Introduction. 2

Air pollution. 4

Deforestation. 5

Acid rain. 8

The “Green House Effect”. 9

Water pollution. 11

Toxic waste pollution. 14

Environmental movements. 16

Conclusion. 21

Appendix. 23

#1. Rates of deforestation. 23

#2. Carbon Dioxide Emissions per Units of Economic Output 23

# 3 Increase of global surface temperature. 24

References. 25

Introduction

Pollution is probably the most important problem in the world today. One of the reasons it is so important to human beings is that we know that we brought about pollution. Unlike most of the other problems in the world, such as AIDS, pollution is a human creation. Since the beginning of time, whenever human beings changed their environment, they were greatly affected. Areas where pollution is extremely high encounter death rates and disease rates that are sometimes 15 or 20 times more than areas without pollution. Greedy corporations are pushing these problems to areas not ready to encounter this high level of pollution, and if something isn’t done soon to curtail these problems, we will all surely feel the longstanding effects they bring.

During the 1960’s, which I call the “Throwaway” era, Plastics and Styrofoam[1] were thrown away without a care, and now we are finally seeing what that kind of stupidity can cause. At first, children began to understand the drastic changes that the entire world was facing. The planet was changing, and adults were doing nothing to save it. Yet, the polluted planet was being handed to the younger generations, who, while more educated on the topic, were not sufficiently knowledgeable to control earth’s problems. Nowadays, children are leading the environmental revolution. More educated and smarter on the issues that the world is facing, children are changing the planet. Still, all the education in the world cannot counter the pressure that Big Business is putting on the globe. Chemicals, human wastes, toxic wastes, and other kinds of pollution are beyond repair in some cases. Corporations do not care about the planet; they are willing to trade off small environmental risks for jobs and success in individual communities. Of course, most people in those communities don’t realize that them taking a job with these companies is detrimental to their survival.

Whenever I think of pollution’s effect on the world, I think of its effect on innocent human beings. When someone becomes sick or dies of some kind of sickness brought about by pollution, their human rights come into question. I think human rights, although usually reserved for genocide or other acts of evil, can encompass pollution as well. Our human right is simply the right we have to live our lives as we please, to live our lives without being hurt or affected unless we want to, and the basic needs we as human beings have. Pollution brought about by other people on us is not our choice. Therefore, whenever an area where humans live is polluted, it is a violation of that person’s human rights.

Nowadays, in an age where people are starting to fight back against corruption, the average Joe is winning the battle with Big Business. Pollution is being taken on with a vengeance, and people are beginning to notice how nice it is to rid the place they live in of pollution. Laws are being passed day in and day out in order to help the average person in their battle with pollution.

In order to talk about the problems we face today, we must go back hundreds of years to take a look at the effects pollution had on human beings in the past. The Industrial Revolution in both America and Europe let factories pollute the air without regulation. Because of that, the air pollution in certain areas of the world is causing death to this day. Certain cities in the Northeast United States have air that sometimes has 5 or 10 times more soot in it than the International Standard. The English “Black Country” is aptly named that because of the color of the air. For years, people there have lived in an area with the lowest quality of life in Western Europe. “The average live expectancy in “Black Country”, England, is 10 years less than the rest of the country.”[2] The reason not much has been done to change that is because it has been that way for more than 100 years. One of the problems with pollution is that if it becomes common, then people stop caring.
Another problem stemming from years ago is waste disposal. For many years, human waste was just let out into rivers and streams, spreading disease and sickness. A prime example of that is London, England. “By the 1850’s, the Thames River was so polluted that it was portrayed in cartoons with Death rowing along it.”[3] A public outcry then prompted the city to develop a proper sewage system, but years of damage had been done, and the river is still not clean to this day. Another problem dealing with waste disposal is the fact that human waste is still dumped into rivers, lakes, and oceans without the proper treatment. Although the oceans aren’t greatly affected by a small amount of waste, over time it could definitely begin to hurt human interests in them, such as the fishing industry. In rivers and lakes though, there is usually no way for the waste to find its way out of the water. Because of the water systems we use on earth, this could be highly dangerous. “Using dirty water can make everyday activities like washing clothes and bathing dangerous, due to the infection that lies within the bacteria that live on human waste.” (Johnstone, 9) If people continue to use dirty water, that disease will spread to unimaginable levels.

