Environmental pollution threatens nearly every dimension of human well-being and the planet's living systems. It extends beyond the obvious-polluted air, unsafe water, contaminated soil; it also includes the more insidious, like excessive noise, skyglow, and the diverse effects of unnatural radiation, compounded further by heat exclusion into waterways, intensified drought cycles, and spreading deserts caused by shifting climate. Nations and communities spurred these threats by intensifying industry, expanding transport networks, intensifying agriculture, and failing, until now, to sort, recycle and treat waste intelligently. The impacts cascade back into human health-exacerbating respiratory disease, permeating food chains, poisoned by heavy metals and microbes-while collaterally degrading carbon sinks, forests, wetlands, and oceans. A durable response is now overdue and must integrate clean energy systems, circular waste management systems, austerity of consumption, and resolutely cooperative policies across counties and continents. Societies and governments must master the ecology of pollution, learn its logics and pressures, and translate that understanding into regulatory, technological, and cultural change. Only then will a cleaner, more balanced variable future become likely and feasible-one the present and coming generations deserve.