Patricia Muench
3/1/09
Exercise #4: Final Discovery Chapter (Integrating Your Research and Writing)
Air is in constant circulation throughout our atmosphere. As soon as someone or something disrupts that air, it affects everyone and everything in the environment. Above all of the environmental issues that our society faces today, clean air is the most important environmental issue according to Mary Francis Carlsen. Throughout the world, air quality is decreasing due to multiple reasons. However, there are many ways at individual, local, state, federal, and international levels that can prevent the decreasing quality of air. At the age of 85 years old, Mary Francis Carlsen, a retired nurse, wants to make certain that the air her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren breathe is not going to affect their health in the future.
Clean air is an environmental issue that the government will constantly be dealing with throughout everyone’s existence. With this in mind, Mary Francis Carlsen is very concerned that the air her family breathes will affect their health. This statement coincides with the three-fourths majority of people that strongly disagreed with the question from the survey, “We don’t need to worry about the environment because future generations will be better able to deal with these problems”. This shows that many others feel the same way as Mary Francis Carlsen, which further explains why many people answered that they would sign a petition in support of tougher environmental laws. Mary Francis Carlsen is also worried about air pollution locally, especially because there are so many gasoline-powered cars on the roads all over the world. As she has said, the greenhouse gases are affecting, besides people, animals that are around cars. About 77% of the people who took the survey agreed that pollution generated locally harms people all over the planet. Also, to further go along with air pollution affecting other species as well, about 86% of the people who took the survey agreed that we should care about what pollution does to other species. Mary Francis Carlsen is still worried about her family’s health, and she is hoping that there will be a solution to this issue. Unfortunately, and even 77% of the surveyed people agreed, the affects of pollution on public health are worse than we realize. President Obama is planning to increase the use of hybrid cars, and Mary Francis Carlsen thought that this is one way we might actually be able to improve the content of our air.
Although Mary Francis Carlsen notices that President Obama and his administration are doing everything they can to deal with the issue of clean air, she still feels like there are many environmental issues that are being neglected. Mary Francis Carlsen strongly feels that humans do not have the right to modify the environment to suit their needs. This coincides with her opinion that claims of current pollution levels changing the earth’s climate are exaggerated. In order to solve or improve the issue of cleaner air, it does not mean to her that humans must take from the environment whatever they want just for their own survival. She feels that humans must live in harmony with nature in order to survive. This means that we cannot just use plants and animals to help our survival. We need to help plants and animals survive as well. In order to improve the quality of air, Mary Francis Carlsen would campaign for a Green Candidate, and she will continue to donate money to funds helping the survival of animals. In her opinion, there has to be ways for people to have more of a say on what the government does dealing with any of the environmental issues.
Air is a vital source that we cannot get out of using, and yet, there are many pollutants that are affecting this air that we breathe. For a couple of decades now, our society has been dealing with the issue of increased air pollution (Dockery & Pope, 1994). In particular, public health around the world has been proven to be affected by air pollution, especially with increased sicknesses and death. Mostly increased numbers of respiratory diseases were coming about at the start of the 1970’s (Dockery & Pope, 1994). Holland and British scientists proved that air pollutions were risks to health, but only at high dosages. However, with smaller dosages of air pollution, they could not distinguish the cause of health risks, compared to other factors besides air pollution (Dockery & Pope, 1994). The environment that you reside in also has an effect on the public health, especially in more urban areas. Particulate air pollutants and aerosols are what is affecting society’s air the most (Dockery & Pope, 1994). Many scientists have done studies to regulate air quality, such as the people that work for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program. Within this specific department, they examine precipitation and the amounts of elements that are in the precipitation such as ammonium, chloride, and hydrogen. A focus of this department is discovering how much mercury is in the precipitation (NADP).
The particles that are in the air range in size, which means that the bigger they are, they may affect society more. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made the cutoff for particle size 10 micrometres, which means they will have more monitoring on particle sizes bigger than this size (Dockery & Pope, 1994). There are six common air pollutants called nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, ozone, and particulate matter (U.S. EPA). Within the clean air act, there are National Ambient Air Quality Standards for pollutants harmful to the environment. Primary standards protect public health, while secondary standards protect public welfare (U.S. EPA). For a while now in Fairfax County, Virginia, cars have been the leading source of carbon monoxide. In 2002, cars in Fairfax County produced almost two million tons of carbon monoxide (U.S. EPA). In 2002, the act of fossil fuel combustion produced almost twenty tons of lead (U.S. EPA).
