Unionist in vote into dispersing ecological damage (9)

I believe the answer is:

pollution

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'ecological damage' is the definition.
'pollution' can be an answer for 'damage' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'ecological' bit.

'unionist in vote into dispersing' is the wordplay.
'unionist' becomes 'u' (abbreviation as in Democratic Unionist Party).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'vote' becomes 'poll' (polling is a kind of voting).
'dispersing' indicates an anagram.
'into' anagrammed gives '[into]'.
'poll'+'[into]'='poll[into]'
'u' put inside 'polltion' is 'POLLUTION'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pollution that I've seen before include "Toxic waste" , "Harmful contamination" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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