When Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com wrote that humans are the only species stupid enough to poison themselves, he wasn’t kidding. Why would a species continue behavior that caused so much disease and death to their own population—do we have a deathwish, as environmental activist Derrick Jensen has proposed? The latest evidence in Bangladesh:

“Dhaka’s air pollution poses a serious health hazard to the city’s residents with rising respiratory illnesses causing more than 15,000 deaths a year, says the Department for Environment.

Dust, smoke and deadly chemicals spewed by cars and factories and rotting garbage piled in the streets are saturating the air with poisons.

Car emissions alone are adding around 3,700 tonnes of suspended particulate matter (spm) or fine particles in the air. The size of these easily inhaled particles is less than 10 microns.

A DoE survey shows, on average, around 100 kilogrammes of lead, 60 tonnes of carbon monoxide, 16 tonnes of nitrogen oxide, one and a half tonnes sulphur dioxide, one tonne of hydrocarbons and three and a half tonne of other particles are being emitted by vehicles in the city every day.”

According to the DoE, aside from these deaths, air pollution is causing respiratory illness in an additional 100,000 people each year. The incidence of childhood asthma is through the roof. Premature births and birth deformities are common. Bronchitis, pneumonia, heart and lung diseases are being seen more and more often and cancer is increasing among city dwellers.

In addition, “increasing emissions and dust are harming the natural growth of trees and plants and destroying the ecological balance,” says Dr. Shahnaz Haque Hussain, Dean of the Earth and Environment Department of Dhaka University. “Pollution is hampering annual precipitation and the process of photosynthesis is hampered when dust smothers the leaves.”

“The concrete jungle with its poisoned air is slowly suffocating its plant life and its inhabitants,” she said.

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