Environmental
Initiative

CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Building a Pollution-Free Future

Imagine a world where innovation, what you wear, eat or products you buy and use can all contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future. This vision drives the Zoshe environmental initiative, which focuses on building a brighter future freer from harmful pollution, so we can all live longer, safer, and healthier lives.

Our current focus is on exploring the challenges and developing products and practical solutions for lowering harmful pollution. These solutions aim to promote and develop innovative products, scientific research advancements, and agricultural that can all help reduce pollution significantly and affordably.

Products

Every product sale helps fuel and support us to make the World a better healthier place.

  • Clothing: Our current work is to design an innovative line of eco-friendly apparel items. If you would like to help, I am currently seeking fashion designers to volunteer their talent. If so, please visit the volunteer page to apply.
  • Food: Our other work is a delicious line of much healthier sweetened products, all designed with the goal of reducing pollution without compromising taste or affordability.
  • Heating and Cooling: We will also be looking into designing and developing new high efficiency heating, cooling, and hot water systems for both residential and commercial use. The goal is to lower the cost of current systems, like heat pumps and others by two-thirds, cut the installation time of new systems in half, improve reliability, and make them much easier and more user-friendly to install, operate, service, fix, and replace.

Harmful Pollution

Important Note: If you are concerned about pollution's impact on your health, or believe your health has been affected by exposure to pollutants, always consult a qualified and experienced physician. Ideally, this physician should specialize in environmental medicine.

Harmful pollutants, particularly toxins, permeate our air, water, soil, and many foods globally. These toxins can silently accumulate in our blood and tissues at an alarming rate, impacting everyone regardless of if you are rich or poor. In short, it affects us all in a very harmful, costly, and deadly way.

Pollution has a wide range of health effects, varying by pollutant type, exposure level, and individual susceptibility. In essence, exposure to pollutants can cause, exacerbate, or increase the risk of developing a range of serious and deadly health conditions, as they are substances that can cause harm to the body, specifically by damaging cells, tissues, and DNA. Such damages can result in causing:

  • Speed Aging: Toxins and Particulate matter can promote inflammation and damage cells resulting in premature aging, horrible diseases and death.
  • Respiratory illnesses: Particulate matter and toxic gases cause asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory problems.
  • Cardiovascular disease: Air pollution increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
  • Cancer: Exposure to carcinogens in pollutants can lead to various types of cancer.
  • Water contamination: Agricultural runoff and industrial discharge pollute water sources, making them unsafe for drinking and harming aquatic life.
  • Soil degradation: Chemical pollutants and waste contaminate soil, reducing its fertility and harming ecosystems.
  • Loss of biodiversity: Pollution disrupts ecosystems, leading to the extinction of species and the loss of natural habitats.

Pollution is a costly, harmful, and deadly global problem linked to serious ecological damage, illnesses, and millions of deaths annually. Growing evidence from analytical data from the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) links pollution to roughly 16% of all deaths globally, with some countries experiencing rates upwards of 25%. The annual cost of pollution is estimated at $4.6 trillion, equivalent to a 6.2% loss in global gross domestic product (GDP). In some countries, pollution is estimated to consume upwards of 7% of their health budgets.

Disclaimer: Determining agreed-upon percentages for global pollution sources is very difficult. Environmental data is complex and may change overtime depending on the data collection methods, and when, where and how it was collected.

The following is an approximate global average of pollution sources:

  • Air Pollutants:

    • Industry: 24% (Factories, power plants, etc.)
    • Transportation: 23% (Vehicles, airplanes, ships)
    • Residential/Commercial/Other: 22% (Heating, cooking, etc.)
    • Agriculture: 12% (Dust, pesticides, livestock, agricultural field burning)
    • Energy Production: 11% (Burning fossil fuels)
    • Waste: 8% (Burning, landfills)

  • Water Pollutants:

    • Agriculture: 70% (Runoff of fertilizers, pesticides, animal waste)
    • Industrial Discharge: 22% (Wastewater from factories)
    • Municipal Sewage: 8% (Untreated/poorly treated sewage)

  • Land Pollutants:

    • Mining: 33% (Mining waste)
    • Industrial Waste: 28% (Industrial byproducts)
    • Municipal Waste: 25% (Trash from homes/businesses)
    • Agriculture: 14% (Pesticides, chemicals)

Challenges:

Agriculture:

Globally, it is estimated that many farmers with less than 10 hectares of land produce well over 50% of the food calories the World consumes, earn less than $3.00 per day, and also lack existing or affordable farming methods to help them lower the land, air, or water pollution they may create. Many of the farms over 10 hectares share these same problems.

