Air Pollution: Interconnection Of Science, Technology And Environment

Air pollution

“One hundred and fifty years ago, the monster began.” by Patrick Ness. Ness described how our life changed after the growth of technology in this quote of his novel ‘The Monster Cells’. The world has become more and more industrialized over the past century and as a result, people started to work in factories and industries without thinking about pollution. The environment became nothing compared to money. Urbanization became popular and people started to move to urban areas for better jobs and a better quality of life. Consequently, air pollution started to spread around the world. The sky became full of fog, but people didn’t realize that this fog formed because of Air Pollution. Air pollution is a mixture of natural or chemical substances in the air that damage the earth biologically, economically and physiologically which affects both of humans, plants and animals. People were and continue to die because of the polluted air they breathe, forests started to Shrink, the animals began to become extinct and rivers became waterless. This is the monster that Patrick Ness tried to describe.

Have you ever thought that you are healthy because you just eat food and drink water and only do healthy things? Did you know that air pollution can kill whatever you spend time working on in your body? This means that instead of having muscles, you may get cancer. For example, 800,000 people die from air pollution in Europe every year and 7% of them die because of lung cancer (According to EUROPEAN HEART Journal 2019). Air pollution is typically separated into two categories: outdoor air pollution and indoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution occurs in buildings and houses. It refers to chemicals, (related to the body function of living things) and physical contamination of indoor air. The primary wellspring of indoor air contamination is biomass smoke which contains suspended particulate and nitrogen dioxide. However, outdoor air pollution is the most well-known air toxin that conveys hazardous wellbeing impacts. The most widely recognized of outdoor air pollution are emanations brought about by ignition forms from engine vehicles, strong fuel consuming and industry.

In 1979, Dong Xiao came to power in China. He tried to find a way to feed a billion people. So, he decided to rein in population growth. He imposed a draconian new policy called the one-child rule. The one-child rule means that every parent should have only one child and If someone breaks the law, the government may take the second child and kill it. Population control was his first step towards the goal of turning China into a modern nation. Then, his next step was to make China rich by increasing the economy. He did not realize that what he was doing was so harmful for the environment. After the growth of the economy, China became a developed country and it emits huge amounts of outside and indoor air pollution consistently. China has a very large population, which increases air pollution. Now, after 25 years after dong xiao came to power, China is the world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic air pollutants, and measurable amounts of Chinese pollution are transported to other countries, including the United States by the wind. Moreover, Air pollution in China has an estimated 267 billion yuan (US$38 billion) off the Chinese economy each year in the form of early deaths and lost food production, a new study has found. This country will continue to harm not only its environment but its citizens too.

Even though there are some people who cooperate against the high air pollution level and try to decrease it by different ways, they still are too many people who are uncooperative and ignoring this issue by continuing doing activities that produce more air pollution to this earth. There are two causes of air pollution: Humans and natural sources. Human activity is the main cause of air pollution, especially in large cities. Human air pollution causes things like factories, power plants, cars, planes, chemicals, vapours from spray cans and methane from landfills. One way humans cause air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels. If we think about how our daily day looks like, we will find that we cause air pollution directly by using electricity, transportation, and even cooking, but we also cause air pollution by buying goods and services that use energy in their production and delivery. The second main cause is natural resources. Some of the natural sources of air pollution are organic compounds from plants, sea salt, suspended soils and dust. In addition, some sources are released during catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires. Large amounts of harmful gases and smoke are released which can increase background pollution levels for years.

Some of the environmental issues have positive and negativities effects except air pollution. Air pollution has many negative effects such as Respiratory infections، global warming، Depletion of the ozone layer and the formation of acid rain. Air pollution is the leading cause of diseases respiratory air exposure to pollutants can cause lung cancer and even asthma and both of them can lead to death if not well treated. However, global warming is also leading to rising sea levels, rising temperatures in the world, and the melting of ice glaciers. It is a direct effect of air pollution in the world. On the other hand, the ozone layer is important in shielding the earth from destructive ultraviolet (UV) radiation, but the Greenhouse effect release of chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere led to the depletion of the ozone layer. The last effect is the formation of acid rain. Acid rain is caused by a chemical reaction that begins when compounds like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the air. These substances can rise very high into the atmosphere, where they mix and react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form more acidic pollutants, known as acid rain.

Always be a part of the Solution, not a part of Air Pollution. People believe that air pollution is significant and they must do something to reduce it, but they don’t take any action. They wait for governments and organizations to do something, but they don’t know that they are the problem that should solve first. So, who is responsible for reducing air pollution? coalition for clean air(CCA) was founded in 1971, at a time when clean air in California seemed almost unimaginable. It protects public health, improves air quality and prevents climate change. The second organization is the Clean Air Task Force. It is a nonprofit environmental organization that works to help safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid global development and deployment of low carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies through research and analysis, public advocacy leadership. The third organization is Earthjustice. It is a non-profit public interest organization based in the United States dedicated to litigating environmental issues. They PROTECTING IMPACTED COMMUNITIES in polluted areas by ensuring national standards are applied to clean up dirty air. They are using their decades of legal experience enforcing the Clean Air Act and other laws to force improvements in air quality throughout the country and at the most polluting industrial facilities.

In conclusion, air pollution is one of the biggest issues caused by human and natural sources that we should overcome to see tomorrow and give our kids a better life. We should remember that air pollution kills 4.6 million people each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution. Many of these mortalities are attributable to indoor air pollution. Worldwide more deaths per year are linked to air pollution than to automobile accidents. We can not wait until organizations do something. You have to take an action and Encourage people to stop air pollution, tell them everything you know about this problem, and protest against local polluters together. People should know everything about all consequences of the environmental pollution in order to prevent the worst from happening. Let’s protect the air in order to breathe every day.