Becca Russell
Eng 151 Project 3
Feb 15, 2011
Air pollution
Do you notice all the fumes from big trucks and semi’s on the roads? That’s air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 2 million premature deaths are caused each year due to air pollution in cities across the world(Buzzle.com). Too much gases evaporating into the sky causes air pollution. In big cities, like I said before, the vehicles exhaust fumes pollute the air, and air pollution from people driving cars is known to be the most dangerous act one can make. Construction sites and the work industry is also a big factor of polluting the air. Out on country roads, the tractors that are out there working on their crops and fields gives off a ton of bad air pollution. Everyday you notice cars driving on dirt roads, and you never really think anything of it, but that‘s also a huge part of it as well. Everything that I just talked about are some causes of air pollution, but one more that I want to state is the smoke being thrown into the air as people make bon fires and what not; that is still non healthy smoke fumes going into the air. If there’s not a healthy environment, that calls for a non healthy citizen population. Air pollution is very dangerous, however such high levels are not as common in the United States anymore, but I, as well as other people I’m sure, want to live in a completely clean area. It’s harmful to our health, bad for the farmer’s crops, and the wildlife is being damaged day by day. Breathing bad air is poisoning our human bodies, let alone the animals bodies, well. Not many people would disagree on air pollution not being bad, but they would disagree on ways to have the problem be fixed.
I would first like to talk about our own human life being put in danger by all these bad fumes. When air pollution is occurring, different parts of your body are being irritated. For example, breathing it in cause rashes and irritation in the throat, then it will venture on down into your lungs which could eventually lead into respiratory problems like asthma. It’s increased by traffic related air pollution, which deals with adverse cardio respiratory effects, which causes the increase in asthma prevalence. Therefore, traffic related pollution that’s exposed at homes and school may both be a possibility of the contribution to the growth and development of asthma. Air pollution can cause cancer as well. One scientist says, "This evidence that air pollutants can alter chromosomes in utero is troubling since other studies have validated this type of genetic alteration as a biomarker of cancer risk," Perera remarks. "While we can't estimate the precise increase in cancer risk, these findings underscore the need for policymakers at the federal, state and local levels to take appropriate steps to protect children from these avoidable exposures." Also, the dirt and dust that comes into the air from construction sites will also cause damage with air pollution because visibility is reduced tremendously, particularly in the larger cities. The more air pollution gets into your lungs, the more difficult it is to fight off the infections. It also hurts the most obvious part of your body; the eyes, because it’s seeing it first hand. It will make your eyes burn, and you will have some serious coughing along with feeling like you have a weight pressed against your chest. Also, the people who are most prone and affected by air pollution are those with some sort of heart disease. People who work outside a lot (like farmers) are more known to get the bad effects of air pollution, because with their job, they are working so hard, it takes a lot out of them to where they are breathing heavily and breathing heavily multiple times a day. At some points, air pollution becomes extremely high; just depends on who’s working on what, and for how long. Effects of a mass amount of air pollution can even put people in critical condition, as well as even to cause death. People always assume it’s the elder’s getting sick from air pollution, but really, it effects children to a great amount. It just makes them cough a lot and have a hard time breathing. Sometimes, symptoms turn into them having bronchitis. Ear aches are also a big symptom for children. All the pressure and bad chemicals in the sky makes the ears become clogged, then that makes for an ear ache.
My next argument is that air pollution effects the farmer’s crops and/or just plants in general. I found that it really does have effect on plants, Oxidants, Sulfur Dioxide, Fluoride, Ammonia, Particulate Matter, and Injury to vegetation. In general, when high amounts of different types of air pollution is surrounding the crops, they can be hurt. First, you’ll start to notice certain marks on the plants, and eventually it’ll stump the growth of it, and then sometimes the plants life is ended at an early age. An injury is all about what happened to cause it, and how bad is it. Not only does this depend on other other ideas, but also the amount of the exact pollutant we’re dealing with here. The factors that have to deal with this are: what the plant specie is, at what part of the developmental stage it’s in, along with figuring out whether it can have injury, or not have injury, and how long the time length of existence to the certain pollutant.
My third argument is that air pollution is extremely dangerous to our wildlife.
Pollution is one of the primary ways in which humans have caused drastic modifications of wildlife habitat. Historically we have regarded the air, water, and soil that surround us as waste receptacles and have given little consideration to the ecological consequences of our actions. As a result, wildlife populations are confronted with a bewildering array of pollutants that we release into the environment either by intent or accident (Davis). Different types of air pollution can harm the animals face to face right off the bat. For example, acid rain can effect how animals receive rain. It can also team up with other factors that can completely switch and change what animals drink, eat, and what they live on. Pollutants can harm animals directly, but the pollutants can also combine with other factors that change animals' natural resources, like soil, water and nutrients. Air pollution can also directly affect animals’ water supplies through acid rain. It’s all basically just a train. If insects and plants are ruined, that’s what animals eat, so therefore that can cause damage to the wildlife.
Industry gives off a good share of the waste that is polluting our planet, but it’s every person is contributes as well. Government involvement is key to regulating toxins, building waste systems and protecting air and waters (Buchanan). Everyone in the world knows how bad air pollution is to the environment of Earth, but in the past years, you see the more and more ignorance in people and their ways of showing how they really could care less about living a clean area. No one stops to think about what it might do to us and/or the animals. There are so many ways to actually fix this problem, people are just lazy and don’t give it enough thought and attention or people just argue about the different ways to fix the problem. For example on fixing the problem, if you need to go to the grocery store and it’s in walking distance, walk there. The amount of energy that vehicles use will be decreased a whole lot, which means air pollution would be decreased as well. You could also People need to stand up and speak out for what they really believe in. Using more human power can reduce the amount of diabetes and child obesity. If air pollution continues to be as bad as it is today, our environment is going to be so unhealthy and people, I guarentee will start dying at a much younger age. If not death at a young age, people will grow up to have serious problems due to the air pollution they were around and breathed in when they were younger. So, in conclusion, air pollution needs to be decreased due to the harmfulness to us citizens, it’s bad for the farmer’s crops and plants, and our wildlife is loosing its population due to this world issue.
My counterargument deals with to reduce air pollution vs. not even worrying about it. Smoke is everywhere in the world even if it has to deal with tobacco products, wildfires, ect. Wildfires are a big one. As we all know, they cause air pollution. We can’t control the amount of smoke that comes with it. Wildfires are a necessary part of life and nature takes these measures to renew an area of land naturally. With that thought process of some people, other people are just thinking about the simple ways you could reduce it so our environment could be healthier. The amount of driving is a big factor. They say, if it’s walking distance, save the amount of gas an air pollution and walk, or just ride a bicycle. Also, when it comes to shopping, you know everyone wants to drive to the mall and what not, but you could shop by phone or mail as well. People argue that air pollution is the source of what makes our vehicles run and air conditioners, ect. , but then people say that it’s slowly destroying our environment and causing global warming. Due to everything that I have talked about and explained, I think air pollution needs to be reduced tremendously, and I hope other people think about our world and help to reduce it as well.
WORKS CITED
Graham, Sarah. “Air Pollution can affect Fetal Development, Scientists say.” Scientific American. 16 February 2005.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=air-pollution-can-affect.
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