Governments address the dangers of air pollution and other environmental contamination, driven by the threats to commercial activity or the influence of property owners who perceive economic loss to their assets. This lecture explores the negative effects of air pollutants within Zizek's framework of violence, and identifies how criminology must continue to push new boundaries with emerging harmful acts of both local and global concern. Professor Reece Walters is from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and he delivered this lecture at University of Leicester on 11 January 2012.