Regardless of whether it's on the low or high end of the estimated statistics, it is still an enormous challenge to innovate, develop, and scale up practical and affordable sustainable agriculture solutions to reduce harmful agriculture pollution across nearly 600 million farms, farming 12.3 billion acres. While some solutions have had some success, they all seem to come with significant limitations, trade-offs, and numerous drawbacks. However, that does not mean solutions won't exist someday, nor should efforts stop or be discouraged, as any little success is helpful.

Presently, a lot more needs to be done to better help lower agriculture pollution.

Often when I look at agriculture farming solutions to help lower pollution, I ask the following:

  1. Success Rates and Efficacy:
    • Does it work in all regions, climates, and soil types of the world where it’s needed?
    • If not, what percentage of the needed acres does it presently cover?
    • Are there efforts underway to significantly increase its range, and what are those theoretical increases?
  2. Trade offs and Consequences:
    • Will it decrease crop yields?
    • Does it have a higher risk of crop failures?
    • Does it increase the need for harmful pesticides, anti-microbial treatments, fertilizers, or burning?
    • Is it essentially swapping one harmful environmental impact or cost in lives for another?
    • Does it require significantly more water resources and greater destruction of ecosystems?
    • Does it create a higher risk of harmful and deadly bites or infections for farmers and farm workers? If yes, what are they?
    • Does it produce a less nutritious crop, or less desirable crop for either material, products, or energy uses?
    • Will the crop result in higher levels of pollution for livestock feed and human consumption? If so, what harmful and deadly adverse effects will they have, and is the risk greater than what is presently being used?
  3. Cost and Scalability:
    • Does it require annually higher input and labor costs? If yes, what are they, and how much per acre annually will it cost?
    • What is the initial cost and the Return on Investment (ROI)?
    • Does it have any fees and maintenance requirements? If yes, what are they and their typical annual costs?
    • Does it require higher crop insurance costs?
    • Overall, how much would it increase the cost of the crop per acre annually?
    • Does it need to be scaled before it can be provided to farmers? If yes, what is the scaling cost and how long will it take?
    • Does it need government approvals or long term testing results? If yes, what are they, how long will it take, and what is the estimated cost?
  4. Funding and Prioritization:
    • Will it require funding from governments or large donors?
    • If yes, will that capital need to be redirected from other much needed concerns?
    • What would those other concerns be, and what is the potential harm and theoretical cost in lives of redirecting that funding?

Sources:

Agriculture:
  • Our world in data:
Naturally Occurring Pollution:
  • U.S. Geological Survey (USGS):
    • Provides extensive data and research on volcanic eruptions, dust storms, and radon gas.
    • USGS Website
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):
    • Offers information on wildfires, dust storms, and oceanic emissions.
    • NOAA Website
  • World Health Organization (WHO):
    • Provides data on the health impacts of naturally occurring pollutants, such as radon and pollen.
    • WHO Website
  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
    • Publishes reports on the role of natural sources in climate change, including volcanic eruptions and methane emissions.
    • IPCC Website
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA):
    • Uses satellite data to monitor wildfires, dust storms, and volcanic eruptions.
    • NASA Website
  • European Environment Agency (EEA):
    • Provides data and reports on natural pollution sources in Europe.
    • EEA Website
  • National Park Service (NPS):
    • Monitors and studies natural pollution in national parks.
    • NPS Website
  • Universities and Research Institutions:
    • Many universities and research centers conduct studies on natural pollution sources. Search for publications in scientific journals.
Pollution Sources Data: