This field is receiving considerable attention, but the dedicated research community is small and is merely scratching the surface of an immense problem that I will now sketch. Many forces give rise to chemical pollution, but there is one overarching scientific reason why chemical technology pollutes. Chemists developing new processes strive principally to achieve reactions that only produce the desired product. This selectivity is achieved by using relatively simple reagent designs and employing almost the entire periodic table to attain diverse reactivity. In contrast, nature accomplishes a huge range of selective biochemical processes mostly with just a handful of environmentally common elements.
Selectivity is achieved through a reagent design that is much more elaborate than the synthetic one.
For example, electric eels can store charge via concentration gradients of biochemically common alkali metal ions across the membranes of electroplaque cells. In contrast, most batteries used for storing charge require biochemically foreign, toxic elements, such as lead and cadmium. Because of this strategic difference, manmade technologies often distribute throughout the environment persistent pollutants that are toxic because they contain elements that are used sparingly or not at all in biochemistry. Persistent bioaccumulative pollutants pose the greatest chemical threat to sustainability. They can be grouped into two classes.