ASSESSING MARINE POLLUTION AND ITS REMEDIES

Some of the problems experienced in devising rational waste-disposal policies are examined. Pollution is defined as environmental damage caused by the accidental or deliberate discharge of wastes. Damage is defined as undesirable change in the environment, but identifying the cause of environmental change is difficult against the background of natural fluctuations. Pollution-abatement costs rise exponentially with the effluent quality demanded, so it is important that scientific assessment should be reliable. However, the decision about an appropriate trade-off between environmental and financial costs is political, not scientific. Public perceptions are beginning to make many waste-disposal options unacceptable. As a result, remedial action is often inappropriate and merely transfers the pollution from one environment to another without addressing the basic issue that wastes continue to be created and have to be disposed of somewhere. There is an urgent need for dispassionate scientific advice, even if it may be over-ruled by other considerations, but scientific assessment requires a good knowledge of how the local marine environment behaves.