Air Pollution
By: Rachel Durham
What is air pollution?
Definition- Contamination of air by smoke and harmful gases, mainly oxides of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen.
This means that the pollution let off from our cars, factories, and many more of our everyday necessities mixes with our air and causes many harmful things to us and the Earth. These harmful affects are causing problems for us now and even more later.
This means that the pollution let off from our cars, factories, and many more of our everyday necessities mixes with our air and causes many harmful things to us and the Earth. These harmful affects are causing problems for us now and even more later.
What countries are the top contributers or air pollution?
- China
- United States
- Russia
- India
- Japan
- Germany
- Canada
- Britain
- South Korea
- Iran
What are some of the effects of air pollution?
How is air pollution affecting people?
Air pollution can be in a form called particulate matter. this can be harmful to people's health depending on the length of exposure and the concentration and chemicals that the person is exposed to.
Short- term effects- irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, and upper respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, headaches, nausea, and allergic reactions. Can also effect people with asthma and emphysema.
Long- term effects- chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Can also effect the lungs of young children and can aggravate medical conditions in the elderly.
Short- term effects- irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, and upper respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, headaches, nausea, and allergic reactions. Can also effect people with asthma and emphysema.
Long- term effects- chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Can also effect the lungs of young children and can aggravate medical conditions in the elderly.
How is air pollution effecting the climate?
One other major effect of air pollution is the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is when greenhouse gasses (Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) are released in to the air and do not escape our atmosphere. All of these gasses are naturally released into our atmosphere but when more of them our releases it clogs up out atmosphere. this means that the heat from the sun rays can get in but, it makes it harder for them the heat to be released.this is slowly heating up Earth and causing the average temperatures to rise.
Since the Earth heating up this is damaging some of the earths animal species. when you damage a species habit it causes many of them to die off and it could even become extinct. When you affect one animal in the food web you affect many more.
Solutions
solution #1
Using renewable energy sources such as Wind, water, solar, etc.
Pros:
Pros:
- Renewable source
- Abundance
- Cheaper Electrical bills
- Tax benefits
- Don't have to rely on a third country
Cons:
- Not easy to set up plant
- Costs lots of money in the beginning
- You can't use solar at night
- Wind energy can effect birds
- It costs lots of money to build dams for water energy
Solution #2
Conserving energy in out everyday lives
Pros:
Pros:
- Less energy is used
- lower bills
- We save more fossil fuels
- Less CO2 let off
Cons:
- Could effect our daily lives
- Some people don't like change
- It would be hard to get lots of people to conserve energy
- It would effect how we mass produce items
My Pick of solutions
I think the best solution right now is a combination of the two solutions. I think we should start conserving energy and while were doing that we should be building and thinking of new was to produce energy.