We have now become aware that our Earth is suffering due to our irresponsible activities as human beings. Many years ago we would not concern if we wasted water or if we polluted, in fact we barely knew what global warming was. But now we have found our cities full of garbage, grey skies, and lack of water. That’s what we see in our everyday life, but we might not be aware of the vanishing species in the environment, energy depletion and rain forest destruction. All of these issues have a solution, but that’s up to us is we want to fix them. Perhaps air pollution is the one we are most aware of because we are more connected to it and we see it everyday with simple things like using our cars, using hair sprays or even the effect of sound. That is why it is important to understand the causes and the dangers that it involves, as well as the actions that we might take as citizens to stop this on going issue.
Air pollution can be described as the chemicals that harm living things, the atmosphere and the environment in general. Some of the major chemicals are the ones mixed with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide and monoxide. All of these are located in something related to human activity. These activities include the use of power plants, motor vehicles, aerosol sprays, toxic gases, waste deposition and many more. Also, we can see as pollutants the use of smoke, radon gas, methane, volcanic activity and others. The already mentioned activities are not only harming the environment but they have started to harm our health. There have been several physical difficulties that have been arising thanks to this issue such as asthma, bronchitis and some heart and lung diseases. As we can see this issue is affecting everyone around the world and therefore it is time to save not only the environment but our own lives which can easily be in danger.
We might think that the place that we live in is extremely air polluted, but there are many places in the world that are in a far worse situation. I was born in Mexico City and I thought that it was the most polluted city in the world. The sky was always grey or brown, there was garbage everywhere and it just felt uncomfortable. But after making my research I realized that my birth city is not even in the top ten. In fact Asian countries are the worst ones. Cairo, Delhi and Kolkata hold the world’s title for being the most air polluted, which is nothing to be proud of. As a country in general, China holds the first place, and below them comes the United States and then Russia, with levels of pollution that seem unreal. Our neighbor in the north has Pittsburgh, Fresno and Los Angeles holding the less than honorable positions. But just because there are cities or countries with more pollution than ours doesn’t mean that our own nation is doing well at all.
After finding out all the causes and dangers now it’s time to find short and long term solutions to this situation. Car companies have started to create hybrid ones, in order to increase fuel efficiency. Cities all over the world have started to plan ahead in this topic. That is why they have implemented transportation and zoning restrictions. There have also been initiatives to use cleaner fuels such as biodiesel and bio-ethanol. Companies have also started to worry about creating items that can keep control over mercury, dioxin, furan and nitrogen. Moving on to individual actions as citizens we can probably start to bike to school instead of using our cars and maybe taking less airplanes. Also, recycling is very helpful and we should implement not only in schools but in streets and common areas. All of these ideas to should not be left as just simple initiatives but we should start paying more attention to them and actually executing them.
Now we’ve realized the danger that we’ve caused to our environment. It is important to say that this issue did not suddenly arise in the last fifteen or twenty years but it is a consequence of our lack of care. It is sad to see that once we see the issue ahead of us we truly worry and we start finding who is guilty for this but the reality is that is has built up over the last century. We should not back down, and we should come up with more and more campaigns and actions to keep people aware. Many humans do not realize because it is actually not affecting them directly but there will be a day when we will pay for our lack of conscience. We could talk for days about ideas and plans but it is up to us to start acting. If we all contribute then it will be simpler, and maybe one day we’ll have a green environment with a blue sky.
Air pollution can be described as the chemicals that harm living things, the atmosphere and the environment in general. Some of the major chemicals are the ones mixed with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide and monoxide. All of these are located in something related to human activity. These activities include the use of power plants, motor vehicles, aerosol sprays, toxic gases, waste deposition and many more. Also, we can see as pollutants the use of smoke, radon gas, methane, volcanic activity and others. The already mentioned activities are not only harming the environment but they have started to harm our health. There have been several physical difficulties that have been arising thanks to this issue such as asthma, bronchitis and some heart and lung diseases. As we can see this issue is affecting everyone around the world and therefore it is time to save not only the environment but our own lives which can easily be in danger.
We might think that the place that we live in is extremely air polluted, but there are many places in the world that are in a far worse situation. I was born in Mexico City and I thought that it was the most polluted city in the world. The sky was always grey or brown, there was garbage everywhere and it just felt uncomfortable. But after making my research I realized that my birth city is not even in the top ten. In fact Asian countries are the worst ones. Cairo, Delhi and Kolkata hold the world’s title for being the most air polluted, which is nothing to be proud of. As a country in general, China holds the first place, and below them comes the United States and then Russia, with levels of pollution that seem unreal. Our neighbor in the north has Pittsburgh, Fresno and Los Angeles holding the less than honorable positions. But just because there are cities or countries with more pollution than ours doesn’t mean that our own nation is doing well at all.
After finding out all the causes and dangers now it’s time to find short and long term solutions to this situation. Car companies have started to create hybrid ones, in order to increase fuel efficiency. Cities all over the world have started to plan ahead in this topic. That is why they have implemented transportation and zoning restrictions. There have also been initiatives to use cleaner fuels such as biodiesel and bio-ethanol. Companies have also started to worry about creating items that can keep control over mercury, dioxin, furan and nitrogen. Moving on to individual actions as citizens we can probably start to bike to school instead of using our cars and maybe taking less airplanes. Also, recycling is very helpful and we should implement not only in schools but in streets and common areas. All of these ideas to should not be left as just simple initiatives but we should start paying more attention to them and actually executing them.
Now we’ve realized the danger that we’ve caused to our environment. It is important to say that this issue did not suddenly arise in the last fifteen or twenty years but it is a consequence of our lack of care. It is sad to see that once we see the issue ahead of us we truly worry and we start finding who is guilty for this but the reality is that is has built up over the last century. We should not back down, and we should come up with more and more campaigns and actions to keep people aware. Many humans do not realize because it is actually not affecting them directly but there will be a day when we will pay for our lack of conscience. We could talk for days about ideas and plans but it is up to us to start acting. If we all contribute then it will be simpler, and maybe one day we’ll have a green environment with a blue sky.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution-overview.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution
http://top-10-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Mexico-City-Mexico-Pollution.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2066/2419349567_f645b0da81.jpg
