes dude. You are being ridiculous. Have you forgotten you literally breath out CO2? It is an “avoidable” situation, too ;)