Essay/Term paper: Air pollution

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Society

Air Pollution

Then the sky turned red, toxins over head, everybodies dead, everybodies dead.
(GutterMouth; Nitro Records; 1995)


In 1948, the industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania suffered 28 deaths
because of the thick smog. Air pollution is an ecological problem having to do
with toxins in the air. There are a few things the human race has done to try
to prevent air pollution from taking such a serious toll. Two of these are the
Clean Air Acts and the increased use of solar power over coal power. By
creating electric cars, the pollution caused by gasoline powered cars will be
lessened. If the pollution is not stopped, it will cause life on earth as we
know it to cease.
Air pollution causes a number of health and ecological problems. It
causes health problems like cancer, emphysema, and asthma. It also causes the
depletion of the ozone layer which results in global warming and melting of the
ice caps. Up until the industrial era, the air was fairly clean. The use of
smokestacks and the burning of fuels put many pollutants in the air during this
period of time. The increased use of fossil fuels today also builds on this.
There have been many attempts at stopping air pollution. The Clean Air
Acts were effective for a little while. They made using some polluting
substances illegal. This did not work because people simply did not listen.
Solar Energy is another attempted solution. This type of energy is good
because it is an alternative energy source to coal and other polluting fossil
fuels. The problem with solar energy is that it is extremely expensive, but it
has been used extensively throughout the world.
One of the more effective ways of eliminating air pollution is the
making of electric cars. The use of these electric cars would completely
reduce the amount of pollution in the air caused by gasoline powered cars.
These cars are run on batteries instead of gasoline or other fuel. Though the
use of solar cars seems more realistic, it would also be very expensive and
unreliable. The difference primarily between solar and electrical power is the
fact that solar cars would be much more expensive to make. The possibilities of
making a cost efficient electric car are much more realistic than making a cost
efficient solar car.
By making the ecologically safe and inexpensive electric car, the
pollution caused by gasoline powered cars would go down. Without making these
changes, the globe will continue to heat up at an annual rate of .2 degrees a
year which will result in the melting of the ice caps. If this were to happen,
the water would rise 200 feet, flooding most of the earth.
The Earth's ecosystem is a little bit like a web. It is very fragile
and depends on all of its strands to maintain stableness. If the air is
polluted it disrupts this web creating a total imbalance. This "total
imbalance" would also occur if the water was polluted. In effect, when one part
falls they all do. Believe me, "total imbalance" is not cool.