478
(today the population registers at 337,583) were dying from industrial chemical
pollution at a rate “50% higher than their fellow Azerbaijanis.” This kind of oldworld, or “ex-Soviet factories … with virtually no environmental regulation,”
had become a standard for rating the global toxic hotspots. As of February 4,
2019, the list remained more or less the same (Haina, in the Dominican
Republican had entered the list as number 3—abandoned lead smelter contamination), though the process of ranking had taken on new rubrics: 300 of the
world’s worst, reduced to 35 of the worst of the worst, down to the 10 highest
areas of contamination.
4
All comport with the concept of a human synthesized
irrational biome, as opposed to, say, a steaming caldera (non- synthesized) in
which no human settlement would ever be designed, let alone realized.
Scientific American’s own collection of polluted human enclaves
5
added habitat areas to the list, including the Niger River Delta (Nigeria), an oil-infested “sacrifice zone”; as well as the Rio Matanza-Riachuelo (Argentina) river basin
60-kilometers long and the bearer of all things from some “15,000 small industries”; a similar crisis on the Citarum River (13,000 square kilometers on Java) in
which “more than 2,000 factories” along the river are polluting nine million people. From e-waste dump sites in Ghana to tanneries in Bangladesh, part of the
Index for determining who is most at risk relies on the Global Ambient Air Quality
Database published in 2018 by the World Health Organization
6
which focuses
predominantly on Particulate Matter, at levels “less than 2.5” and “10 μm diameter)” (μm, micrometer = one millionth of a meter). As of 2015, 16.% of all human
fatalities were linked to some kind of pollution, “9 million premature deaths”.
7
Around 92% of those mortalities occurred in economically marginalized nations.
8
Contributing industries have been ranked and include “used lead acid batter recycling, mining and ore processing, tanneries, artisanal small-scale gold mining,
product and chemical manufacturing and the dye industry.” Such mining, at a
glance, for example, is no self-congratulation. Rather, sights of ghastly ruin to our
souls. The chemistry of sleepless nights. Geological wreckage that would not have
been but for… Just look at the largest copper mines in the world.
9
4 See “The Most Polluted Places on Earth,” by Larry West, February 4, 2019, ThoughtCo., https://
www.thoughtco.com/worst-polluted-places-on-earth-1204101, Access May 11, 2020.
5 “The World’s 10 Most Polluted Places,” by David Biello, November 5, 2013, https://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow/10-most-polluted-places-in-the-world. Accessed May 11, 2020.
6 See “Ambient Air Quality Database Application,” https://whoairquality.shinyapps.io/AmbientAir
QualityDatabase/. Accessed May 11, 2020.
7 See “The Lancet Commission on pollution and health,” Philip J Landrigan et.al., The Lancet, Vol.
391, No. 10119, October 19, 2017. https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/pollution-and-health,
Accessed May 11, 2020.
8 See Smithsonian magazine, “One in Six Global Deaths Linked to Pollution,” by Ben Panko,
Smithsonianmag.com, October 20, 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-sixglobal-deaths-linked-pollution-180965347/. Accessed May 11, 2020.
9 See “World’s Worst Pollution Problems, 2016,” https://www.worstpolluted.org/. Accessed May
11, 2020. See also, “The 30 Most Polluted Places on Earth,” by Michael B. Sauter, January 6, 2020,
51 Irrational Biomes
(today the population registers at 337,583) were dying from industrial chemical
pollution at a rate “50% higher than their fellow Azerbaijanis.” This kind of oldworld, or “ex-Soviet factories … with virtually no environmental regulation,”
had become a standard for rating the global toxic hotspots. As of February 4,
2019, the list remained more or less the same (Haina, in the Dominican
Republican had entered the list as number 3—abandoned lead smelter contamination), though the process of ranking had taken on new rubrics: 300 of the
world’s worst, reduced to 35 of the worst of the worst, down to the 10 highest
areas of contamination.
4
All comport with the concept of a human synthesized
irrational biome, as opposed to, say, a steaming caldera (non- synthesized) in
which no human settlement would ever be designed, let alone realized.
Scientific American’s own collection of polluted human enclaves
5
added habitat areas to the list, including the Niger River Delta (Nigeria), an oil-infested “sacrifice zone”; as well as the Rio Matanza-Riachuelo (Argentina) river basin
60-kilometers long and the bearer of all things from some “15,000 small industries”; a similar crisis on the Citarum River (13,000 square kilometers on Java) in
which “more than 2,000 factories” along the river are polluting nine million people. From e-waste dump sites in Ghana to tanneries in Bangladesh, part of the
Index for determining who is most at risk relies on the Global Ambient Air Quality
Database published in 2018 by the World Health Organization
6
which focuses
predominantly on Particulate Matter, at levels “less than 2.5” and “10 μm diameter)” (μm, micrometer = one millionth of a meter). As of 2015, 16.% of all human
fatalities were linked to some kind of pollution, “9 million premature deaths”.
7
Around 92% of those mortalities occurred in economically marginalized nations.
8
Contributing industries have been ranked and include “used lead acid batter recycling, mining and ore processing, tanneries, artisanal small-scale gold mining,
product and chemical manufacturing and the dye industry.” Such mining, at a
glance, for example, is no self-congratulation. Rather, sights of ghastly ruin to our
souls. The chemistry of sleepless nights. Geological wreckage that would not have
been but for… Just look at the largest copper mines in the world.
9
4 See “The Most Polluted Places on Earth,” by Larry West, February 4, 2019, ThoughtCo., https://
www.thoughtco.com/worst-polluted-places-on-earth-1204101, Access May 11, 2020.
5 “The World’s 10 Most Polluted Places,” by David Biello, November 5, 2013, https://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow/10-most-polluted-places-in-the-world. Accessed May 11, 2020.
6 See “Ambient Air Quality Database Application,” https://whoairquality.shinyapps.io/AmbientAir
QualityDatabase/. Accessed May 11, 2020.
7 See “The Lancet Commission on pollution and health,” Philip J Landrigan et.al., The Lancet, Vol.
391, No. 10119, October 19, 2017. https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/pollution-and-health,
Accessed May 11, 2020.
8 See Smithsonian magazine, “One in Six Global Deaths Linked to Pollution,” by Ben Panko,
Smithsonianmag.com, October 20, 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-sixglobal-deaths-linked-pollution-180965347/. Accessed May 11, 2020.
9 See “World’s Worst Pollution Problems, 2016,” https://www.worstpolluted.org/. Accessed May
11, 2020. See also, “The 30 Most Polluted Places on Earth,” by Michael B. Sauter, January 6, 2020,
51 Irrational Biomes