Pollution is the introduction of harmful materials or energy into the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form. These harmful materials are called pollutants, and they can be natural, such as volcanic ash, or created by human activity, such as trash or runoff produced by factories. Pollution can damage the quality of air, water, and land, and it can have negative effects on the environment, wildlife, and human health and well-being.

There are different types of pollution, including:

• Air Pollution: A mixture of gases and solid particles in the air that can come from the exhaust of cars and trucks, chemicals from factories, dust, mold, smog, and other sources.

• Water Pollution: The contamination of streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, aquifers, or other bodies of water by harmful substances, such as chemicals or microorganisms, that degrade water quality.

• Land Pollution: The pollution of soil by contaminants, such as chemicals, pesticides, and waste, that can harm wildlife and reduce the quality of land.

• Noise Pollution: The excessive human activity that produces unwanted or harmful sound that can affect human health and well-being.

• Light Pollution: The excessive human activity that produces unwanted or harmful artificial light that can affect human health and wildlife.

• Plastic Pollution: The pollution caused by plastic waste that can harm wildlife and ecosystems.

Pollution can have different sources, including natural events such as forest fires and active volcanoes, but it generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source, created by human activities. The presence of environmental pollution raises the issue of pollution control, and great efforts are made to limit the release of harmful substances into the environment through air pollution control, wastewater treatment, solid-waste management, hazardous-waste management, and recycling.