Air pollution

Pollution itself is a very broad category, and there are many different kinds of pollution. One of those is air pollution. Air pollution is probably the longest lasting type of pollution there is. Because of the Industrial Revolution, factories spewed out smoke and chemicals that had never been in contact with human lungs before. To this day the same problem remains. Air pollution, although regulated, cannot be contained in many cases. In certain areas of the world, air pollution is out of control.

Air pollution occurs when wastes dirty the make the air dirty. People produce most of the waste that cause air pollution. Such waste can be in the form of gases or be particulates (particles of solid or liquid manner). These substance result chiefly from burning fuel to power motor vehicles and to heat buildings. industrial processes and the burning of garbage also contribute to air pollution. Natural pollutants include ,pollen,soil particulates, dust, and naturally occuring gases. Also more causes of air pollution are forms of transportation such as automobiles,airplanes,ships, and trains.

It is the immediate effect of air pollution on urban atmospheres that is most noticeable and causes the strongest public reaction. The city of Los Angeles has been noted for both the extent of its air pollution and the actions undertaken for control. Los Angeles lies in a coastal plain, surrounded by mountains that restrict the inward sweep of air and that separate a desert from the coastal climate. Fog moving in from the ocean is normal to the city. Temperature inversions characterized by the establishment of a layer of warm air on top of a layer of cooler air prevent the air near the ground from rising.

Air Pollution has a negative impact on water quality. For the past 30 years, scientists have collected a considerable amount of convincing information demonstrating that air pollutants can be deposited on land and water, sometimes at great distances from their original sources, and can be an important contributor to declining water quality. These air pollutants can have undesirable health and environmental impacts, such as contaminated fish, harmful algal blooms, and unsafe drinking water. Researchers had found the sources of these air pollutants. They have worked diligently to improve the environment.

Factory and business owners have the ability to prevent air pollution. The government should take action, requiring equipment to cut down on hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. The little spent regulating equipment used in factories can go a long way saving billions on health problems and other related issues. Background Over 150 million people in the United States live in areas where the Environmental Protection Agency considers the air to be unhealthy. Air pollution is the presence in the atmosphere of harmful gases, liquids, or solids. Smog has been a problem in coal-burning areas for several centuries

Deforestation

At the present rate of tropical deforestation, the world's remaining tropical rainforests will vanish in just 30 years[4] .

Deforestation in the tropical areas of the world is following a course similar to the earlier clearing of the forests in Europe and North America, only advancing more rapidly.

Since just 1950, the world's population has more than doubled to more than 6 billion people, with the fastest population growth being in the tropics. Today, more than 3 billion people live in the tropics alone, more than lived in the entire world in 1950. To provide food, wood, fuel and resources for the world's rapidly growing population, and to make room for the exploding tropical population, the world's tropical rainforests are literally disappearing.

Even with tropical deforestation at an all-time high, tropical hardwood prices continue to climb as world demand for tropical hardwoods continues to grow. A single teak log for example can now bring as much as $20,000. Annual world consumption of tropical hardwoods is now more than 250 million cubic meters, or over 100 billion board feet, per year.

Southeast Asia until recently has been the largest source of supply for tropical hardwoods, but that area will largely be depleted within the next five years. All of the primary forests in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are gone. Ivory Coast's forests are essentially non-existent. Nigeria's forests have been decimated as well. As Asia's and Africa's tropical forests are depleted, consuming countries are turning increasing attention to Latin America and the Amazon, whose own rapidly growing population is also a source of pressure on the rainforests. Also, trillions of dollars worth of oil, gas, uranium, gold, iron, bauxite and other minerals, and millions of acres of potential farm land, lie under the Amazon, the largest area of rainforest remaining on Earth.

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