Editing Pollutant (section)

== Different types of pollutants in the environment ==
Pollutants can be categorized in a variety of different ways.  For example, it is sometimes useful to distinguish between ''stock pollutants'' and ''fund pollutants''.  Another way is to group them together according to more specific properties, such as organic, particulate, pharmaceutical, et cetera.  The environment has some capacity to absorb many discharges without measurable harm, and this is called “[[assimilative capacity]] (or absorptive capacity); a pollutant actually causes pollution when the assimilative capacity is exceeded.<ref>Lindeburg, Michael. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2hjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT395 PE Environmental Review]'', p. 395 ([[Simon and Schuster]] 2019): “As long as the assimilative capacity of the environment is not reached, discharges will not lead to pollution.”</ref>

===Stock pollutants===
Pollutants, towards which the environment has low [[absorptive capacity]] are called ''stock pollutants''.<ref name=Tietenberg/> Examples include [[persistent organic pollutant]]s like [[Polychlorinated biphenyl|PCBs]], non-[[biodegradable]] [[Plastic pollution|plastics]] and [[heavy metals]]. Stock pollutants accumulate in the environment over time. The damage they cause increases as more pollutant is emitted, and persists as the pollutant accumulates. Stock pollutants can create a burden for the [[future generations]], bypassing on the damage that persists well after the benefits received from incurring that damage, have been forgotten.<ref name=Tietenberg>{{cite book | vauthors = Tietenberg T | author-link1 = Tietenberg, Tom| date = 2006 | chapter = Chapter 15: Economics of Pollution Control | title = Environmental and Natural Resource Economics | edition = 7th | publisher = Pearson | location = Boston }}</ref> Scientists have officially deemed that the planetary boundaries safe chemical pollutant levels (novel entities) have been surpassed.<ref name="Persson_2022" />

===Fund pollutants===
In contrast to stock pollutants, for which the environment has low absorptive capacity, fund pollutants are those for which the environment has a moderate absorptive capacity. Fund pollutants do not cause damage to the environment unless the emission rate exceeds the receiving environment's absorptive capacity (e.g. carbon dioxide, which is absorbed by plants and oceans).<ref name=Tietenberg/> Fund pollutants are not destroyed, but rather converted into less harmful substances, or diluted/dispersed to non-harmful concentrations.<ref name=Tietenberg/>

=== Specific groups of pollutants ===
Many pollutants are within the following notable groups:

* [[Environmental persistent pharmaceutical pollutant]]s (EPPP)
* [[Pollution#Greenhouse_gas_emissions|Greenhouse gases]] (GHGs)<ref name=NYTimes_20220822>{{cite news |last1=Friedman |first1=Lisa |title=Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer. Here's How. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/climate/epa-supreme-court-pollution.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=22 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823165028/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/climate/epa-supreme-court-pollution.html |archive-date=23 August 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Particulate matter]] ([[Particulate pollution|PM]])
* [[Persistent organic pollutant]]s (POPs)
* [[Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon]]s (PAHs)
* [[Volatile organic compound]]s (VOCs)

=== Light pollutant ===
[[Light pollution]] is the impact that anthropogenic light has on the visibility of the night sky. It also encompasses [[ecological light pollution]] which describes the effect of [[artificial light]] on individual [[organism]]s and on the structure of [[ecosystem]]s as a whole.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Light Pollution {{!}} National Geographic Society |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/light-pollution |access-date=2022-09-02 |website=education.nationalgeographic.org}}</ref> 

[[File:In the photo there is one Perseid, Milky Way and Andromega galaxy and light pollution on the horizon - Luhasoo bog in Estonia.jpg|thumb|The night sky viewed from Luhasoo bog, [[Estonia]] with light pollution in the background]]