Air Pollution Essay, Research Paper

Air Pollution

In 1948, the industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania suffered 28 deaths because of the thick smog. Air pollution is an ecological problem having to do with toxins in the air. There are a few things the human race has done to try to prevent air pollution from taking such a serious toll. Two of these are the Clean Air Acts and the increased use of solar power over coal power. By creating electric cars, the pollution caused by gasoline powered cars will be lessened. If the pollution is not stopped, it will cause life on earth as we know it to cease. Air pollution causes a number of health and ecological problems. It causes health problems like cancer, emphysema, and asthma. It also causes the depletion of the ozone layer which results in global warming and melting of the ice caps. Up until the industrial era, the air was fairly clean. The use of smokestacks and the burning of fuels put many pollutants in the air during this period of time. The increased use of fossil fuels today also builds on this. There have been many attempts at stopping air pollution. The Clean Air Acts were effective for a little while. They made using some polluting substances illegal. This did not work because people simply did not listen. Solar Energy is another attempted solution. This type of energy is good because it is an alternative energy source to coal and other polluting fossil fuels. The problem with solar energy is that it is extremely expensive, but it has been used extensively throughout the world. One of the more effective ways of eliminating air pollution is the making of electric cars. The use of these electric cars would completely reduce the amount of pollution in the air caused by gasoline powered cars. These cars are run on batteries instead of gasoline or other fuel. Though the use of solar cars seems more realistic, it would also be very expensive and unreliable. The difference primarily between solar and electrical power is the fact that solar cars would be much more expensive to make. The possibilities of making a cost efficient electric car are much more realistic than making a cost efficient solar car. By making the ecologically safe and inexpensive electric car, the pollution caused by gasoline powered cars would go down. Without making these changes, the globe will continue to heat up at an annual rate of .2 degrees a year, which will result in the melting of the ice caps. If this were to happen, the water would rise 200 feet, flooding most of the earth. The Earth’s ecosystem is a little bit like a web. It is very fragile and depends on all of its strands to maintain stableness. If the air is polluted it disrupts this web creating a total imbalance. This “total imbalance” would also occur if the water was polluted. In effect, when one part falls they all do. Believe me, “total imbalance” is not cool.