Global Pollution

Global Warming Is Debatable, But Global Pollution Is a Fact

When we hear the term global warming we tend to think of the enormous hole in the ozone layer, but what it really is the earth’s average measured temperature and why it changes. Scientists explain that green house concentrations, solar variation, and volcanoes negatively affect our earth. This isn’t including the human aspects in which we are damaging our earth’s atmosphere. There are several reasons why researchers state that humans negatively affect the earth, for example: industrial pollution and human waste affect our water ways and can cause the development of bacterial diseases. Industrial Pollution is one of the leading causes of pollution worldwide. 370,000 manufacturing facilities use huge quantities of fresh water to carry away wastes of many kinds. The waste-bearing water is discharged into streams, lakes, or oceans, which in turn disperse the polluting substances. In 1996, the United States Environmental Protection Agency concluded that 40% of the nations rivers, lakes, and oceans were entirely too polluted for such basic uses as a drinking supply, fishing, and swimming. Industrial Pollution is never limited to an industrial nation. “Samples of IQ Cores from Antarctica and the Arctic both show high levels of industrial pollutants, illustrating the immense distances which pollutants can travel and traces of industrial pollutants have been identified in isolated human, animal and plant pollution as well.” (S.E. Smith) Industrial pollution hurts the environment in many different ways. It has a negative effect on human’s lives and out health. These pollutants can kill humans and animals. Human Waste is another large cause of global pollution. The average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year. If your habits resemble those of average Americans, you generate about four pounds of solid trash per day. In America alone that’s about 200 million pounds a day per person. This adds up to big trouble for our environment. “Population growth is the primarily source of environmental damage”, says Jacques Cousteau, a famous explorer. (Dr. Deborah Gilk) Human waste can be a serious health hazard, as it is a good vector for both viral and bacterial diseases. Therefore we humans need to be careful and aware of the impact we have on our earth. Carbon dioxide has taken the center stage in the environmental arena in recent months. In August, 2003, the United States Administration reversed the 1998 decision of the previous Administration, which had classified carbon dioxide as a pollutant and made it subject to the provisions of the Clean Air Act. Just for the record, the CO2 in carbonated drinks is the same CO2 that is spewed from automobile tailpipes and power plants. In fact, the CO2 that makes the bubbles in your soda comes from those same power plants. That’s what is so harmful about CO2, it is the invisible killer. There are thousands of chemicals put into the environment. With most of these chemicals, the environmental and biological effects they may have, including their toxicity of humans is largely known. According to studies citied in Pimentel’s Review, a recent issue of the journal Human Ecology, “Chemical exposures can contribute to cancers, birth defects, immune system defects, behavioral problems, altered sex hormones and dysfunctions in specific organs.” “Leaving a sound environmental legacy depends upon the individual citizen’s ability to understand how every day choices, made by individuals, by families, and by business, affect the health of our current and future environment, social and economic values become in sharper conflict and more substantial, each of us will be called upon to change the effect our activities have on the air, water, and land.” said “Tom Fitzsimmons, Director of Washington State Department of Ecology.” Between the Industrial Pollution, Human Waste and the Co2 gases, our environment is slowly disintegrating. American need to start taking action before our environment falls down the drain.