How USA is one of top polluters in most sources but is consistently ranked relatively favorably (in the middle) for how polluted it is?
In: Chemistry
It depends on what you mean by “pollution”. The US is one of the leading emitters of carbon dioxide, which causes global warming and climate change. However, thanks to fairly good regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency, the US is pretty good in terms of sooty particles, acid rain, ground-level ozone, photochemical smog, and chlorofluorocarbons — and it’s *much* better than it was a few decades ago. Water and soil pollution are also fairly well controlled compared to other countries, and compared to our past.
Environmental regulation works, but when we call it all “pollution” we hide the fact that some things aren’t regulated.
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