Pathways toward a pollution-free planet and challenges

Highlights

● Zero pollution does not mean no discharge of pollutants.

● Control of sound balance between pollution and decontamination capacities is important.

● Key pathways to achieve balance between pollution and decontamination capacities are given.

Abstract

The mission of “Establishment of Zero-Pollution Earth” defined by United Nations Environment Programme aims at creation of a clean, safe and prosperous home for all human beings. It is of rational choice from each individual to protect our environment and demonstrates our great ambition to achieve our goals. The key message given in this article is that, zero pollution does not mean no discharge of pollutants and instead it can be achievable through optimizing and controlling a sound balance between pollutants discharge and capacities of decontamination through treatment and natural environmental accumulation, which can be termed as “Principle of Equilibrium” between pollution and decontamination. Based on this principle, we propose and illustrate several key factors and synergistic pathways toward a pollution-free planet: quantitative determination on purification and wastewater; source control through green measures; minimization of negative side-effects; precise management through digitalized systems; and keeping sound balance between pollutants and natural purification. It should be noted that we would face a series of difficulties and challenges in moving forward to “Zero-Pollution Earth”. We should further develop theories, principles and tools to achieve the balance between quantity of pollutants and decontamination capacities. Environmentalists should work together to break through the bottleneck limited by “Principle of equilibrium” to establish new environmental remediation systems leading to “Zero-Pollution Earth”.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Wastewater treatment / Resources / Recovery / Greenhouse gases / Energy / Pollution-free

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Prof. Qu is a distinguished professor of Tsinghua University and a research professor of Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for developing countries (TWAS), and a distinguished fellow of International Water Association (IWA). He is now serving as the editor-in-chief of the journal Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering and the section editor-in-chief of the journal Engineering. Prof. Qu has focused on advocating and developing innovative water pollution control technologies in China. He has played a key role in the development of China’s water industry, and the establishment of drinking water technological systems suitable for China and other developing countries. He has received numerous awards, including the National Technology Invention Award of China, the IWA Global Project Innovation Award, and the IWA East Asia Regional Project Innovation Award

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Chinese Academy of Engineering, under the Brand Project Scheme Funding (Project Number: 2022-30-35-02) for the financial support.

Conflict of Interests

Jiuhui Qu is the editor-in-chief of Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering. The authors declare that this research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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2024 The Author(s) 2024. This article is published with open access at link.springer.com and journal.hep.com.cn