A Brief Introduction to the History of Pollution: From Local to Global

Abstract

The way pollution can be defined has greatly varied in the course of history , according to times and places. It has long retained a moral and religious dimension. That some substances were “out of place” is attested since at least ancient civilisations . In France, as in most European countries, this pollution has been dealt with in the Middle Ages and in the early Modern period by removing dirt and dirt-producing activities onto the fringe of cities. This began to change at the end of the 18th century when states started to promote industry as a means of power. New pollutions also appeared with the birth of the modern chemical industry . But in the 20th century the scale of pollution changed dramatically: it became more intensive, with a growing number of pollutants discharged in the biosphere ; more global , affecting all places on earth; more lasting, with disastrous cumulative effects.