Air Pollution: Cause and Effect

Air pollution is an evident mater that is only getting worse as time goes on. This is an issue that affects everyone, and it has been proven several times that poor air quality is severely damaging to people’s health and wellbeing. There are several things that contribute to air pollution, even things that humans do on a day to day basis. It is imperative that we do all in our power to limit the pollution of our air in order to ensure a better future.

Air pollution is an issue that supports the growth of other environmental dilemmas like the emission of greenhouse gases, which in turn leads to global warming. As shown by scientist the leading air pollutant is carbon dioxide. This greenhouse gas is the most effective to our atmosphere because it is the most common one. It is shown to be emitted from cars, power plants, and planes, all things being used by humans.

In California, we suffer more due to our dense populations and large cities. With the large amount of automobiles producing smog from exhaust pipes especially during warmer months, the air qualities around cities are substantially worst compared to that of rural areas. Not only does this affect the air quality but the acidity levels found in rainwater. With large amounts of acidity in rainwater, this promotes damage to plants and organic soil causing not only our environment, but the habitats of other organisms to suffer.

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, leading scientists found that weather patterns can play a contributing role in the quality of our air, for example in the troposphere, air temperatures normally decrease as the altitude of one’s location increases meaning that the faster rate of decrease that is occuring, the more unpredictable the atmosphere is shown to be. An example for this is California, more specifically Los Angeles. This heavily populated city is located on a plain on the Pacific coast of California which is surrounded by several mountain regions that possess the ability to block the flow of air that is coming in horizontally which causes the infamous Los Angeles smog. With this being shown, sometimes the cause of poor air quality isn’t always the fault of humans, but currently with the rate of greenhouse gases being emitted into our air from regular human activities, it’s not helping either.

Even the air quality inside our homes in beginning to be affected, but not all because of the emissions happening outside.With urban development sparking a new fire, this in turn forces the quality of air indoors to now change. For example, a household with one smoker can mean the difference between health and weak lungs. Usually indoor air quality problems only cause a bit of discomfort in the body. Most people seem to feel better as soon as they remove the source of their pollution, but some pollutants are known to cause diseases that show up in the body much later, such as respiratory diseases or cancer.

Seeing as we are the main contributors to this problem, it seems only fitting that we strive to ensure that we are the ones to solve it. The topic of air pollution is not one to be taken lightly and should be discussed more often. It is important that we look to the future and realize that this situation and rapidly growing and can cause a world of struggle. 

Cite this page