Top 5 Polluted Cities in world

Pollution is a bad thing. We all know this. It endangers animals and ecosystems, contaminates water supplies, and (worst of all) it contributes to Global Warming. A big factor of air pollution is all the emissions from cars, factories and so forth. It’s a problem that can be found across the globe, in small towns and large cities. Unfortunately, there are some places where the pollution levels have gotten ridiculously out of hand and reversing the effects would take a miracle.

Here is a list of the top 5 most polluted places in the world:

5. Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico is supposed to be hosting the next big Climate Change Summit in 2010. Given how bad their pollution situation currently is, they may want to clean things up a bit first; or perhaps the cause and effects of their pollution will serve as a much needed wake up call to all the politicians who turned Copenhagen into an absolute failure.

Mexico City is one of the most populated cities in the world and its location couldn’t be worse. Settled in a valley 7,300 feet (2,240 meters) above sea level, its 8.84 million residents have unknowingly built themselves right into an environmental trap. Emissions and exhaust fumes easily remain in the thin air, as there’s not enough wind circulation to move and disperse those pollutants beyond city boundaries. Recent studies have shown that being exposed to these conditions has actually prevented lungs from growing and working properly.

The good news is authorities are finally taking measures to lessen the amount of pollution, by closing factories, promoting the use of bikes and modernizing old buses.

4. Norilsk, Russia

We now bring you to the second largest city in the world above the Arctic Circle, located in northern Siberia. Founded less than a century ago, this city quickly expanded to over 130,000 people and became the hub for mining and smelting in Russia. Already faced with an extremely harsh climate, residents have to cope with temperatures ranging from -14 to -72.4 F (-10 to -58 C) and over 250 days of snow per year.

However, cold temperatures and dark winter nights are the least of their problems. Norilsk is not only the hub for Russian mining and smelting, it’s also home to the largest smelting complex in the world. Thanks to this, the city is faced with massive amounts of acid rain and smog; courtesy of about 500 tons of copper and nickel, and 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide per year. Exposure to this kind of pollution has caused many serious health issues, such as higher mortality rates, pregnancy complications and lung cancer.

Norilsk Nickel—Russia’s primary nickel producer and controller of a third of the world’s nickel deposits—is held as the most responsible for Norilsk’s polluted mess. Not one single tree can be found standing anywhere within a 48 km (30 mile) radius of their nickel smelter, Nadezhda (“The Hope”). The company claims they are making efforts to reduce emissions and pollution problems, but any effort or progress in that remains to be seen.

3.Sukinda, India

If you saw Erin Brockovich, you will know what is hexavalent chromium. It is wicked heavy metal that is used for the production of stainless steel and leather tanning and very carcinogenic if inhaled or swallowed. Sukinda, is the largest open player of chromite ore mines in the world, 60% of the drinking water contains hexavalent chromium at levels more than twice of international standard. Indian health group estimated that 84.75% of deaths in the mining areas, where there are no regulations on the diseases associated with chromite. There’s no effort to clean up contamination. The number of people potentially affected is around 2.6 million.

2. Linfen, China

It could be said that China is one of the worst polluters in the entire world. Actually, in 2007, Linfen was indeed considered to be the world’s most polluted city [pdf file download]. Home to 4 million people and seated on the banks of the Fen River, Linfen contains a giant coal industry, hundreds of mines (both legal and illegal), steel plants and refineries. Needless to say, this town provides nearly 2/3rd of China’s energy and practically all of their pollution.

City residents are constantly choking on the dark, coal dust-ridden air that sifts through the streets. Sulfur dioxide and other particulate levels far exceed any acceptable limits and water supplies are limited due to arsenic contaminating many of the drinking water sources. If that isn’t enough to place them near the top of this list, know that Linfen residents constantly suffer from cancer, bronchitis and pneumonia. Not to mention, the blood levels in their children is extremely higher than any acceptable or reasonable level.

World Bank places 16 of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities in China, in terms of air quality. Given this information and their actions during (and after) the COP15 event, I think it’s safe to say the world definitely needs to see higher emission reduction targets and more serious environmental efforts taken on their part.

1. Chernobyl, Ukraine

I’m sure this does not come as a big surprise to some of you. This small, northern Ukraine town is home to the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. The incident, which happened in April 1986, exposed many to radiation poisoning, which killed them as well. Over 300,000 people living in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia had to be evacuated from their homes, thanks to the massive amount of contamination and even those in Central, Northern and Western Europe were exposed to nuclear rain from the Chernobyl incident.

Over twenty years has passed since the accident happened and still the effects are ongoing. Between 1992 and 2002 nearly 4,000 children were reported to have thyroid cancer. Today, there is still a 19 mile (30 km) exclusion zone where people are not allowed to live, due to risk of disease, death or contamination. Many have estimated that it could be anywhere between 60 and 200 years before the land could be used for industrial purposes; 200 or more years before farming could take place; and the Reactor #4 explosion site would not be fully safe for at least 20,000 years.

The effects on the environment were also rather harsh. Although it didn’t do too much damage to the water supply, the accident did contribute to contamination of many of the fish. Many animals affected by the disaster either died or stopped producing at all. Horses and cattle left on an island in the Pripyat River were especially damaged by the high levels of radiation, with many of their deaths being contributed to the toll taken on their thyroid glands. There was also the “Red Forest” incident: at least 2 square miles (4 square km) of pine forest in the immediate area of the reactor turned ginger brown and died.

Thus far, these are amongst the worst pollution disasters of our time and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like many of them will be changing for the better any time soon. With the New Year close at hand, I hope these accounts will encourage many of you to make—and stick to—some great, green resolutions for 2010.