Question

Explain in detail pollution as a negative externality. Provide examples.

Answer 1

Negative externality is a situation when the Economic activity (consumption or production of a good or service) causes harmful effect to a third party which is not involved in that Economic activity.

Pollution is one of the major external externalities as the pollution created by any Economic activity harms the third party. This can be understood by the following examples –

• The dumping of harmful toxic chemicals from industries to rivers causes the marine organisms to eat that chemicals along with food and the bioaccumulation & biomagnification takes place in marine organisms.
• Release of Greenhouse Gases from industries in the atmosphere causes harmful effects in Environment in the form of Increase global temperature, ocean warming, ocean acidification, sea level rise, ocean deoxygenation, destruction of coral reefs, Increase in intensity & frequency of natural hazards like floods and droughts, irregular precipitation patterns etc, which harm the all components of living environment.
• Release of Chemical Fertilizers from Agriculture fields causes Eutrophication in lakes and ponds which increases the BOD level of water body, and the fishes of that water body die due to non availability of oxygen.
• The rise in seal level due to ocean warming caused by release of GHG gases from industries (because of burning of fossil fuels) negatively impacts the life of persons living on coastal area due to submergence of their habitats areas.