How Air Pollutants Affect Our Environment

Everyone loves blue skies and sunny days. Think about your favorite place to go outside, where the beauty of nature takes over and you forget about everything. Now imagine if that place was destroyed and no longer available for you to see. Pollutants are heavily affecting our environment from oceans, to parks, and even your backyard.

Air pollution quickly contaminates bodies of water and soil. Pollutants in soil can kill crops and plants and just like humans, animals can be horribly affected by the dangerous pollutants being spread. Oceans cover about 70 % of the world and are home to millions of aquatic animals. According to Ocean Pollution: The dirty facts, “When we burn fossil fuels, we don’t pollute just the air but the oceans, too. Indeed, today’s seas absorb as much as a quarter of all man-made carbon emissions, which changes the pH of surface waters and leads to acidification. This problem is rapidly worsening—oceans are now acidifying faster than they have in some 300 million years. It’s estimated that by the end of this century, if we keep pace with our current emissions practices, the surface waters of the ocean could be nearly 150 percent more acidic than they are now.”

While you may be sitting here distraught about the effects it is having on our beautiful world, there are other people who could not care at all. So, how is it affecting us humans? There are short term effects and long term effects that are adamant to us humans.Short term effects include things like bronchitis and pneumonia. If someone comes in contact with emissions in the air it can cause headaches and nausea. Long term effects consist of lung cancer, respiratory diseases, and even long term effects to different organs within your body. 2.5 million people die from diseases caused by air pollutants, each year. (National Geographic, page 3)

So I bet everyone’s wondering what causes these awful pollutants. They spread through the air in the form of particles and gases. Things like overuse of electricity, car exhausts, and large factories are major sources that gases come from. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas can result in loads of pollutants being emitted into the air we breathe.

Last question! How can you, as an individual, help the environment ?

  1. Reserving energy
  2. Limit gasoline and energy use in a vehicle and at home
  3. Don't litter and make sure to recycle!!

Those are just three easy ways to help our beautiful earth! Be nice to the earth. It's our home!

Article by Lexi Geddis