What do you get from this quote?

"People never like pollution, it has become very wrong to like pollution at all. But just like there are good and bad things about people, there are good and bad things about pollution."

Vague, and what could possibly be good about pollution.....

"Think of it as evolution in action."
-- Larry Niven

I think that the comment is deliberately provocative because the very meaning of pollution is "the presence or introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects"

So how can poisoning an environment be a good thing. The only people that could see any positivity in poisoning the environment would be those intent on personal gain and completely oblivious and unaffected by the implications to the planet.

Or a completely crazy sadists who want to destroy something beautiful just for the fun of it.

Or someone so oblivious of their surroundings that they just don't care what happens in which case whether or not it is a good thing wouldn't even enter their sphere of imagination.

I believe the author is saying something akin to "What does not kill me makes me stronger." That's why my earlier response was relating pollution to an evolutionary force.

In other words, pollution, so long as it does not kill everyone outright, forces the human species to develop tolerance to pollution. However, this outlook is not only Machiavellian, it also takes the untenable position that pollution is somehow worth enduring rather than being eliminated.

The phrase might easily have come from an apologist for raw industry in opposition to the efforts of environmentalists.

First I would just like to say that its been such a long time since I entered into debate on anything so I am really enjoying the opportunity to debate on this statement.

I think that the statement "What does not kill me makes me stronger" is still open to analysis.

If you take anything that causes injury whether mentally or physically to a human being then it must have a destructive effect on that human. Either weakens the human being mentally or physically. The only thing that it strengthens is resolve in thinking or attitude. For example if breathing in toxic fumes makes you asthmatic it may not kill you but it doesn't make your lungs stronger it makes your body weaker but perhaps your resolve stronger to fight against the people that caused the damage and reduced your quality of life.

So if the Apologist for raw industry made that statement in public in current times I would hope that reports of his inadequacies in understanding of the human species would be published.