Environmental attorneys help people and communities who have been hurt by pollution and abuse of the environment where they live. Typically, these plaintiffs are victims of large-scale contamination by nearby industries of the water they drink, the air they breathe or the land they live on. The results can affect entire communities, leading to abnormal concentrations of disease, the destruction of farmland, problems with natural resources or other devastating problems. Because these injuries tend to affect everyone living near the source of the pollution, environmental attorneys typically represent many people at one time in class-action lawsuits.