Author: Brian Merchant
Publication Date: 4/27/11
Link: http://wwww.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/half-america-regular-breathes-unhealthy-polluted-air.php?campaign=th_rss
Graphic: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://earthtrends.wri.org/images/Effects-Chart.jpg&imgrefurl=http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/325&usg=_7317MjmsXB7o8rI1bem-aImSDOA=&h=470&w=450 This shows a chart of all the pollutants commonly released by air pollution and their sources and health effects. Also, if you click on the link that says website for this image on google, the website is very helpful and has good information on air pollution.
Summary: Can you really wrap your mind around the fact that more than half our population lives in places where it is unhealthy to breathe?This statistic is mindboggling and the major sources of this pollution are the same sources there have been for the last decade. Those sources include: auto emissions, oil refineries, and factories, just to name a few. Despite the fact that our air quality is getting better and there is a trend of improvement, we still have 154 million Americans that routinely breath in air that is detrimental to human health. Something needs to be done in order to improve the health and safety of our country. The Clean Air Act is one of the most powerful laws that has helped us keep air pollution levels decreasing, but in addition, something must be passed or created.
Opinion/Reflection: I think that this is a very concerning statistic and article. Not only are millions of Americans, being put at high risk for asthma, lung cancer, and possibly death, but the air is still being polluted and climate changes are happening. The same sources have remained for the past 10 years, yet scientists and others have yet to come up with a solution. Sure, there are alternative energy sources, but those sources have some downfalls and are usually expensive, whereas fossil fuels can be cheap and can produce a lot of energy. The way that this ties in to my life is that my relatives live in California and if they were to die of lung cancer, it would probably be related to the terrible air pollution there. All in all, this is a serious problem and hopefully this study will raise awareness about the dangerous situation we are in.
3 Questions:
1. Are you concerned about this statistic?
2. Should there be another law in adddition to the Clean Air Act? If so, what would the law say and prohibit/regulate?
3. Do you think that Horsham and areas around Philadelphia are part of the 154 million Americans breathing in unhelathy pollutants?
Opinion: I think that this study is very important for people to realize that we need to do an even better job at trying to use less fossil fuels. However, our air quality is getting better it will just take some time to get rid of all the pollutants in the air. Talking about cities in California with a lot of air pollution from factories and cars makes me think of philadelphia which is very close to this area. So the air in our community could be worse than communities that are farther away from philly. My grandparents live in philly and I know that my grandpa goes walking for hours almost every day. Knowing that the air quality is not the greatest makes me worry if he could be breathing in bad air every day.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Questions:
1) I am a little concerned that this statistic is too high and that we need to get more places to have better air quality. I also know that this takes time so we are not going to see immidiate results.
2) The clean air act is pretty specific to what is needed to keep the air clean. I just think that more people need to follow it.
3) Horsham might be one of those cities that has a bad air quality, especially being right next to philly.
Here is a picture of the air in philadelphia on a hot day.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cleancutmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Philadelphia-Pollution-Cities.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cleancutmedia.com/articles/top-10-most-polluted-toxic-cities-in-the-us&usg=__bsMMh5P1TbedfdtVzmV1o8o5j6U=&h=340&w=485&sz=26&hl=en&start=0&sig2=znJfbQ3Soxer8dvmxmRqrw&zoom=1&tbnid=BgG3dAJvVM7m1M:&tbnh=146&tbnw=204&ei=TqLnTfH6EsTi0gGbrejFCg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpollution%2Bin%2Bphiladelphia%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1004%26bih%3D612%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=609&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=84&ty=102
Opinion: I agree. This study made others realize that it can happen anywhere. Bad air quality is unfair to everything living in it. If we have particles of harmful gasses floating around, we should really expect to see some type of negative impact. The way this can relate to me is my aunt has a friend from Kenya, and he says that when he came to visit here around April, there was a big difference in the scenery. Of course he didn't directly say air, but scenery certainly contains it. He also thought that when we were just going down the street, that there was heavy traffic, when there was only about one car passing by every 5-15 seconds. It just shows what a difference there is in air quality from continent to continent.
ReplyDeleteGraphic- http://www.petrolplaza.com/news/industry/MiZlbiYxMTM5NCYmMQ==
if you scroll down, there is a picture of a very clear day in Africa.
Answers:
1) Yes, it is disappointing to see that "more than half is in bad conditions" state, because that usually means we’ve hit the point of no return, but maybe we can reverse this one.
2) Yes, it would State that areas that have the worse conditions but the most people, should be evacuated and cleaned up before anything worse gets happening.
3) Yes, just like the diagram Mrs. DeLuca showed us, our area was one of the places with the most particulate pollution, so I'm only guessing that just maybe we qualify as part of the 154 million Americans
This was a good article, but not totally surprising. I'm sure we're all aware from science class that some of the particulates in the air can be extremely harmful and deadly, like sulfer and nitrogen dioxide. The currently poplutaion of the United States is 307,006,550 people. If there are 154 million americans being exposed, that's about half. This isn't good. I think the clean air act should be more enforced to ensure the saftey of Americans. However, it said in the article that 154 million americans are just expoxsed to it, that doesn't mean that their health is affected by it.
ReplyDeleteQuestions I have:
1. How many people die per year from bad air quality?
2. Will there be anymore laws regarding air quality?
Answers to Questions:
1. I am a little concernced,because of the fact that this is about half of Americans. However, this just means they are exposed to it. It doesn't mean they aren't healthy from it.
3. Horsham, no because we are a very suburban area with pretty good air quality. Philadeplphia, yes because it's a big city with lots of cars and such.