Air Pollution Problems Essay Example

Published: 2018-03-06 12:37:17
552 words
2 pages
5 min to read
University of California, Santa Barbara
Type of paper: 

What is air pollution

Air pollution is a global problem. Countries all over the world are working tirelessly to control air pollution. The USA is one of the countries that not only changed their policies on industries and manufacturing but their everyday activities that cause pollution.

What is air pollution?

For those who may not know, air pollution is the emission of harmful gases, chemicals, and biological debris into the environment. These compounds mix with the air we breathe and may cause diseases for the humans as well as the animals. 

Air pollution has been tagged as the number one cause of o-zone layer erosion. The ozone layer is the protective layer in the atmosphere that absorbs harmful UV rays from the sun. Constant erosion of the ozone layer causes global warming which in turn causes adverse climate change.

What the USA is doing to Control Air Pollution

1.        Passing the Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act was passed in 1963. This was the first move by the USA government to combat the rising levels of air pollution. 

Since the passing of this law, there have been numerous amendments to cover the areas that were otherwise left out.

There are now chapters that cover common pollutants that occur in our everyday lives, a separate chapter for the protection of the ozone layer, a different one to cover acid rain, and another to cover operational permits for industries. 

This way every single aspect of protecting the environment becomes the responsibility of every citizen and not just a lobby by the government.

2.        Encouraging the green lifestyle

The government in conjunction with private organizations that lobby to promote the protection of the environment spend a lot of time and resources educating the masses on the importance of reducing pollution. 

When the masses are educated, the work of restoring the environment becomes easier. For example, citizens are now urged to use electric power tools rather than gas-powered tools to reduce the gas emissions. Additionally, there are more green products on the market than ever before. By encouraging people to take it as a personal responsibility, there are community policing initiatives to urge each other to save the environment and reduce pollution.

3.        Find more environmentally-friendly power sources

Over the past decade, there have been more new power sources discovered than ever before. USA citizens have put on their thinking caps and come up with solar power, biogas, and other environmentally-friendly power sources. This way, they have lessened the earth’s burden of producing all the power we need to run all the useful and useless things we have in our lives.

Clean energy is one of the biggest leaps in reducing pollution on the earth. As more people learn how to use clean energy as well as unplug everything that is not in use, we will continue to make baby steps towards restoring mother earth. When the USA manages to clean their environment, it will be easy to convince all the countries to do the same. Afterall, USA is the super power after whom all the other countries emulate.

Ultimately, this is the only earth we are going to get. We also need to be proactive in protecting it for us and for future generations.


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