Air Pollution Essay

“The pace of global warming is accelerating and the scale of the impact is devastating.” Says American lawyer, Eliot Spitzer (Eliot). This is the most accurate statement about global warming. The environmental issue has seen an incredible escalation lately, and the effects on our environment and especially our health, are desolating. There are many readily identified and advertised effects of global warming. The obvious climate change, the pollution of air, the destruction of ecosystems, and plenty more. But those all impact the planet. And many ask “why does that matter to me?” True, those are huge effects on the planet, however they can have disastrous consequences on humans as well. If we continue to destroy our planet through global warming,

Although air pollution is not really thought of to be a big contributing factor to declining health, according to Medical Doctor, Harry Heimann, it can be one of the biggest killers. We do not see air pollution, so we are not inclined to think much of it, but it can be extremely harmful. Certain illnesses are air-borne and of course we acquire the ever-present aerosols and gases that greatly poison the air we depend on, and not only that, but can help aid in the spread of these harmful agents (Heimann). Not only can air pollution affect the general population, but it can have a disastrous effect on those with asthma or other allergic diseases. An estimated twenty-five million people in the United States alone suffer from asthma, which accounts for approximately forty percent of the United States population. That is already a large number, but as air pollution increases, those numbers are increasing concurrently. The diagnosis of asthma is rising to an extremity, with approximately thirty percent of those diagnoses in children, with environmental factors such as air pollution as the cause (WHO). In the most severe cases, asthma can cause death. Approximately 3,000 asthma cases each year in the United States are fatal, and that number could gradually increase if we do not stop global warming and decrease our role in air pollution.

Florida houses one of the widest varieties of ecosystems, including mangrove swamps, marshes, and the Everglades, to name just a few (Florida Habitats and Wildlife). The change in weather caused by global warming, has already begun to modify the growing season, forcing plant and animal species to adapt, and if they cannot adapt, they face the possibility of extinction. This change in the growth seasons has already caused a disturbance in the life cycles of plant and animal species, limiting the resources of food and throwing reproduction and survival out of synch (NASA). Now, this is bad enough in itself, but put it into the perspective which benefits us. We rely on these plants and animals for our food, our ability to live. Following the cycle of life, we expect the meat we consume to be able to provide us the nutrients we need to live, the proper amounts crucial to our health. With plant species dying out, animals are getting less nutrients, thus, we are receiving less as well. Because of this, our health will deteriorate, and that vicious cycle will continue. This lack of nutrients can cause malnutrition, which can cause or exacerbate disease or at an extremity can cause death (World Food Programme). The Child Welfare League of America estimates over 30 million Americans experience starvation on a regular basis or are high at risk (Livestrong). As our amount of resources