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Sure: "A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a
by ars 4y ago
Sure: "A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource." From Wikipedia.
A "novel entity" i.e. anything that doesn't belong in the air. Wikipedia adds that it must in some way harm things to be a pollutant, which is a reasonable addition.
- braingenious 4y agoI am glad that we agree that “pollutant” is relative to outcomes. I appreciate you amending your previous statement that “pollutant” is just a word referring to anything but the high school textbook reference list of expected atmospheric gases. It is an indeed silly view that no dictionary, encyclopedia or academic paper states. It’s so silly that to hold such a position consistently would essentially mean that “daytime” is meaningfully “a period marked by light pollution” since the normal state of the universe is darkness. Imagine having such a useless and meaningless definition of “pollution”! I have a couple more questions! If you hosted an indoor buffet and you needed to keep the chafing dishes warm, would you opt to burn ethanol or (if it were cheaper) the shredded remains of takeout containers? and Why does burning plastic have black smoke and ethanol not?