Blacksmith Institute in collaboration with Green Cross Switzerland issued a report of the following:TOP TEN WORLD'S WORST POLLUTION PROBLEMS 2008
Artisanal Gold Mining
Contaminated Surface Water
Ground Water Contamination
Indoor Air Pollution
Industrial Mining Activities
Metals Smelters and Processing
Radioactive waste and Uranium Mines
Untreated Sewage
Urban Air Quality
Used Lead Acid Batteries
Top Ten List of the world's worst pollution problems 2008
Update
And another thing . . . With my thoughts about a global perspective, I read about the US economic outlook and how this economy was based on using much of the world as slave labor while trashing environments and sucking the raw materials, the resources into our insatiable multinational gullet.
If economic activity is scaled down rationally, in a fair and humane way, requiring the biggest sacrifices from the most affluent, we could all live in a better, cleaner world. But when recession-plagued economies contract chaotically, prompting governments and industries to cast about for new ways to restore rapid capital accumulation, almost everyone's environment deteriorates.
There is still time to cure the malignant economic growth that we've unleashed, but the solution won't come from those people and institutions that have managed to wreck both the global economy and the global ecology. A new way of thinking and acting will have to come from the bottom up, and from both hemispheres of this ailing planet. We'd should be ready; the unsettled times that lie ahead may offer the opening we've been looking for.
This from "Thinking About Shrinking: A Green Path Through Hard Times?" by Stan Cox posted today in Common Dreams. The emphasis in bold was mine.
Sustain = support from below.
Update 2
Anti-Poverty Rallies Smash World Record
UNITED NATIONS - The worldwide anti-poverty mass action that took place last weekend has broken all previous records for coordinated public demonstrations on a single issue, says Guinness World Records, the ultimate authority on evaluating achievements.
Guinness said Wednesday more than 116 million people took part in public gatherings and demonstrations organized by anti-poverty activists in 131 countries across the world, making it "the biggest mobilization ever on a single issue."
Organizers said the mass action on Oct. 17-19, which drew nearly 2 percent of the world's population, sent a clear message to world leaders that people will not stay seated while promises to end poverty remain unfulfilled. [snip]
The worldwide actions, billed as "Stand Up and Take Action," were jointly organized by two international groups, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and the UN Millennium Campaign. [snip]
The UN Millennium Campaign was established by the former UN chief Kofi Annan in 2002, about two years after world leaders agreed to set the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- a series of measures to effectively reduce poverty, illiteracy, diseases, and environmental pollution by 2015.
"The largest Stand Up is truly an historical event and as keepers and adjudicators of world records we are delighted to ratify such an important record and make this official," said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records. [snip]
The list shows 24,496,151 participants in Africa; 17,847,870 in Arab States; 951,788 in Europe; 211,250 in Latin America; 210,803 in Oceania; and 123,920 in North America.
The Guinness records show that in the Philippines, more than 35 million people participated, which is equivalent to one third of the country's population. The group mentions Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uganda as countries where people raised their concerns about poverty in massive numbers. [snip]
"This is a new kind of action the world is seeing," said GCAP's Sylvia Borren. "It's the local influencing the global. Women in villages in Africa are connecting and joining millions of citizens and other countries. The young people are taking ownership of the MDGs like never before."
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