One of the main pollutants called nitrogen dioxide is another leading pollutant in Fairfax, Virginia, with the county producing over twenty thousand tons of this pollutant just from cars (U.S. EPA). Nitrogen Dioxide is similar to carbon monoxide because you cannot see or smell the pollutant, along with the effects being similar as well. Nitrogen Dioxide is usually produced by fuel-burning products such as fireplaces. In addition to this, people with asthma can get very irritated from this pollutant, and in the long run, may even develop bronchitis. To avoid these harmful amounts of Nitrogen Dioxide, there are some guidelines that you should follow. Some of the guidelines are not leaving a car running in a closed garage, crack open a window when using a heater, and have heating systems cleaned annually by professionals. If the emission of this harmful pollutant is left untreated, it can cause much irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat (U.S. EPA).
The smoking of cigarettes is another problem that affects the clean air of our country. Out of the men and women that live in this country, 41.6% of the population smoke cigarettes (American Heart Association). At the National Center for Environmental Assessment, there are an increased number of cases dealing with respiratory diseases coming about through passive/second-hand smoking. There are about 3,000 deaths in the United States every year from respiratory diseases caused by passive/second-hand smoking Another negative aspect of passive/second-hand smoking is that it worsens the cases of asthma within children of the United States (U.S. EPA). A new known human carcinogen is Environmental Tobacco Smoke. Unfortunately, about 90% of the population in the United States that do not smoke is exposed to some form of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (American Heart Association).
The approach to cleaner air is what the debate is all about throughout the nation. Former President George W. Bush hosted a closed meeting to discuss a legislation dealing with air pollution. His plan was to increase emission standards for the main pollutants in order to go decrease their levels back to the amounts from the year 1990. On the contrary, many fear that emissions due to installation of pollution control equipment will increase too high. Overall, throughout the debate, there are definite arguments that are fighting to revise standards of the Clean Air Act, specifically the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (Jeff Johnson, 2001).
President Obama and his administration are desperately trying to improve the air quality. One plan that he is trying to instate is the increased use of hybrid cars and electric cars. President Obama is planning to invest $150 billion throughout the course of ten years in order to carry forward the work of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to produce more of these types of cars (White House). One of the main reasons for not having clean air is because of the large number of gasoline-powered cars used throughout the country. Throughout the news, there are more advertisements about which car companies are coming out with a series of hybrid cars. With the increased amounts of conversations about how gasoline-powered cars are bad for the environment, many car companies are starting to catch on to the hints. Mitsubishi is coming out with a hybrid car in the year 2013. GM is releasing an electric car in 2012. Lastly, Volkswagen is coming out with a hybrid car called the “rabbit” in 2010 (NBC). According to Andrew Williams, by 2020, every new car that is produced will be a hybrid car. However, this is an overly hopeful thought, even though hybrid cars will drop down the use of fossil fuels greatly (NBC). With the help of President Obama’s plans to increased use of hybrid and electric cars, along with the increased media coverage about hybrid cars, this country may be on its way to having cleaner air.
As a result of clean air being a popular issue among society, there are many ways that people are trying to come up with eco-friendly products and chemicals. Industrialized nations have an advantage because they are more advanced and they have more resources. However, developing nations, such as countries in Africa, have the opportunity to get eco-friendly products from the plants throughout the land of their countries (Gray & Katembo, 2007). Throughout Africa, Central and South America, Caribbean, India, and Southeast Asia, they have an abundance of Jatropha, which can also help their income of money. Jatropha is biofuel source that has the ability to cut down the use of fossil fuels, and can also act as a substitute for diesel fuel (Gray & Katembo, 2007). Jatropha will produce a renewable energy source, which may help combat global warming as well. Due to the long lifespan that this plant has, Africa has the ability to become the world’s biggest supplier for the plant. In conclusion, the plant Jatropha will help combat multiple environmental issues, and with this in mind, it may be the perfect solution towards having cleaner air.
Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking much action towards working for cleaner air, there is still so much more about the air the agency has to take care of. There are new obstacles everyday about what gets mixed into the air we breathe, but we just have to keep coming up with ways to avoid those damages to the air. With the large source of over five hundred environmental organizations worldwide, we are on our way towards getting cleaner air. Improving air quality needs both individual and worldwide population support. Overall, Mary Francis Carlsen should still have some worries about her future generations of her family having clean air, but it all depends on how much new technology will be invented to help our situations in today’s society. In the end, Mary Francis Carlsen, along with many other people, will live by the quote from Desiderata, “You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.” In other words, every species on this earth has the same right to be here, and so it is our job to take care of the earth.
American
Heart Association. 9 February 2009. 9 February 2009
<http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4559>.
The American Heart Association talks about the statistics and effects of second-hand smoking. There are so many people in today's world that smoke and fill the air with carcinogens, which affects other people's health. Cigarette smoke affects our air by making it polluted by the many chemicals that can damage our health. This is a topic that has been discussed all through the media and the different levels of government for years. The American Heart Association is also been around fully since the year 1949, and there are many well-known scientists and researchers that are members of this association, so it is credible.
D. W. Dockery, and C. A. Pope. "Acute Respiratory Effects of Particulate Air Pollution." 1994. Annual Reviews: a non-profit scientific publisher. 9 February 2009 <http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.pu.15.050194.000543>.
This was a scholarly journal article that came from Harvard School of Public Health. The authors are part of the environmental epidemiology program. This article talks about particulate air pollution, which clearly pertains to the fight towards cleaner air. Particulate air pollution has not necessarily been discussed in detail throughout the media, but the overall topic of air pollution has. It helps talk about how long the U.S. has been dealing with the issue of air pollution. It also explains a small variety of guidelines that the U.S. Environmental Protection has.
Katembo, B. I., & Gray, P. S. (2007). Africa, Seeds, and Biofuel. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research , 1-6. <http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/1101.pdf>
This
scientific journal article was about a possible source that can take
away the
use of diesel fuel. It was also dealing with Jatropha, which may help
boost
Africa's economies. This benefits the essay because these two examples
can help
solve the issue of air pollution. The authors also are professors that
specialize in the topics needed for the different issues. Overall, this
source
provided an example that may help solve multiple issues among certain
developing nations.
National Atmospheric Deposition Program. 2009. 9 February 2009 <http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/nadpoverview.asp>.
This program was used as an example to show how science plays a role in the clean air issue. With the water from the air, the scientists from the program study this water and see if it is clean. Overall, this program is a way to show how studies are done in order to help the issue towards getting cleaner air. This program has not been mentioned in the news, but it is a nationwide-known program because the program works with other various research programs across the nation.
NBC New York. 9 February 2009. 9 February 2009 < http://www.nbcnewyork.com/results/?keywords=electric+cars&sort=date>.
This was the source that had many articles pertaining to the issue of electric cars. Electric cars are one of the inventions that will help towards getting cleaner air. It is a substitute for the regular cars that are in society today using up a lot of petroleum, which is one of the things that harms the environment, the most. It also shows how the topic of electric cars is a widely discussed topic throughout the media lately. The production of electric cars is something our society is currently trying to pursue in order to help the environment by having cleaner air. They are all of the articles from the press, which NBC is a nationally recognized news team.
The White House. 2009. 9 February 2009 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/>.
President Obama is an avid supporter towards the fight for cleaner air. He is the one that is trying to instate more funding towards the invention of hybrid cars, so that it can speed up the process towards having cleaner air. The White House governmental website is our official United States government website, and it can tell us exactly how much President Obama plans to spend in this area of the nation's budget. Not only is this one of the priorities in his environment section of his agenda, it is also a priority in the technology section as well. President Obama's plan to produce more hybrid cars is discussed every so often on the news channels as well.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2009. 9 February 2009 <http://www.epa.gov/>.
This was the most important source out of all of the sources for many reasons. This website was a government website specifically geared towards topics about the environment. It discussed in great detail the Clean Air Act. A few other topics were the National Center for Environmental Assessment, Air Emission Standards, and the Air Quality Standards. This was the biggest help because it showed all the different ways of what the government is doing to solve this issue. When people in the media talk about different environmental issues, this organization is always brought up at least once. This agency also provided me with a lot of statistics about studies done dealing with air quality and other events going on in the air.