Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated,over industrialized planet.When you come to think
about it,there are only four ways you can deal with rubbish:dump it,burn it,turn it into something
you can use again,attempt to produce less of it.We keep trying all four methods,but he sheer volume
of rubbish we produce worldwide threatens to overwhelm us.
Rubbish,however,is only part of the problem of polluting our planet.The need to produce
ever-increasing quantities of cheap food leads to a different kind of pollution.Industrialized
farming methods produce cheap meat products:beef,pork and chicken.The use of pesticides and
fertilizers produces cheap grain and vegetables.The price we pay for cheap food may be already too
high:May Cow Disease(BSE) in cattle,salmonella in chicken and eggs,and wisteria in dairy products.
And if you think you'll abandon meat and become a vegetarian,you have the choice of very expensive
organically-grown vegetables or a steady diet of pesticides every time you think you're eating fresh
salads and vegetables,or just having an innocent glass of water!
However,there is an even more insidious kind of pollution that particularly affects urban areas and
invades our daily lives,and that is noise.Burglar alarms going off at any time of the day or night
serve only to annoy passers-by and actually assist burglars to burgle.Car alarms constantly scream
at us in the street and are a sorce of profound irritation.A recent survey of the effects of noise
revealed(surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the highest form of noise
pollutiion on a scale ranging from 1 to 7.The survey revealed a large number of sources of noise
taht we really dislike.Lawn mowers whining on a summer's day,late-night parties in aparment blocks,
noisy neighbors,vehicles of al kinds,especially large container trucks thundering through quiet
village,planes and helicopters flying overhead,large radios carried round in public places and
played at maximum volume.New technology has also made its own contribution to noise.A lot of people
object to mobile phones,especially when they are used in public places like restaurants or on
public transport.Loud conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure
of meeting friends for a quiet chat.The noise pollution survey revealed a rather spurring and
possibly amusing old fashioned source of noise.It turned out to be snoring!Men were found to be the
worst offenders.It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore.This figure rises to a
staggering 60% of men in their sixties.Against these figures,it was found that only 5% of women
snore regularly,while the rest are constantly woken or kept awake by their trumpeting partners.
Whatever the source of noise,one thing is certain:silence,it seems,has become a golden memory.