We humans dream of colonizing Mars, building flying cars, and achieving immortality. Yet, amidst this fervent pursuit of futures that sometimes drift into fantasy, we’re neglecting critical problems of the present.

An example is rampant pollution of our waters. This neglect exists even in advanced societies such as the United Kingdom, where untreated sewage spills into the Thames and other rivers, turning them into fetid cesspools.

This isn’t some dystopian vision of the future. It’s happening right now, under the noses of complacent governments and a distracted public. While headlines scream about a fabricated climate emergency decades away, actual environmental crises fester — not to mention potholed streets and collapsing bridges.

Thames filled with Sewage: A Global Problem

The U.K.’s aging sewage infrastructure simply can’t handle the demands of a growing population. During heavy rain, overflows release raw sewage directly into rivers. Recent findings suggest that since 2020, Thames Water—the U.K.’s largest water and wastewater services company—has discharged a minimum of 72 billion liters of sewage into the river Thames, equivalent to approximately 29,000 Olympic swimming pools of water.

In 2024, the company was fined 3.3 million pounds after causing the death of over 1,400 fish with the release of millions of liters of untreated sewage. Despite these incidents, Thames Water continues to discharge sewage into bodies of water.

Numerous images and videos shared on social media depict holidaymakers witnessing the presence of brown-colored sewage-contaminated waters along beaches and river banks in the U.K.

The neglect of river pollution has dire consequences for public health from a range of waterborne diseases, including cholera, dysentery and hepatitis A. The presence of harmful bacteria such as E. coli in rivers and coastal waters poses a direct threat to communities that rely on these sources for drinking, bathing and recreation. In fact, recently, thousands of people fell ill with diarrhoea as they ingested parasites from contaminated water in Devon, U.K.

In Bangladesh, the Buriganga and linked rivers in the country’s capital region receive daily about 60,000 cubic meters of wastes from the nine major industrial clusters. The river is so toxic that locals consider it biologically dead.

In New Delhi, the capital of India, the Yamuna River has been heavily affected by the disposal of harmful chemicals and untreated sewage. As a result, certain parts of the river exhibit a murky appearance, with foamy froth and plastic waste along its banks. Another river in India, the Ganges, is one of the world’s most polluted, receiving every day more than one billion gallons of raw sewage and industrial waste.

The problem is not exclusive to these countries. The list goes on and on. But the elephant in the room is the fact that these nations have allocated billions of dollars towards initiatives aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions—an endeavor that remains scientifically unjustified.

The U.K. has been vocal about it’s desires to implement net zero—an amorphous term used to denote zero greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. India is spending billions on wind and solar, and even Bangladesh has been waxing eloquent on the subject, launching its first ever Climate Action Plan.

Net zero will have zero effect on the climate and threatens devasting consequences for the supply of affordable and reliable electricity. Net zero is perhaps the most futile initiative mankind has ever undertaken and certainly the most expensive. Pouring trillions of funds annually into managing an uncontrollable climate is utterly ridiculous.

Instead of addressing pressing environmental issues such as river pollution, governments are misdirecting resources and energy in response to unsubstantiated claims like the climate crisis.

More people will die from real environmental problems than from the climate in 2050, whether it’s warmer or colder. We need to move beyond attention-grabbing headlines about distant imaginary threats and focus on actual ones.

This commentary was first published at California Globe on May 20, 2024.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, U.K.