Translations:Course-v1:edz+11+2023 SP/en/block-v1:edz+11+2023 SP+type@html+block@633e10e2665f452894fd0f4c51d7f45f/content/en

Climate Change is the largest and most overwhelming environmental issue of our time. However, that doesn’t mean that it is the only environmental issue. There are a myriad of other local environmental issues that could be pressing in your context. You can apply similar approaches to identify and communicate these crises in your context.

To create international focus, the UN, focuses on three headline environmental issues as the Triple Planetary Crises: Climate Change, Pollution and Biodiversity loss, but these topics could include related or other topics.

Major themes in Pollution

Pollution can come in many forms, but when most people talk about the global pollution crises, they are frequently talking about several types of pollution: typically, air pollution, water pollution, and plastic pollution. If you are interested in discovering your local pollution issues -- I recommend searching local newspapers. For a full list of types of pollution, see this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution#Definitions_and_types" target="[object Object]">list on Wikipedia</a>.

Almost all of these types of pollution have deep connections to both the cause, effects and issues related to climate communication:

• The main source of all three types of pollution is the use of fossil fuels and fossil fuel chemistry. For example, most persistent forms of city air pollution are connected to power plants and vehicle transportation; or plastics are produced by fossil fuels, and the same companies responsible for the climate crises are responsible for the plastic pollution crises.  
• Changes in the environment caused by climate change can make pollution worse: forest fires in Canada in June 2023 have had air quality changes around the Northern Hemisphere. Sea level rise and torrential rainfall caused by warmer temperatures result in more chemical releases from industrial and urban sources. 

However, there are a number of less directly connected pollution issues as well for example: 

• Mining is a principal source of water pollution and environmental justice issues around the world -- not all mining is related to fossil fuels. Communicating about the impacts of mining may require a different focus beyond the climate crises.
• Certain chemicals which are particularly harmful for humans and the environment, are not primarily connected with the petro-chemical industry -- such as so-called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances" target="[object Object]">forever chemicals</a>” (PFAS, PFOAs, etc) which are caused by another industrial ecosystem: chlorine chemistry or organofluorine chemistries.
• Human rights related to pollution are often related to other kinds of mining, such <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_Convention_on_Mercury" target="[object Object]">mercury used in artisanal gold mining</a>.

What does this mean for Wikimedia Movement activities? 

In some contexts, a focus on pollution can be more visible and actionable. During WikiForHumanRights, communities regularly headline with topics like Pollution because of their visible impacts in local communities (i.e. plastic in waterways or industrial pollution affecting community health). 

Some community groups in Africa during both the WikiForHumanRights Campaign and African Environment Day focused events on editing about pollution topics, because pollution is something better documented and visible within their local context.

If you would like to explore pollution topics more, consider reading this <a href="https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/04/20/living-through-a-triple-planetary-emergency-capturing-the-most-impactful-knowledge-to-weather-the-storm/" target="[object Object]">blog post about the 2023 WikiForHumanRights Campaign </a>.