We all want a clean and beautiful city, don't we? So we must be concerned with keeping the urban environment free from all types of pollution, avoiding littering on the streets and curbing similar practices. We also have to reduce the emission of pollutants in the air and in the rivers that pass through city areas.
But there is a type of pollution that people always forget to take care of and that affects everyone's quality of life. It's even curious that people forget about this form of pollution, because we see it all the time: it's aboutvisual pollution.
Visual pollution corresponds to the excess of garbage and also of posters, signs and advertisements, something very common in the space of cities. Intervention actions in the urban environment, such as graffiti, are also considered visual pollution. walls or any other attitude that harms the aesthetic and sanitary conditions of the environment in which lives.
One of the problems of visual pollution is the damage to the cities' original architecture, making them “uglier”, in addition to causing visual fatigue due to the excessive accumulation of information around them. Green areas are also affected, as trees or small forests, for example, are replaced by billboards or other types of advertising boards. In some cases, even people's mobility is impaired, as the large number of signs and easels on the sidewalks hinder pedestrians and, sometimes, even traffic.
Times Square, a famous New York street filled with advertising and visual pollution ¹
To make matters worse, there is still electoral visual pollution, that generated by candidates during campaigns for elections in which city spaces are truly crowded with so many boards asking for votes. During this period, despite some restrictions provided for in the law, the accumulation of garbage in the streets generated by political material is far above acceptable.
To improve this issue, a greater awareness of advertising companies would be needed - and also, in the in the case of elections, candidates - to reduce the excess of advertising boards and pieces in some areas. Public authorities, in turn, need to place some restrictions, as people's economic needs and of companies in promoting their products should not be above the concern of ensuring the space of the society.
Everything that is done in the right measure does not cause environmental damage, that is, advertising throughout the city is not the problem, since which is done in a measured and controlled way so that visual pollution does not become an even bigger headache for the society.
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¹ Image source: Sorbis / Shutterstock
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