ABSTRACT
This chapter defines pollution more fully using the written word, figures, case studies, and with all that still explain the difficulty involved with defining it, beginning a process that will allow people to create people's own definition of pollution—though each reader’s definition will vary. The hydrosphere is the water component of the earth, encompassing the oceans, seas, rivers, streams, swamps, lakes, groundwater, and atmospheric water vapor. The biosphere is the region of the earth and its atmosphere in which life exists, an envelope extending from up to 6,000 meters above to 10,000 meters below sea level. A series of biological, chemical, and geological processes by which materials cycle through ecosystems are called biogeochemical cycles. Ecology is normally approached from two viewpoints: the environment and the demands it places on the organisms in it or organisms and how they adapt to their environmental conditions.
