Air pollution 'will become bigger global killer than dirty water'
Beijing China is one of the cities estimated to be hit hardest by air pollution.
Air pollution has become a bigger killer to humans than poor sanitation and the lack of clean drinking water. It is estimated that approximately 3.6 million people per year will be prematurely killed due to air pollution by 2050. That is almost 140 billion people, and the majority of the deaths are expected to be in China and India. The richer ocuntries are also expected to get hit harder because of their ground level ozone and their elderly populations--elderly people are more receptive to health problems. A recent report from the OCED revealed four key areas of main concern: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, water, and the health results of pollution. If current policies are allowed to carry on, the world will far exceed the levels of greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are safe, the report found. If countries don't use cleanerr energy, emissions are expected to increase as much as half of what they are now.
Opinion:
It's not surprising that air pollution is expected to kill so many people, and that estimation of casualties is based on the current pollution rate, which will probably rise by 2050 so that means air pollution will kill way more people. The amount of pure oxygen in the atmosphere is a rather small percentage, and it's only going to get smaller. So many people are going to die due to things that were originally thought of to make our lives better, which is ironic. But hopefully over the next few years someone will invent a way to reduce the amount of pollution we put into the air.
Questions:
1)Where else in the world will be heavily impacted by air pollution?
2) Could the government(s) put restrictions on the amount of air pollution we are allowed to emit?
3) How long do you think will it take/ What needs to happen for everyone to realize just how badly we are treating the earth? What do you think will happen afterwards?
OPINION:
ReplyDeleteI think that we had to have known that things like this would happen anyway when we began to pollute more and more. The increasiing population is just making the issue worse. If we dont minimize the amount of pollution we put in the air, eventually, it will become too big of a problem to fix. I also feel that I can relate to this very well. My brother went to china over the summer and brought back a ton of pictures. He showed me and my family and most pictures had a visible foggy appearance which I knew was smog. However, I had not known that it had become this bad. In summary, I think that we should try to do what we can to make our air cleaner now!
Question #2:
The government could certainly put regulations on the companies that contribute to this. This would probably help to an extent, but not where we would like the pollution levels to be. I think it would be a similar situation to the natural gas companies. These companies would just find ays around the laws in order to get ahead and get rich. And thats the problem; people are beginning to care less and less about the environment, amnd more about themselves.
Opinion
ReplyDeleteI think that air pollution is one of the worst types of pollution. Air is what we breath and if we are being damaged while breathing this could potientally cause many deaths. As it said in the summary air pollution is going to kill more people than the dirty water in China. I beleive that overpopulation is the reason that this issue became so bad. Also industrial nations as I learned in class don't have regulations to stop them from putting great amounts of emissons into the atmosphere. China is adding onto global warming which is harming our enviroonment greatly. All the elderly people in India and China will not be able to with stand the conditions where they are living.
Question 2
I beleive that the United Nations could make a law or regulations to cut down the amount of emissions that are being shot into the atmosphere. People don't understand what they are doing to the earth and that they are not the only generations that will place a foot on this earth. We have no back up planet to go to, this is it and if we ruin it humanity is finshed. Governments should take a stand and shut down some factories and possibly put carbon dioxide taxes on factories. The amount of greenhouse gases you put in the air will cost you money. This issue needs to be fixed and stopped.
Air pollution is becoming a big problem now. Population, and industrialization are making the problem worse. The population of many countries has risen because of increased agriculture, and technology advancements. With the increased population it will be easier to get air pollution. When the population increases the number of transportation does too. Industrialization is a big problem because factories produce air pollution with the chemicals they release. Their can also be many problems that go wrong inside these factories.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2)
The goverenment can certainly put regulation on air pollution. Just because their are regulations on it does not mean that people will listen. The government can't watch everyone so their will be people who break the rules once in a while.
Opinion: I think that air pollution is one of the worse types of pollutions. Air pollutin is causing our ozone layer to become gradually thinner and thinner; without the ozone layer we won't be protected as much from the sun's harmful rays. I also do not find it surprising that air pollution is a major problem with deaths. It is sad to think that people are dying just so we can produce more and more goods to ship (more pollution) all around the world. However, what did surprise me was the number of people that are supposedly going to die/be effected by air pollution in 2050. I agree with Melissa that it will make sence because the population is rising, so of course it will effect more people. There are many little ways that we can help to reduce air pollution every day; even if they don't seem like alot, if everyone does them it will all add up. For example, we could take the bus to school insted of everyone driving their own car. Also, we could carpool more often if we are all going to the same place. These are just two examples of how we can help, but there are a ton more!
ReplyDeleteQuestion #2:
I think the government should be allowed to make laws on how much pollution a factory is allowed to emit in a given day. I think there may already be regulations that must be followed to reduce pollution, but I'm not really sure. I agree with Zach that even if the government does make laws, it does not mean that people will listen; it would almost impossible to check up on all of the factories to be sure that they are following the law. I believe the government should take action and do something to help reduce the amount of air pollution in the world.