What is Pollution?
Funding Environmental Issues: Past, Present and Future Environmental issues are changes to nature that are bad and mostly caused by human activity. These problems affect air, water, soil, plants, animals and human health. They are connected to each other, so solving one often helps solve others. The History of Environmental Problems Coal consumption increased during the Industrial Revolution and as cities became more smoke-filled, the serious environmental damage increased. In the 1800s and early 1900s, scientists began to understand how carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. The 1970s saw the advent of global activism. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was founded at th...